Throughout my years in the collector car hobby, time and again I’ve heard friends and acquaintances say “the hobby has gotten too expensive!” or “no one can afford to get a collector car!” or “everything good costs at least $50,000!”. I’m here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. Before you snicker “sure, your idea of affordable is a clapped-out Plymouth K-car from the 1980s”, I have even better news. What if I told you that for around ten grand or less, you could pick up a nice model of ‘America’s True Sports Car’? Or how about an ‘80s version of the car that started the pony car craze? If you’re into trucks, would you prefer a 4x4 from the company that started it all?
I’ve selected three vehicles that hold an attraction to a wide audience: a 2-seat sports car, a pony car, and an SUV, and found multiple real-world examples which recently sold for around $10,000 or under. These cars are not perfect, but neither are they project cars requiring significant outlay before they are roadworthy. Most of them looked pretty good in online photos, and all appeared to be running and driving vehicles that might need nothing more than some maintenance work to improve their reliability. Best of all, several are drop-tops and/or stick shifts. Let me stress again that the quoted numbers are not asking prices: these are actual transaction prices from the past few months, found on several different well-known national auction sites.
1. Chevrolet C4 Corvette
The Chevy Corvette is America’s best-known and most beloved sports car. Corvettes are informally assigned numbers by generation: C1 models are from ’52-’62; C2 are ’63-’67; C3 are ’68-’82; and C4 are ’84-’96 (there was no 1983 Corvette). Prices on C1, C2, and early C3 models can hit six figures, but later cars are still affordable. The initial run of C4s had some teething problems which got fixed within a few years. The late ‘80s/early ‘90s models offer tremendous performance for the money. Here are some recent sales which I found attractive:
- 1988 coupe, red over black, 34k miles, 5.7 + stick, sold for $11,000
- 1989 convertible, charcoal over grey, 95k miles, 5.7L V8 & auto, sold for $8,200
- 1990 convertible, red over saddle, 99k miles, 5.7 & 6-speed, sold for $7,569
- 1992 convertible, white w/black top and white interior, 87k miles, 5.7 & 6-speed, sold for $7,500
While the ’88 has the appeal of low mileage, I would hold out for a convertible with a stick, and that makes the ’90 with its red and saddle color combo the pick of the litter here.
2. Fox-Body Mustang
Everyone loves the original Mustang. Introduced in April of 1964, it was subtly restyled in ’67, then again in ’69. By 1971 it became big and bloated. Ford thought shrinking it in ’74 and renaming it “Mustang II” was smart, but the market recoiled. An entirely new Mustang was launched in 1979, on a platform shared with the new Fairmont, internally named “Fox”. The name stuck and the Fox-body cars of 1979-1993 returned the Mustang to its former glory with style and performance wrapped in a sporty and affordable package. Fox-bodies with V8s have always had their fans. Here are some which sold recently:
- 1984 GT convertible, white over red, mileage unknown, V8 with auto, sold for $10,250
- 1984 GT coupe, red on red, mileage unknown, replacement 351 V8 & 5-speed, sold for $10,350
- 1986 GT convertible, white over grey, mileage unknown, 5.0/5-speed, sold for $11,000
- 1988 LX coupe, black over grey, mileage unknown, 5.0/auto, sold for $6,000
Documenting true mileage on an old Mustang is tricky. Their 5-digit odometers may have ‘turned over’, with actual mileage over 100,000. Given their age and multiple ownership history, a paper trail in support of true mileage could be hard to come by. My best advice is to always proceed with due diligence. Having said that, I’m again drawn to stick shift convertibles, which means that among these four, the ’86 GT convertible rises to the top of the heap for me.
3. Jeep Cherokee
While many point to the early 1990s and the Ford Explorer and Jeep Grand Cherokee as the birth of the “modern” SUV, in reality it started a decade before that. Jeep took the Cherokee model name and moved it to a new unibody platform starting in 1984. The vehicle received many updates through the years but remained essentially unchanged until the plug was pulled in 2001. Today, the Cherokee is viewed as a simple and rugged go-anywhere SUV that is starting to gain interest among collectors. Here are three of the nicer ones which sold at auction in recent months:
- 1987 4x4 2-door, grey with red, 164k miles, 4.0 I6 & 5-speed, sold for $9,200
- 2000 4x4 4-door, black-on-black, 113k miles, 4.0 I6 + auto, sold for $10,750
- 2001 4x4 4-door, red over grey, 171k miles, 4.0 I6 + auto, sold for $9,900
Instead of being put off by the high miles, it stands as testimony to their strength and ruggedness. The 1987 is the oldest here, but it gets my vote thanks to its rare 2-door body style and 3-pedal setup.
There you have it. As is the case with any used car purchase, do your homework! The burden is on the buyer to verify condition, equipment, and any other claims made by the seller. In all the above cases, real people actually bought these cars and are enjoying them right now! Are you next?