GET’EM WHILE THEY ARE NOT HOT
Fancy a first-generation EB1 Honda Civic that is close to half a century old or a tidy and original 1971 Toyota Corolla KE20 four-door sedan? Tidy examples are no longer bargain basement motoring. On the plus side, buy now and they could actually appreciate instead of having to be thrown away. Ordinary older cars of almost any description are on the move price wise.
Classic car values are on the rise — along with other assets such as property and share prices in these low interest rate times — and increasingly the best vehicles are moving out of reach of drivers into the hands of collectors and investors. But this is not the only reason for the cost of more modest older cars to have firmed up. Younger people who now have disposable income have memories of the cars they grew up with, inextricably linked with their own golden youth. They have an emotional attachment to cars of the ’70s, ’80s, and even later — cars that gave them freedom to go places and also to express themselves — and they are a big group. Most drivers on our roads today were born in the ’60s and ’70s.
At Webb’s collectors cars auction in Auckland in July, while sold prices ranged from $4600 for
