Gersh
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2005
- Messages
- 218
- Location
- Kentucky
- Corvette
- "06 Z06, Kawasaki ZZR, "66 supercharged Chev 489
The latest Corvette Quarterly had a article on Indy 500 pace cars, often considered collectibles. One they described in detail was the 1978 Corvette pace car, which was made available to the public as a replica, similar to the 2007 pace car, though in greater numbers. (The 2007 pace car is a pretty orange convertible with special wheels and nice graphics.)
They said that at that time people paid up to $50 or even 100K for a replica that had MSRP of $13 or 14K (the base Corvette that year had MSRP under $10K). Recently there have been a couple low mileage replica 1978 pace cars selling for more than $40K, but most high mileage cars are closer to $20K (all these factoids are from that same article).
Now considering inflation, those $14K cars should be worth $75K today, but they aren't. And people who paid $50K for them in 1978 would have to get something like $250K today just to break even!
First off, the "official pace cars" aren't--they are pace car replicas.
Second, they probably are not a great investment. The way to make money off them might be to buy at MSRP and turn around immediately and sell for a few thousand profit, during the initial frenzy, but not hold them long-term.
This same logic applies to most Corvettes, which some people seem to want to buy as long-term investments. It doesn't make good sense, because the expected profits will be eaten up by inflation. If you have to fib to your wife and convince her the car is an "investment", at least admit to yourself that it isn't really true. Buy the car for its own value, to drive and enjoy.
Obviously that is just my opinion.
Gersh
They said that at that time people paid up to $50 or even 100K for a replica that had MSRP of $13 or 14K (the base Corvette that year had MSRP under $10K). Recently there have been a couple low mileage replica 1978 pace cars selling for more than $40K, but most high mileage cars are closer to $20K (all these factoids are from that same article).
Now considering inflation, those $14K cars should be worth $75K today, but they aren't. And people who paid $50K for them in 1978 would have to get something like $250K today just to break even!
First off, the "official pace cars" aren't--they are pace car replicas.
Second, they probably are not a great investment. The way to make money off them might be to buy at MSRP and turn around immediately and sell for a few thousand profit, during the initial frenzy, but not hold them long-term.
This same logic applies to most Corvettes, which some people seem to want to buy as long-term investments. It doesn't make good sense, because the expected profits will be eaten up by inflation. If you have to fib to your wife and convince her the car is an "investment", at least admit to yourself that it isn't really true. Buy the car for its own value, to drive and enjoy.
Obviously that is just my opinion.
Gersh