Déjà vu? Cars as an investment
02/08/2021
You really have to smile after the last decade of value gains, but also after a phase of falling prices. We have probably already forgotten that there were people who described classic cars as "moveable assets" and that financial constructs sprang up that speculated on increases in the value of classic vehicles.
But the idea was nothing new. More than 45 years ago, "auto motor und sport" published a report on the subject of "Classic cars - gold cars?".
The introduction at the time read:
"Veteran cars and high-profile models from more recent times are rapidly increasing in value. The question is whether it is worth investing the money threatened by dwindling purchasing power in automotive rarities."
Of course, examples were given. According to the article in ams 3/1975 , a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing was worth DM 20,000 in 1958, but DM 50,000 in 1974.
With the increase in value over the 16-year period, the 300 SL performed better than the savings book, but still worse than gold. And the garage costs were not yet included. So the ROI miracle didn't seem all that convincing, at least not in retrospect.
But what wasn't quite there yet could still be. Perhaps the cars of 1974 would become "gold classics" in the future? The VW Beetle Cabriolet, the BMW 2002 Turbo (see picture above) and the NSU Ro80 were suggested as "speculation cars". We know today that the Beetle and the BMW in particular have certainly increased in value considerably, but you would probably have become rich with the 300 SL at DM 50,000 if you had kept it in 1974 and only sold it in 2015.
"The best investments are often cars that nobody wants," was another recommendation. The small cars in the style of a BMW Isetta or a Goggomobil were used as an example. These were vehicles that nobody wanted in the mid/end of the sixties. In the mid-seventies, these relatively economical cars became increasingly popular again with farmers who were allowed to drive a tractor but not a "real" car. And so an Isetta or a Goggomobil in "restored" condition could be sold for DM 5000, which at the time seemed like a considerable increase in value.
Now we know that a good BMW Isetta can be worth EUR 30,000 today, the equivalent of around DM 58,000. So the buyers at the time could still earn some money here too ...
