This is a 1991 BMW E30 318is it sold for
$25,000 a few years ago.
But an editor at Donut, Max bought an E30 for $200 in 2010. A running E30 for $200.
Even though Max's E30 has its flaws,
It has increased in value and is worth way more than he bought it for.
What happened in between that made these cars so popular and valuable?
It's hard to predict which cars are going to become classics in 20 years.
But in this video we're going to go through some key traits that might add a value to a car,
trends to look out for, and finally you'll hear some of our picks for cars within your budget.
You should buy right now before rich guys ruin it for the rest of us. Let me get the scraps.
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There are so many factors that affect a car's perceived value, from popular features dying off,
the people just not knowing about how cool they are. It might seem like a crapshoot,
I mean who expected Integras to become $70,000 cars? It's ridiculous.
But there are patterns you can look for that might hint that this car is gonna be heavily saw after in a few years.
And before I get into my picks for future classics, I just want to be clear
You should never buy a car with the intention of making money off of it. Okay? I cannot stress that enough
Cars are a terrible investment, unless you have millions to spend on a one-of-a-kind
Bugatti Atlantic like your Ralph Lauren or something.
99% of the time you will lose money. So buy these cars because you love them,
even though it's probably a bad.
Okay, now that I have that out of the way, let's start with an obvious thing to look for
Following trends.
Current trends are a great place to start when trying to predict which cars are gonna retain their value.
For example right now,
crossovers are by and large the most popular type of car out there.
But can you really see cars like the Honda HRV being a collector car in 20 years?
Maybe, I don't really know. The CRV isn't really that saw after so I don't really think so.
But you can still find manual Porsche Cayennes for relatively cheap which are fun cars.
That's one to look out for but it's not my pick.
I still can't afford one of the cheap ones.
My pick for future classic crossovers is the Subaru Forester XT.
This turbocharged greenhouse is capable off-road and is pretty quick for its time.
The second gen Forester XT shares the same turbocharged engine as the Subaru WRX,
but there aren't as many hardcore forester fans out there as
WRX fans, so you could still find really clean versions of it on Craigslist pretty cheap.
Another car that has the same engine is the Saab 9-3 X Aero.
Although it's considered more of a wagon slash hash back than a crossover,
I would still buy one if I had the chance. In fact Jesse's selling his right now
So maybe I'll talk to him,
and actually know I don't want to deal with the EJ20.
*fool trumpet* *confettis*
If you are gonna buy a older Subaru be wary that the boxer engine particularly EJ20
does have issues just because the way it's designed. The head gaskets can corrode
from just different fluids sitting on them when it's parked that is something to look out for.
It is ridiculous since people want like,
15 grand for like a prime early 2000s STi, but it has like
180,000 miles on it's like that is a time. You're buying a $15,000 time.
It is only a matter of time before that thing fails, It's ridiculous.
Crossovers might be popular now, but they might not have the lasting power
like a slightly different group of vehicles, SUVs.
SUVs have been trendy for a long time now.
They're so hot that they're in turn making older SUVs popular again
when older things become popular again, it's called retro.
You can find it basically everywhere, right?
Fashion, music, cars. Retro comes in waves of 20 years generally, sometimes longer.
Retro waves are perpetuated by people in their 30s who finally have enough money to buy things
they wish they had, when they were in their teens like sick cars
When I'm thirty, I'm gonna buy so many downhill long boards.
It's gonna be crazy. No break all my collar bones. My kids are gonna be like:
Dad, why are you so sick?
Reto SUVs from the 80s and 90s are already super popular.
You see plenty of super clean Broncos and old Range Rovers and Discoveries and XJ
Cherokees selling for crazy numbers that train has already left the station.
But you still have a chance to scoop up SUVs in the early 2000s
that might become sought-after in a few years, of course Hummers and
Escalades are gonna be snatched up,
but I'd wager that the hideous Chevy Avalanche is gonna become a very hot commodity.
It's not my pick. My pick for an SUV that will see an uptick in popularity is the Lexus GX Series.
these SUVs are luxurious,
fairly plentiful and they hold a little secret.
They are rebadged Land Cruisers and that means they're amazing off-road.
The best part is no one who bought a Lexus GX bought them to off-road them.
People bought them to hog groceries and go to Nordstrom Rack, great deals.
You can still find many of these things in great condition with nothing, but city miles on.
Plus, they probably have a great service record.
"Here is your one owner clean Carfax,
37 service records. I mean it goes on and on they just did everything."
I have a feeling that when more and more people find out about
how great these things are off-road their value will start:
*fwip* going up.
One reason cars go up in value is because a particular feature is discontinued.
Maybe it's a feature that helped make a certain car iconic.
Sometimes it's a bigger shift in the industry.
A great example is the disappearance of the manual transmission.
Muscle cars are really hot right now. That's no secret,
and one thing that makes them so much fun to drive is a manual transmission.
There's something so satisfying about rolling through the gears in a
Camaro or Challenger, Mustang.
And as the industry moves towards electric motors and drive-by-wire systems and other things that kind of
numb the driving experience, people are gonna start coveting cars
that have more traditional features like manuals.
Look, it's only a matter of time before muscle cars are only offered with an automatic transmission.
I mean look at the GT500. It's got an 8-speed. It's really good, but it's
You don't gravity thing.
So it might be a good idea to snatch these cars up while they're still pretty common.
But it's not just the transmission that can change the perception of a car, sometimes
It's a beloved legacy engine.
The E46 M3 has been skyrocketing
In value for a while now.
And the reason is the E46 of the last gen to offer an inline 6 engine paired with a 6-speed manual
These are two features that defined the M3 for the longest time.
With this generation being the last to offer a naturally aspirated
Inline 6-cylinder, I predict E46s are gonna continue to climb.
But what about cool cars that never really took off?
Hmm...
Sometimes a car manufacturer comes out with a car and even though it's sick doesn't really make an impact.
There are a lot of reasons that can happen.
No heritage to rest on, car makers don't really know who to market to,
doesn't have any grace wins or people don't buy it because the economy's trash.
In the mid-2000s GM wanted to compete with all the JDM cars taking the US by storm.
So they made a series of supercharged and turbocharged,
four-cylinder cars. Cars like the Pontiac G5 GT, the Saturn Ion Red Line and the
HHR SS Turbo.
(actually want one of these things)
One of my favorite cars that never really took off is the 2008 Chevy Cobalt SS Turbo with
260 horsepower made into a 5-speed manual Getrag transmission.
It was a fun car and I still want one of those today
*engine revving*
The Cobalt SS was a weird move on GM's part, but sometimes I want to look out for those oddball cars.
They're usually limited to small production numbers and rare instances. They become highly sought-after
collector cars.
Small production numbers give car collectors the feeling of "oh snap they only made 500 of these"
*hehe*
Better scoop it up.
And I guess it gives those weird offbeat cars a higher perceived value.
The less well-known they are, the better
they are for the buyer. If you can get your hands on a homologation special or a one-off
collaboration at peak depreciation, you're in a very good position.
Cars like the Chrysler TC that was developed with Maserati, or the Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution.
I'm not saying that you should buy those because they're nearly impossible to find.
But I do have a few other suggestions.
One weird car that probably should have never been made is the Chevy SSR.
You've probably heard about this car or seen when driving around being like that thing is about oddly
But did you know that these weird retro future truck hotrod convertibles
has an LS in it? That's right.
Later models have the 390 horsepower LS2 engine, which is also found in the C6 Corvette.
I will admit it's harder to find one of those under $20,000. So they're technically collector cars already.
But as other cars with similar styling starts become retro in the next 10 years
I think the value will only go up.
Do you think SSR owners dress any differently than Corvette owners?
It's weird to think that when those cars came out, they looked futuristic, but while also retro
and now they're gonna become retro again?
My brain hurts.
Time is a snake eating its own tail. It's called a
Ouroboros, it's a great song by Gojira.
Check it out.
One car that our editor Alex has brought up multiple times is the Shelby CXX VNT
He's obsessed with it. This car was the last model Carroll Shelby made with dodge in the late 80s.
It's quick, light, and has an intense power band centered around a relatively low rpm.
The VNT stands for "Variable Nozzle Turbo" made by Garrett.
The car was highly technologically advanced at the time and was critically acclaimed
But this weird 80s American tuner car has been forgotten with time.
So get one you can.
Another Shelby-designed Dodge
that is actually really cool is the GLH-S or that Goes Like Hell, based off the Dodge Omni
They only made 500 of these VW Golf looking hot hatches.
They are pretty legendary already and I've seen a few of them on bring a trailer sell for a ton of money
So good luck.
Predicting which cars are gonna be valuable decades from now is really hard and I am in no way
trying to pretend to be an expert.
Whatever you do, don't buy a car expecting to make money off of it.
Buy car because you can afford to and
because you want to drive the hell out of it.
And then go out and drive the hell out of it.
Thank you for watching Wheelhouse. I hope that was a somewhat informative video.
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