I feel the same with several of my old cars, things such as a Toyota AE86 and an Escort RS turbo, fab cars back then even more so now, but I console myself with the thought that I would have had to pay for decades of storage, or maybe keep taxed, insuranced, keeping the tin worm at bay etc etc. that would all mount up over the time in to some serious money. Buying and keeping cars as an investment; if it was easy we would all be doing it.!
Very true Martin, and just think of all the plastics in a modern car that would degrade/disintegrate over that time.
Oh dear Paul.
" Zimmers at Dawn" & Billy Connolly anti-pee jodhpurs at the ready!
Really? I’m just over 40.
From what i’ve seen at meets etc all the “crinklies” seem to like the MK3.
Rarity doesn’t equal value.
Buying one new now, and locking it away doesn’t equal future riches. There are storage costs, otherwise in 30-40 years time, you might have found the roof has collapsed in.
Capri, Supras etc are fetching “silly money” only in relation to where their used values dropped to, not in comparison to how much they cost new, inflation adjusted. I doubt, for instance, any Cortina is worth more now, compared to what it cost when new, adjusted for inflation. In this case, its worth holding your nerve as values crash, and then judging where the market has hit bottom.
But there are complications. The announcement doesn’t mean 124 spyder production has ceased, or even RHD production has ceased. The car is still available in Australia and Japan. It appears to be still available in Ireland, Cyprus and Malta, all RHD countries. The issue has arisen because of how Fiat has to pay for these cars. 124s for Australia are shipped direct there from Japan, and paid for in AUD. Cars for the US are shipped direct thee, and billed in USD. Cars for Europe are shipped to Italy, and billed in Euros. Cars for the UK have to come from Italy, even though they are made in Japan.
If there is demand for 124s, at least for the next couple of years (hopefully longer), car dealers can bring cars over from these countries. For many years, EU spec MX5s were imported from Ireland and Cyprus. It pretty well killed Northern Ireland main dealers, because Irish base spec MX5s were a bit better specced than UK base spec MX5s. One Scottish dealer I heard was caught selling Irish spec MX5s; the owner found this out when getting the car serviced at another dealer and discovering it wasn’t a UK spec car. So that continued supply will push down used values.
Then there is the question of Orphan Status. Anyone remember the Fiat Croma Turbo? It was Fiat’s take on the Saab 9000, but with a sexy twin cam Italian engine. It bombed, completely worthless, you can’t get parts for it etc. Similarly, Alfa Arna; the Nissan Cherry with the Alfasud engineering. Both cars are largely forgotten.
The Fiat faces this. The body panels are all unique to the model; if you see what happened to the MG ZT, the attrition was horrendous, with cars piling up in garages awaiting new plastic front bumpers, or cars being written off because parts were no longer available. Anyone like to mention “Active Bonnet”? I expect all the sensors etc to be pretty unique to this car. At least Mazda will be able to come up with a fix for theirs. Mechanically; yes, the engine is basically a Fiat Panda motor, but its not quite, because no factory Fiat Panda or 500 came with RWD. So that engine will have some unique bits. Just like you can’t hope to keep a MX5 B6 motor running, because you have a spare 323 lying around. The gearbox is supposed to be a NC MX5 gearbox. Except it isn’t, because its bolted up to a Fiat Panda engine. So its sort of like a NC gearbox, and maybe with some work, you could make a NC gearbox fit. The propshaft; connecting the ersatz NC gear box to basicaly a ND rear. That wil be a unique part, but unlikely to fail. Maybe. Because now you are combining Skyactiv with Fix-it-Again-Tony engineering.
And then we are facing something classics of the past have never really faced, at least not for the last 80 years. The American brand, Doble, has gone down in history as the last maker of steam cars (1939). It doggedly held on, as all other steam car makers went to the wall, as people favoured ICE over ECE.
An end of sales of new petrol cars is now quite near; it might be 2040, it might be 2030. Ahead of that date, buyers will be voting with their feet and start buying new alternatives. There will be a decline in demand for petrol/diesel on the forecourts. How quickly did leaded petrol disappear? At least owners then could get their cars converted, for a not inconsiderable cost (indeed, converted cars had a higer value). Converting a car to EV, or hydrogen sounds a bit more involved.
The end of new car ICE sales will of course not remove petrol cars from the road, but gradually, it will become more and more difficult to keep such cars running; parts and even the distance to drive to find a recharge station that still have a pump around the back will play a role. I think for people to go through that effort, the car involved will have to be pretty special. The 124 isn’t pretty special.
It took about 30 years for Capris, after the end of Capris, to reach a value where people are surprised. And that is a car that, back in the day was popular and well known, even by those who had never owned one new. It featured in popular culture. I don’t think the 124 has the same background; half the population are oblivious to it existing, its barely had a TV ad campaign, except that ill advised ad which suggested it was a cure for men’s health problems. But assume that it does follow a similar path as the Capri, that come 2039, it comes of age. In a world where petrol cars are now reviled, there is this plasticy looking, awkwardly styled Italian-Japanese car, that is now either the bonus question in a pub quiz, or the obscure fact on a Snapple lid. In 2019, would you have been better off spending £30k on the Fiat, on £2k on the sound but plain Mk1/2 MX5?
Apparently, there are piles of 124 Spyders preregistered. Expect a fire sale. Expect in 3 years time, another slug of cars coming onto the market as leases end, cheap. I would wait at least 5 years, and then you can score a bargain off a desperate owner keen to get rid of the 124 sitting on his drive with the popped bonnet.
That gives me a small ray of hope - I still prefer the Mk2
Yes, better give up trampolining any day soon, lol!
This is an Autocar comment when talking about the Renault Alpine.
The A110’s styling is a triumph of modern ‘retro’ design in a market where recent homages to classics of the 1960s and 1970s have as often as not been bungled or half-baked (see the Fiat 124 Spider).
Fiat tried to put it in a market above the MX-5. The cost put it up in the Benefit in Kind tax bracket. Emission duty made it worse and it’s looks did it no favors at all. To bastardise an American term, “you can get a lot more for your tax dollar.” I still see the MX-5 as the sports car and the Fiat as the “GT”. I expect that sort of “GT” needs to appeal significantly to the female buyer and even in poverty spec the Z4 comes with a switch operated roof as well as “BMW kudos”. And as well as the far more up market interior, if you are buying a GT then a the things you can overlook on a sports car, such as a glove box, become important.