Forty61
forum member
Will there will be a run on S197 cars shortly?
It's an interesting question and it's similar to another I've been considering.
While attending car shows or cruise-ins, it's been my experience that the majority of car owners are members of the Baby Boom generation, and to some degree, early Gen Xers.
What happens when the baby boomer and Gen Xer generations fade away?
It could be assumed that many of those cars will be gifted to family members generations below.
Some of the recipients will keep the cars because of genuine love for the car type.
Others may keep them only because of sentimental value.
Finally, some may liquidate them for the quick cash.
An object has value when a portion of a population agrees that it does.
Depending on supply and demand, those values may rise or fall.
Collectively, younger generations don't appear to place the same worth on cars as previous generations and they don't seem to care about acquiring drivers licenses either.
They're generally not interested in any car, let alone a great collector car.
Hell, they're excited about the possibility of self driven cars so they can continue to entertain themselves with their electronics.
Muscle Cars and Hot Rods have enjoyed decades of escalating value, but will they have escalating value LONG TERM?
Is it possible that dwindling demand will dictate a loss of value?
Will the S197's suffer the same long term devaluation?
I purchased my 2010 Mustang GT last fall.
It was purchased with 24,540 miles on the clock and paid just over $19,000 for it.
After considering other options at the same price point, I concluded that no other car would give me the same joy as the Mustang.
With excitement, it was purchased as a daily driver.
After a week or two of driving it, the decision was made to crown her garage queen.
My '06 F-150 is now my daily driver.
The decision was made for the long term, not as an investment, but as preservation.
If I'm able to log the same annual milage as the p.o., at 20 years of age the car would have less than 50,000 miles.
In our current environment, the cars value could rise presenting an opportunity to generate a small profit.
On the other hand, that 3 valve exhaust sounds great and why the hell would I keep it muffled just for the sake of preservation?
This car is designed to give pleasure and who am I to not accept it for it's designed purpose?
Either way, I'm glad I finally have one!
She's been a long time coming.
What I will add to this is the younger generation at least in my experience also wants to live in cities. No point in owning a car in a city, especially one like Chicago where a designated parking spot can be a few hundred bucks a month. You can rideshare, or take public transportation everywhere. This typically happens after college and then when they get out of the city living phase if they need a car they just need something reliable to get them from a to b or they have gotten married and started popping out kids.
In response to these, I’m part of the ‘Millennial’ generation (ugh, hate the term) and in my experience I haven’t met many people my own age who I would call ‘car guys’. A lot of them own cars and enjoy ‘modifying’ them with awful suspension, wraps and open exhausts but if you ask anything technical, even about their specific car, their eyes just glaze over.
Im hoping in future it means I can pick up all kinds of cool stuff for cheap when it’s no longer new enough or tech-loaded enough for most people to retain interest. I think a lot of Mustangs will fall into this category, when it’s too much hassle to drive a standard transmission or if you can’t hook up CarPlay or whatever.