Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Perusing the classifieds for interesting wagons this week, I came across quite a few and thought it would be a good chance to look at some sporty 5-doors. To level the playing field slightly, all are automatics. While that may cause some of you to groan, they make up for a lack of manual with distinctive styling, plenty of power and rarity that will set you apart from the crowd. Which is the one you’d choose?
Pretty much every car we feature at GCFSB has some sort of striking feature that has compelled us to pay more attention to that car over and above the many others for sale. Those sort of interesting features are pretty wide-ranging: rare colors, rare options, rare models, low mileage, or superb condition. There is one other category that occasionally attracts our notice: price. Of course, with price there is always a caveat: there is usually a reason for a low price. However, now and then we come across a car that simply seems to be priced quite well and for that reason alone we take notice since some of those cars make for the most possibilities for our readers. For many, these prices make these cars obtainable and, perhaps just as important, it makes them driveable. This is especially the case with air-cooled 911s as many of the early models have reached pricing that makes it very difficult to really enjoy the car. You’re always worried about depreciation or the idiot who isn’t paying attention ruining your dream car. All of this serves as a long introduction to the car we see here: a Silver over Black 1971 Porsche 911T, located in Charlotte, NC, with 81,000 miles on it. And it has an asking price below $40K. For a long-hood 911 that’s one of the lowest prices we’ve come across for a car that actually appears in pretty standard condition.
We may no longer be able to day dream about owning an E30 M3, but we can at least take a moment to pause and reflect that we’ve been observers of one of the most insane rises in values ever. According to Hagerty, over the last 5 years Councours and Excellent values have increased fivefold, while Good and Fair values have merely tripled. If you took $20k out of the stock market in 2011 and bought a nice E30 M3, your money would have performed over 10 times better than staying with Dow Jones. And that’s during the period of huge economic recovery – DJIA was barely 12,000 at the beginning of 2011.
(E30 M3 Values – Concours, Excellent, Good, Fair)
(Below, the black line is the DJIA)
With that in mind, we must accept that even extremely high-mileage E30 M3s like this 1988 Hennarot example are reaching $40k. It spent almost all of its life with an older woman in SoCal, being well cared for with a high quality repaint in 2009. The current seller is just the second owner and has allegedly owned over 60 BMWs, including 2 other E30 M3s. His fiancée is making him get rid of it (but he’s keeping the new M6, 1M, and 330i ZHP…). It doesn’t sound like money is an issue here and I’m sure the $38.5k asking price is more than he bought it for. But even if E30 M3 appreciation slows down, wouldn’t it still be worth it to pay for a storage garage and let it make you money?
If you look at my vehicle history prior to my current vehicle, everything has been German. However, after years of flying the flag for the Fatherland, I’ve found myself wanting just a bit more. Something different. For years I took Saab for granted but when they finally closed up shop a few years ago, I shed a tear. Saabs were both obscure and sensible, with sometimes a heavy helping of performance. Such is the case with this 1997 9000 Aero for sale in New Jersey. While I was a bit saddened to scroll through the ad and find out it was equipped with an automatic, it’s a rare instance that you see one of these Q-ships in such great nick. This car represents the final year for the Aero, a model that featured a color-keyed body kit and spoiler, heavily bolstered Recaro seating, sport suspension and special 16 inch alloys. This automatic equipped example keeps the standard turbocharger for an output of 200 bhp, while manual equipped Aeros had a larger turbo capable of producing 225 bhp.
Here’s a fine example of my favorite car in the world. A 1995 Porsche 928 GTS. This particular car is almost certainly one of the lowest mileage examples in the country, and is priced accordingly. As you may know, only 406 928 GTSs were sold in North America between 1992 and 1995. The 1992 model year cars were sold as 1993s, thereby dividing 1993 production into early 1992 928s, and late (real 1993) 928s. For 1995, only 77 GTSs were imported, 47 of which were automatics. This car is one of those 47, and judging by the mileage and color combination, it is certainly one of the most desirable.
