Youngtimers as an investment?
11/13/2016
Some time ago, Focus wrote about the "youngtimer as a rolling pension" and named a number of younger cars whose value is developing magnificently. These included the VW Bulli T3/T4, the Porsche 993, the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5 Evo or the Mini Cooper, and even the Mercedes-Benz G-Model or Jeep CJ-7 were mentioned. BMW M5 (E28) or Aston Martin DB7 also appeared in the discussion. The observations were based on evaluations of mobile.de data.
Selected models in the youngtimer segment (i.e. between 20 and 30 years old) are indeed very popular and, of course, the circle of fans of the BMW M3 (E30) is large, as the compact, fast saloon is a guarantee of driving pleasure.
But as is always the case with youngtimers, only a few cars increase in value very quickly and at a high enough level for the increase to offset the running costs. If you own the car for fun, this doesn't bother you and, after all, after two or five years you may actually be able to sell the car for considerably more money than you paid.
However, anyone who puts classic cars in their garage for investment purposes will have to realize that these cars, just like their predecessors, require constant care and ideally regular use in order to maintain their value. And annual costs of EUR 3000 to 10,000 (for garage, insurance, road tax, maintenance/repairs, etc.) quickly offset even considerable increases in value.
