Investments?
I can't go a week without having to hear some tool's wisdom on the economy or stock market while in the locker room or similar place where men gather to assert their superior knowlege among eachother. This thread reminds me of just that and while I generally try to hold my opinions back because I'm rarely the smartest guy in the room, here we go anyway.
While I generally fall into Chic's category of purchasing cars not as an investment, but for enjoyment, there is evidence supporting the contrary insofar as we may be the minority opinion. Sales trends suggest that there's still plenty of willing buyers out there looking for "investments". Ridiculous IMO, but "don't fight the tape", as Wall Street says. Maybe it's time to make a bold call on the vintage car "bubble"?
http://www.hagerty.com/lifestyle/hobby_article.aspx?id=63544
As Chic mentioned, a very important component people forget is factoring inflation. I would also add that the "opportunity cost" of tying up working capital with assets that don't "earn" is never mentioned as well.
I think it is important to remember as I stated earlier, that as beautiful as our coupe are and in the case of true CSLs, RARE, the entire E9 series has yet to be regarded as an investment-grade collectable. That may change (I hope). I'd love to wake up at some future date and look into my garage knowing my garden-variety CS is worth north of $100k, that would be cool. I'd look like a genious.
My personal philosphy with buying cars (other than grocery-getters) is buy something that is special to YOU, hopefully unique, within the margins of your budget and lifestyle. Take care of your classic car, enjoy it and if you're lucky it won't depreciate. I probably would consider the probablility of DEPRECIATION though in that I'd really have to want a car badly to pay top-dollar at a high-point in it's value curve.
Anyone who ties up working capital (not play money) in collector cars with anticipation of return on investment may as well trade penny stocks as an investment philosphy. The same holds true for actual investment-grade cars like early Ferraris and P-cars. The people I know who own big-money examples buy these cars to "play with" and enjoy the bragging rights if/when they appreciate. Sometimes they sell when their car is "hot" and sometimes they see a ridiculous ROI. Sometimes they roll that money into a better example or whatever. That's not an investment philosophy at all, that's like going to Vegas. You think you can pick the next GTB/4 or early 911RS craze, then by all means knock yourself out trying! I just hope you haven't pegged your family's future on those profits.
