The Unofficial Road & Track 2023 Future Classic Car Buyer's Guide

Seven years ago, I offered Road & Track readers some collector-car market predictions. Here’s an excerpt: “Gen Xers are chasing cars from the Seventies, Eighties, and even the early Nineties. Leading the charge? Yep. Fox-body 5.0L Mustangs.... Which brings us to my pick: 1984 to 1993 Saleen Mustangs.... With a significantly improved suspension, brakes, and upgraded interior trim and exterior styling, they are indeed the 1965/1966 GT350s of the Eighties. And just like those Shelbys that were quite inexpensive even in the Nineties, the Saleen prices of today will seem ridiculously cheap in the next 10 years.... The 5.0L Fox-body cars are increasing in value rapidly—at least 10 percent a year from what I’ve seen. And the really special versions, such as the Cobra Rs and Saleens, are exceeding that by a large margin. Examples: a showroom-quality, low-mileage 1988 LX 5.0 5-speed will trade around $15k. A similar quality 1988 Saleen Mustang is $25k.”

Well, I just returned from a Mecum Auctions sale in Indianapolis, where I witnessed a 1989 Saleen Mustang sell for $192,500. Now, granted, this one had just 15 miles on the odometer, but still, almost $200K for a Saleen Mustang exemplifies what I am seeing: Eighties and Nineties cars are—what’s the emoji the kids use today? Oh, yeah, fire.

In any event, it shows that a lot has changed in the past seven years. Also, I am still all in on Fox-body Saleen Mustangs as a strong buy. First, they are an absolute riot to drive. Second, they have racing history and were built in minuscule numbers. Third, they have a tremendous following, club support, and a loyal group of owners. These are the same things that have kept 1965–70 Shelby Mustangs A-list collectibles for decades. There are plenty of good Saleens to be had outside of the headline auction sales, and in another seven years, we’ll probably be looking back and laughing about how cheap they were at this point too.

But it isn’t just about Mustangs from the Van Hagar years. Not even remotely. The values of some cars from Stuttgart, such as air-cooled 911s, have been on a meteoric rise. Stepping into the time machine again, in 2016, I also wrote about buying a 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera for $14,000, spending $20,000 on making it nice, and hitting a “home run” by just barely getting out with my clothes on when I sold it on Bring a Trailer for $34K. That was a ridiculously high result, according to the BaT crowd. That same car today? Twice that, minimum. Now, amping that up a bit, the Widowmaker 911/930 Turbos are also under full boost in the marketplace. You won’t find one for under six figures, and a decent one is smartly above that. This is also twice (or more) what the same car would have brought six years ago. The same is true for 993 Porsches, the last air-cooled 911s, especially the 1996–97 models. Good 993 Turbos were a hard sell around $100K then, and they sell instantly in the $200,000–$300,000 range now.

These cars haven’t improved. The sky­rocketing prices are the result of the buyers changing. Increasing nostalgia? Technology fatigue? I will leave the philosophical debate to others. But the demographic certainty is this: People have more money to spend as they grow older and become more successful. Buyers are paying more for cars from the Eighties and Nineties because those are the cars they grew up worshiping. The buyers who crave restored Fifties jet-age machines and Sixties muscle are aging out of the market.

Not long ago, these Eighties and Nineties rides were simply used cars. But that’s how it happens—there is always that tipping point when a used car matures into a collector car. When your depreciating asset is suddenly an increasing liability. In the pre-internet days, this happened at more of a glacial pace; interesting vehicles from years gone by would slowly gain a following and be acknowledged as something to treasure. They’d be accepted at events, people would start restoring them, clubs to support their owner group would form, and values would slowly trundle upward.

But today’s world is supercharged. Things happen quickly. It has been a perfect storm. Gen Xers and millennials now represent the lion’s share of car collectors in the acquisition phase, as boomers—and the silent generation more so—slow down or even dispense with their collections. And what have people always collected? The cars of their youth. A ’59 Caddy doesn’t tug at a millennial’s heartstrings and wallet like a ’94 Supra Twin Turbo. Add to that a constant feed of rad cars on social media and shows dedicated to having fun with cars, stonewashed jeans, and neon-colored windbreakers, and presto. You have a phenomenon. Gone are the stodgy days of chrome-laden monsters lumbering onto a perfectly manicured lawn with khaki slacks and a blue blazer required. Nope. We’re here to show off monochromatic paint schemes and BBS wheels, wear wigs, break out old Fila tracksuits, and walk around with dual-cassette boomboxes on our shoulders.

In-person collector-car auctions, formerly the stomping grounds of full-fledged big-bucks classics, have quickly adapted to this movement and now feature, or even headline, Eighties and Nineties cars. Even more than that, an entire industry of online collector-car auctions has sprung up. It is thriving, selling new collectors the cars they want in the manner they want to buy them—remotely, with a few simple clicks on a website and an open comment section to help crowdsource vetting the car.

Gone are the days of waiting months for a live auction event in Scottsdale, Arizona, or Monterey, California. Now you wake up, open your email, and look at what is selling today on Bring a Trailer or Cars & Bids. And if you want it? Review the comments, and if everybody says it’s a good car, you buy the damned thing from your phone and then get on with your day. The community aspect and accessibility have transformed the way we buy collector cars and reinvented how market value is determined. Like in the “greed is good” Eighties, people who are now hitting their peak earning years and want something a little different aren’t afraid to pay “too much” to get it. And every record sale seems to become the new floor price for the next one.

So, now that you know the origins of the craze, how about a lightning round focusing on the cars in question? Here are some that I like, for either fun, profit, or perhaps both:

1984–96 Corvette (C4)

Landmark performance cars in their time and a leap forward for America’s Sports Car, they’ve simply been too cheap for too long. The minty-fresh one you could have bought four years ago for $10K is now $20K or more. And they are just getting started, especially the 1989-and-up six-speeds or a King of the Hill ZR1 with its Lotus-designed quad-cam 32-valve V-8. This is no guarantee of future returns, but one can look at these instantly recognizable and now-collectible cars at this price point, in this rapidly expanding segment, and garner that there is much more upside than downside. And I don’t say that only because I just bought one, either.

1992–97 Toyota Land Cruiser (FZJ80)