Are Vintage Cars a GOOD Investment?

Buying something that's expensive, that's really beautifully made, and hoping over time it's going to appreciate. Now, we already know the story about the automotive market. It's been a great place to put money in the last 20 years. It probably will remain so because this is an asset class that really tugs at the emotion of many people that grew up with a certain car or fell in love with a brand when they were young and wanted to achieve that during their lifetime. Here they are thinking about buying it later in life when they can afford it.

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A 427 Corvette, why not put it beside the Martins? Makes sense to me.

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I mean, a Lamborghini—why not? Of course, you need a Lamborghini. The design is just beautiful. It should be in here! In fact, if you're going to buy one of these, you might as well just leave it in your living room. I wouldn't mess around with this. Why put it out in the street where somebody could scratch it?

When you walk into Walgreens, the first thing you're going to see is a garage full of cars—really high-end vintage cars—right beside the guitars. So, there's a common theme here of investing, buying something that's expensive, that's really beautifully made, and hoping over time it's going to appreciate. Now, we already know the story about the automotive market. It's already had an incredible run. It's been a great place to put money in the last 20 years. It probably will remain so because this is an asset class that really tugs at the emotion of many people that grew up with a certain car or fell in love with a brand when they were young and wanted to achieve that during their lifetime.

And here they are thinking about buying it later in life when they can afford it. That's the whole premise of this. So, let's meet the guy that runs the show here on cars.

Jonathan: "Come on in here!"

Kevin: "Hey dude, good to see you."

Jonathan: "Thanks for having me."

Kevin: "You got it, you got it! Now, let's just start. You've got so many incredibly different and diverse cars. I want to hear the investment premise of each of them. Let’s start with this. What is this?"

Jonathan: "So this is a 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo. In 1986, Porsche created the—their first year of the turbo. Prior to that, they had updated the car in '85 and a half. They took what they learned from this. This is the first turbo—in '86 for the 944. It’s air-cooled or water?"

Kevin: "It is water-cooled. So all 911s were air-cooled up until '98. All front-engine cars came out from conception as water-cooled cars. So these were actually really hot right now for the past—"

Kevin: "Why would this be hot?"

Jonathan: "Well, here's the cool thing, because it's quasi-vintage."

Kevin: "Absolutely, yeah. It's modern classic, if you will. So what's super cool about these is if you're not a 911 guy, if you're not a Porsche guy, but you love cars, you don't have to make any big sacrifices. The motor's in the front, it's rear-wheel drive, the key is on the right-hand side, the air conditioner is really good, and the transmission is really easy to use. There's nothing that's going to scare you while driving, and it's still eye candy."

Kevin: "What does this puppy cost?"

Jonathan: "Today, this is $39,000."

Kevin: "So for a family, that's not crazy. What did it cost when it was brand new?"

Jonathan: "I'd have to call my dad on that one; he sold them new. But these are about—I think they were in the upper 20s, lower 30s. So you're about the same range there. What would you expect if you bought this for appreciation?"

Kevin: "I mean, a $40,000 investment is not a lot for a vintage car. So what do you think in 10 years this is worth?"

Jonathan: "So first and foremost, I'd like to say buy what you like. But secondly, from an investment standpoint, you're probably looking around four to five percent a year of what we're seeing so far in these cars."

Kevin: "Better than savings accounts!"

Jonathan: "Exactly! Yeah! So we've seen them come up drastically every year. And this is drivable, right?"

Kevin: "Absolutely! It's daily-drivable. The air conditioning is great, the power steering, power brakes, power-assisted steering, excuse me—not power actual power steering. This is the classic air-cooled. I'm sure this is it."

Jonathan: "Air-cooled until '98! It's got the big whale fin—"

Kevin: "And what about this?"

Jonathan: "This is an '89 930 Turbo Coupe, known as the Widowmaker."

Kevin: "The Widowmaker?"

Jonathan: "And they're called the Widowmaker because they left a lot of people as widows. So in 1975, a lot of guys died in them."

Kevin: "Why?"

Jonathan: "So they're pretty drastic to drive. It's a 3.3-liter naturally aspirated motor mated to a pretty large turbo. And what's interesting about them is they don't really spool up till about 3,500 to 4,000 rpms. They made these cars from '75 to '88 with the four-speed. And in '89, they had come out three years prior in '87 with a five-speed that they decided to finally put in this car. So this is a one-year-only particular car."

Kevin: "Oh, another Widowmaker?"

Jonathan: "And it's black."

Kevin: "Black, exactly! So you really got to know what you're getting yourself into when you buy this. You've got to really know how to drive a stick. You've got to really know how to work a clutch because you're telling me you're spinning out of control, killing yourself at a high speed."

Jonathan: "That's basically the scary thing about these cars is not necessarily the acceleration, which a lot of people attribute fear to with a turbo; it's actually the deceleration. The wheels actually nearly lock up if you lift too aggressively. So you kind of want to ease off. This will scare the best of the best—there's no way around it. This is a pretty incredible car."

Kevin: "And it looks the part!"

Jonathan: "It looks, like you said, what you're familiar with. The price of this—this particular car is $159,000."

Kevin: "Now we’re talking! That’s serious money—$159,000. Again, you think it appreciates three, four percent a year?"

Jonathan: "From what we've seen, there was a bit of a bubble associated with these particular cars, and they've kind of settled. But now they're naturally appreciating. I would say anywhere from three to five is fair. But this car, because they don't make air-cooled turbos anymore—"

Kevin: "How do I find an engineer to maintain it if I'm going to drive it?"

Jonathan: "Good question! And unfortunately, those guys are kind of dying off. But what's pretty cool about these, they're very easy to learn. So if a guy's eager and wants to learn and he has a mechanic shop or is a mechanic, they're very easy."

Kevin: "Are there guys that specialize in cars like this?"

Jonathan: "Absolutely! And you know, for the foreseeable future, they're not going anywhere. Twenty, thirty years from now is worth the question. But yeah, there are Porsche specialists."

Kevin: "Can you get parts for these?"

Jonathan: "That's the very cool thing! Thankfully, since they have become such great investments, Porsche themselves have actually started to remanufacture some of their old parts. So you can buy a lot of parts direct from Porsche."

Kevin: "Oh, that's pretty smart on their behalf, because if I'm an investor, I'm saying I'm putting up $150,000, and I want to know the company is supporting me."

Jonathan: "Yeah, absolutely! And they have been, really well. And is this one in good shape?"

Kevin: "This one's in great shape! Fifty-four thousand original miles!"

Jonathan: "That's it?"

Kevin: "That's it! Fifty-four thousand! You must've been really scared not to drive it! And what is the economic model for you? Do you take these on consignment if you really love it, or do you actually invest capital, or both?"

Jonathan: "Both! So it depends on the car. If the car is a little more quirky, you know, not necessarily something that we can find a direct comp, then we'll consign it. If it's something where it makes total sense, the buy is right, and the margin is okay, then we'll take the risk."

Kevin: "Got it. That's the right way to do it!"

Jonathan: "Now this little puppy is a beautiful, beautiful car. I mean, the silhouette of this car tells you right away what it is, and it's got '427' on it, which means it's got a beast inside."

Kevin: "What it does—in a black stinger to boot?"

Jonathan: "Yeah, and that's original."

Kevin: "Is this original paint?"

Jonathan: "No, the car has been fully restored. It took about 15 years. A guy took his time restoring this particular one."

Kevin: "Yeah, but yeah—the engine's original, original transmission, original 427 390, as you mentioned. These things—these go straight really well."

Jonathan: "These go straight very well; they turn terribly. You know, in a small block, you can go around the corner. You still have to start turning about 20 feet before your turn. But the big blocks, they like straight lines."

Kevin: "And what's the price of this?"

Jonathan: "This is $159,000 as well."

Kevin: "This is serious money. I'm serious! Which is the better investment—the Porsche or this?"

Jonathan: "Well, that's an actually easy answer. What Porsche did that Chevrolet never did is they produced at a limited rate. So for Chevrolet, these were always meant to be the secondary car. When you walked into a Porsche dealership, it wasn't 'what do you want?'; 'this is what we have.' So these necessarily weren't collectible when they initially came out. They were the weekend sports car that if the guy liked, he bought it. So these have always had a bit of volatility attached to their value because there's tons of them out—there’s a lot more than there are those. However, they've never really depreciated in a drastic manner. So I can tell you at $159,000, you're probably safe. It's not going to appreciate—maybe something like that, but it will definitely go up. I would expect about one and a half, and there's comps that show these trade at $115,000 to $160,000."

Kevin: "Yeah, that's serious though!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, so clearly this is iconic, because it's part of Americana, in a way that Porsche is not. This is all over Hollywood. It's in movies from the '50s. Very, very important in terms of engineering as well. This is a fully fiberglass car. The Corvette is actually one of the first American cars to ever utilize full fiberglass for its body, and they did so all the way up until the end of the late '90s when they transitioned to full composite. This is also a classic!"

Kevin: "It is! It's a 911!"

Jonathan: "It is! I'm going to guess it's air-cooled, right?"

Kevin: "This is air-cooled, so again, 911s were air-cooled all the way up until 1998, when they introduced liquid cooling into the cars. This is a 1973 Porsche 911S, so this is pretty special, and you've stumbled upon a pretty rare one as well."

Jonathan: "What does the 'S' designate from that year?"

Kevin: "So the 'S' is a little bit more power. You had a 2.4-liter flat six, which this is actually the last year that they made it, and you had a couple little niche options. You had a sport front bumper, a lower ride height, a different suspension all the way around, optional sport seats, and a few other options that weren't made available."

Jonathan: "How much of this is original?"

Kevin: "So this particular car—original steel, original motor, original transmission, original rear end—but it has gone through a near-concours level restoration."

Jonathan: "Okay, what's the price of this?"

Kevin: "275,000."

Jonathan: "Oh, oh! So we're up now!"

Kevin: "Oh, you greedy!"

Jonathan: "275,000. Will you let me tell you why?"

Kevin: "Yeah, tell me."

Jonathan: "Cool! Alright, so this particular car was owned by a famous race car driver named Diego Febles. I used to race with Hurley, so it’s got a particular prominence to it—little bit. I wouldn't necessarily attribute that to its whole value, but it definitely helps. It's also what's known as a factory sunroof delete car. It was pretty popular at the time for people to option these parts. Comes off?"

Kevin: "No, it is not. It's a sunroof delete, meaning it never came with a sunroof. It was pretty popular at the time that people wanted sunroofs. It's extra value because it doesn't have one. It's called a slick top, believe it or not, and if you open that door on the right-hand panel, you'll see—excuse me, yeah, on the right-hand panel, you'll see a little knob, a switch of sorts, right? So that's a power window—very rare for factory options—a factory power window car. And also, if you look under the dash, you'll see some what looks like makeshift A/C vents, so it's a factory air conditioning car as well, as the blue carpets, the blue leatherette, and the blue—what's called tartan option code 41 from Porsche. That is exactly how it came from the factory."

Jonathan: "This is not the original?"

Kevin: "This is the original! This is how it came from the factory; I'm kidding! This guy not driving?"

Jonathan: "No, no! This—again, the car’s been restored completely, but this is how you would have seen it when delivered."

Kevin: "Wow, yeah! Okay, so that is serious money! How would that appreciate? I mean, come on! You'd have to be thinking about the car being worth like half a million dollars in seven years."

Jonathan: "And you're not wrong in thinking so! So, we've seen everything pointing that way. Again, there have been bubbles associated with just about everything in this room, but finally, we are seeing some natural appreciation. So I'm going to kill—I'm going to tell you that, you know, anywhere from $250,000 to $275,000 today, you'll probably see about, again, three to five percent on this particular car per year."

Kevin: "I think I'd put this in the living room and never drive it!"

Jonathan: "You totally can! I mean, this is—I mean, we have a car, we have an investment that large in a car, and you can't just go park it on the street! You know, though, the beauty behind them is actually driving them."

Kevin: "Yeah, they're incredible to look at because they're this! But when you drive them, they shock you!"

Jonathan: "Goodness, it's crazy! This is a 1956 Mercedes 190 SL. So what's pretty cool about this particular car? It's actually dark blue over red. So it might not sound odd, but they did not make many dark blue cars, especially with the red interior. And what's cool is, you know, the '50s was the time of—they were just starting to introduce metallic paints. This is not metallic; it's a flat dark blue. This car was really the unloved stepchild for many, many years, and it's recently started to really appreciate. A few years ago at Pebble Beach, a black on red car sold for a record-shattering $225,000, and it kind of set the market. This particular car is also $225,000."

Kevin: "So it did kind of set the bar! And you can—the cool thing is, if you're not looking to buy this Concorde level of car, you can find them for around $150,000 to the $175,000 mark, and this is worth a hundred thousand dollars more?"

Jonathan: "Correct! I can show—there are a few things, so one, we'll get into the nitty-gritty. So it's a 1.9 liter straight four-cylinder motor—arguably one of their least powerful and least desirable motors."

Kevin: "Why would that be exciting? Well, it's not actually, but what is pretty cool about this particular car and two things to look at are these carburetors. So these are Solex carburetors—the least desirable carburetors of the '50s, '60s, and '70s."

Jonathan: "Everything's the least desirable!"

Kevin: "Yes, it is! Until you realize that mostly everybody took them off, and they're then all of a sudden scarce! They're one of the hardest things to find, especially with 190s. So when you have them—"

Jonathan: "They took them off because they didn't work."

Kevin: "They took them off! Everyone put Weber's on, and Weber was the first company that then created—"

Jonathan: "So I should be excited to pay an extra hundred thousand for something that nobody really wanted?"

Kevin: "Whatever came out, correct! You should be, because the next guy is too! So these are worth anywhere from, depending on the condition and the originality of the carbs, anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 just for these sets right there. So that helps you there! And again, this car took about nearly six years to finish its restoration. But what's really nice—we're not a fan of over-restored cars, and if you look at things like here, the VIN placard and the spec pack placard, and then move over here and on your side, you'll see it as well—there's some oxidization on the metal trim that—all that's all indicative of original bright work. It's cool to see that. You don't want to see anything overdone because realistically, they didn't have the tooling to overdo it. Everything was hand done at the time."

Kevin: "It's actually got a very beautiful interior—very simple and stylish!"

Jonathan: "Exactly! Yeah, it is! And everything down from the white ebony-looking steering wheel! And then cool things—these are your turn signals! So when you want to indicate, you simply flick your thumb, and you indicate! So as beautiful as it was, it was functional and practical. Another thing about practicality—and I don’t know why they—they—I can tell you why they don't do it today, but this is your sun visor! Today, we put down this piece of plastic, and it completely blocks our line of sight."

Kevin: "This is just simply like a sunglass!"

Jonathan: "Smart! Until you realize the reason they took it away is because if you hit your head on it, it wouldn't feel good. I'm sure a few people became widows as a result! They learned the hard way! Back over to a 944, actually! So the white one that you—we started with—again, both 1986s! This one has about half the miles—32,000 miles."

Kevin: "That's low mileage!"

Jonathan: "It is indeed! What's special about this particular—you know, certainly when you see mileage like that, it hasn't been turned back."

Kevin: "How do you know?"

Jonathan: "Well, I've been around it long enough to kind of see what's right and what's wrong. There are some things that can be fishy and some things that stand out, and this one, thankfully, nothing stood out, nothing jumped at you and said that is an old scam! It's an old—yeah, it's a tale as old as time. The second anybody could, you know, plug a drill in behind the gauge cluster, they did roll it the opposite way. Yeah, no, this—this one—everything points to, you know—all signs that are go! So, um, it's graphite metallic over linen, which at the time was not a fact—was not a, uh, on the spec sheet to order. It was paint to sample, as we call it today! It's great investments because of their track record! They haven't—they haven't shot up massively until the past two years. The price of this is $45,000."

Kevin: "It's not bad!"

Jonathan: "No, not at all! Again, back to that! It's a little bit more than a Camry!"

Kevin: "This is a Widowmaker too?"

Jonathan: "This is, yeah! So essentially, they were called the Widowmaker from '75 all the way up to '89 because people just couldn't control the back—because this is not a four-wheel drive!"

Kevin: "No, it's not four-wheel drive! It's rear-wheel drive—no power or anything! My analog steering! Same size engine in this?"

Jonathan: "Same size, yeah, same size motor! It's a—yeah, same size motor; it's a 3.3-liter flat-six with a turbocharger, and this particular car is pretty impressive with only 900 original—"

Kevin: "That can't be real!"

Jonathan: "That is real!"

Kevin: "What was it doing? Just sitting in somebody's garage?"

Jonathan: "You know, yes! It's for all intents and purposes a two-owner car! The guy who owned it for the bulk of its life had it for about 27 years before passing along to a guy who might have been looking to invest in a little bit more! And the price of this—this is $185,000."

Kevin: "Okay, but that—"

Jonathan: "For 12,000 miles on it?"

Kevin: "Yeah, that's pretty good! Well, you have two options at that point! You can either look at it as what it is—which is a near-new car—or you can look at it as a true investment and tuck it away! Which, again, is totally up to whoever buys it! But the cool thing is, it's one of those go-find-another examples, and there are a few in this room! And what you say is someone comes in there—you don't have too many vintage cars with 12,000 miles?"

Jonathan: "No, this is a rare thing! It's a challenge! If you bought it with 12,000 miles in it looks—I mean—is this restored?"

Kevin: "No, this is all original paint because it looks brand new!"

Jonathan: "I know! Yeah, it's pretty! So really, this would be taking cash, buying it, and just assuming four or five percent a year in perpetuity?"

Kevin: "Yeah, about that! If not more! I mean, you can look at it this way: if you went and bought it new in 1986 and you sat on it all those years, obviously that margin is going to be huge. However, if you buy it today and you sit on it for the equal amount of time, call it 35 years, the margin might very well be the same. So you're buying something that looks as new as it did near in 1986, and then 35 years from now, you might actually have the same result!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, it's incredible! I mean, that's very unique! I've never seen one!"

Kevin: "Well, I can shock you a little bit more with what's behind us!"

Jonathan: "Alright, let's look at that! So this is a 1989 Lamborghini Countach, 25th Anniversary Edition. They made just under 700 of these cars for the world. They were made from 1988 to 1990, and it was really the last Lamborghini to be built prior to the Chrysler ownership, which happened at the end of 1989, and they introduced the Diablo in 1990. This particular car has 1,003 original kilometers—623 miles!"

Kevin: "How's that possible?"

Jonathan: "Well, so this one—people could look at first of all. It's horrific to drive. It's not something that's necessarily comfortable to get in and out of! And it was very easy for someone to say, 'you know what? I'm not going to drive it. I can look at it,' and I can realize it's numbered! You know, and all those signs point to it appreciating! It could—you could drive it out of here!"

Kevin: "You can absolutely drive it out of here. It's been serviced its whole life. It's got great records, and it runs great! So what's the price of this?"

Jonathan: "$425,000."

Kevin: "Oh, oh! So real! I mean, okay—that really—you have to treat it like a piece of art!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, you might as well put it in your living room and just look at it!"

Kevin: "If you want to do that again—first of all, if you're a small enough guy named John Luigi and you're Italian, you'll fit in it just fine."

Jonathan: "You probably can't!"

Kevin: "No, no! I stalled it about six times coming in here because right when I was—the steer—the clutch release is right where my hands on the stairwell!"

Jonathan: "That's crazy! So this is truly—it's a brand new car, for all intents and purposes! Yeah, and you can again—going back to the same way you can treat the '86 turbo, you can treat this one of two ways: you could treat it as a new car, choose not to drive it, or you can treat it as the investment!"

Kevin: "I think it'll be very given that it's so hard to drive anyway—everybody talks about these cars being like go-karts; they're so hard to drive!"

Jonathan: "A ghost car, basically lying down on the road!"

Kevin: "Absolutely, yeah! And this is—if you look here—this is about as wide as the window opens!"

Jonathan: "You're kidding!"

Kevin: "No, that's it! That's it!"

Jonathan: "So there's some old photos of guys pulling up to drive-throughs and having to open the door the way you back this car up! Actually, you sit on the door sill and you look out, because this is your line of sight when you look in the rearview mirror!"

Kevin: "That's it!"

Jonathan: "That's it! That's crazy! So it's really not functional other than just looking at a beautiful piece of art, and that's it! You know, and for all intents and purposes, all these cars are art! They didn't start off to be this! No one intended for someone to tuck them away! For someone to have anything less than, you know, a thousand miles!"

Kevin: "So this is odd?"

Jonathan: "It's odd for the brand to see! But it's super, super cool!"

Kevin: "You're going to find somebody who's really into this history—the lineage of this car, the story, and the fact that there's basically no miles on it, yes! And you might find the guy who had the car on his wall when he was a kid and he's like, 'Oh my God, this is it!' and this is the closest he's gonna drive it!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, he could drive it! That's crazy! I love to hear that they drive them! Personally speaking, it breaks my heart!"

Kevin: "I know! But I mean, you're putting up close to half a million dollars—in fact, half a million after tax! And you've got to think about that as an investment! You want that to appreciate over time?"

Jonathan: "Absolutely! Wow! Take a loan against it!"

Kevin: "Oh, just fine!"

[Laughter]

Jonathan: "This is a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette split-window coupe! It's also a one-year-only car, and it was one year only—not because they meant it to be, but because it was a design flaw by consumers!"

Kevin: "A design flaw?"

Jonathan: "Yes! So if you come around the back, what everybody gravitates to, if they know a little bit about Corvettes, is this! So this is a split window—meaning two panels of glass—and unfortunately, when you're sitting in the driver's seat and you look in the rearview mirror, it makes the Countach look like a big bay window! You can't see anything!"

Kevin: "You can't see anything! So they discontinued it after almost less than a year? Some guy designing it never got in and looked at the rearview?!"

Jonathan: "But why would he look at it? I mean, he designed it step back and goes, 'Wow!' and it works fantastic! But yeah, it's almost like a Bugatti boat tail, look—which is rare for the Americans! No, it's a beautiful kind of look and price—$120,000!"

Kevin: "Yeah, so this is a 19—again, '63! They made them for one year only! Personally, what I love about them from an artistic standpoint is Corvettes are subtly known for being extremely symmetrical! So if you look down the car, it's almost literally like it's split identically on two sides! And if you look inside, you'll see the haunches on the dash—the only thing missing from an experienced standpoint from the passenger seat is a steering wheel and gauge cluster!"

Jonathan: "Right? It does look that way; it's a perfect symmetry!"

Kevin: "Yeah, yeah! So this is a really nice car!"

Jonathan: "This is gorgeous! This—this pre—I’m a Porsche-ferrari nut, but this is my favorite thing in here right now! This is a 1971 Mercedes 280 SL, what's called a pagoda, which is the name for the roof! This roof right here actually comes off—it’s a removable hardtop!"

Kevin: "Can't be—it can be removed! I'd ask you to do it with me, but it's a bit of a pain!"

Jonathan: "And then there's an easy—you take it off for the season, I assume?"

Kevin: "Yeah, you do! You take it off—there's a rag top—there's, yeah, there's a chocolate brown rag top to match the interior! This is the final year for the 280 for the pagodas! They started these cars in the end of '64!"

Jonathan: "Kind of a creamy—"

Kevin: "It is, yeah! It's like an off-white, absolutely! More of a cream and off-white color, sure! And it was—so they made these cars from about '64 to 1971, this being the final year! And some notable things on this particular car: going to be the fact that it has factory air conditioning! And, um, it's a '71, so less than 900 cars produced for the year, which is the lowest produced of all 280s throughout its inception! So price—$95,000!"

Jonathan: "Not bad!"

Kevin: "Not bad at all! Really, the market does differentiate these incredible deltas massively! The biggest differentiator on these is going to be conditioned! Unfortunately, over the course of its near 50-year existence, there are a lot of people that didn't buy them for investment or collectible, you know, so they just drove the crap out—"

Jonathan: "They drove the crap out of them! And there are certain things I'll show you if you want to—if you're ever looking at a pagoda—there are some certain things to look at! So on that fender over there, you'll feel it; it's going to be a little tough to see on this particular model. Some are more pronounced than others, but there's something called fender notches, and you should be able to feel a little bit of a ridge!"

Kevin: "Well, I do! Almost, if you closed your eyes, right?"

Jonathan: "Yeah, yeah, yeah! So basically, if you follow the body line that runs more like a belt line on the whole outside of the car, there was this really cool subtle touch that Mercedes did to mimic—and they did it on the inside of the fender well, and it became this thing called fender notches! And when looking at a pagoda, you want to see if it still retains its fender notches! Because when the car is painted, it’s very easy with some sandpaper to take those off, and when they’re put back on, they look completely fake."

Kevin: "So that's the big deal! Somebody would even understand not to sand them down? It's a big deal!"

Jonathan: "And there's one other thing that absolutely helps the value of the car, and I’ll give you an idea. If this particular car had all of its fender notches and what I'm about to show you intact, you'd be looking at—opposed to $95,000—anywhere from $120,000 to $150,000!"

Kevin: "What is this thing missing?"

Jonathan: "So not necessarily missing; it's what's kind of faded! So if you run your hands along the inside of this fender here, you'll feel these round bumps of sorts!"

Kevin: "Yes, okay, so those are called spot welds!"

Jonathan: "They're literally spot welds! But again, they've faded from over the years. Some examples, you can see the exact tack point. Those alone, again with in conjunction with the notches, will attribute to about 20 percent of the car's value if they were in completely intact!"

Kevin: "The fact that you and I can feel these is—"

Jonathan: "It helps!"

Kevin: "Yeah, it helps! So it's been painted so many times—"

Jonathan: "That's what happened! It's had one repaint! Now, these will naturally fade over time, obviously, even if the car hadn't been painted! But in metal fins, it's, you know, it's a natural way of life! But no, this car has been painted once prior, and they did a wonderful job. Whoever looked after it before—the engine bay is absolutely incredible and rebuilt really to factory spec. These firewalls have been getting very difficult to find! The only thing that I would pick apart would probably be that it's a, uh, it's not a Mercedes battery!"

Kevin: "Which you could get!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, you can absolutely! And now again, to what I said about Porsche, Mercedes is also making their classic parts available, so that helps the investor, it helps the collector too! So and the enthusiast! So this is a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette, what's called a transitional year convertible. It's called a transitional year because Corvette introduced a very quirky thing and they basically—if you look at the rear end of this car, and I’m sure in the video you’ll show it again, but the back end of that stingray is near identical. So Corvette, at the end of '61, decided, 'You know what? We're going to tease our '63 design, and we're going to do so by putting it on the rear end of the end the last '62 that we built.' So if you look at the back, and this is why they call it a transitional year, it has—this is the first Corvette to where the spine that you would then see on the on the stingrays and the back of it is near identical to the stingrays that you've seen here! So again, another one-year car—it's almost like a front of the car!"

Jonathan: "It does! Yeah, kinda—with the two lights!"

Kevin: "Yeah, yeah!"

Jonathan: "So it's a little confused in that regard! This is very interesting! So this particular car is a 97.3 out of 100 on a scale that was invented by the guys at NCRS—the National Corvette Restoration Society!"

Kevin: "So you're perfect?"

Jonathan: "It is near perfect! Yeah! It's a three-time show what's called top flight show winner! It's Roman red is the name of the color! And it's won again, those awards three times!"

Kevin: "And the price—$85,000!"

Jonathan: "$85,000. That's it?"

Kevin: "$85,000! So we can go back to what I mentioned about the volatility that happens with American cars! They didn't necessarily make these to pitch to the collector for us to have this discussion! This is pretty cool that we're chatting about this car."

Jonathan: "I mean, it's still money, but it's still crazy!"

Kevin: "Exactly! And it's been this price for a while! My client who actually bought this car six years ago paid $85,000 from the second owner of the car, who had it for about 33 years. Did he drive it?"

Jonathan: "Yeah, he did drive it, which was nice!"

Kevin: "Okay with you, you advertise $85,000 over probably 10 years? And these engines can be maintained massively! And to show you this one, this is a 327 cubic inch 5.4-liter V8, which you would then see on cars like the C2s that came later. So this is an optional 340 horse! But if you want to nitpick it and go back to where the 97.3 comes out of—that's the original generator from 1962! So what you would want to do is, if you drive something like this, is you're going to want to convert that! That's a generator! A generator works differently than an alternator, right?"

Jonathan: "Um, so however, again for our preservation purposes and to win those awards, if you’re going to drive it every day, you'd want to put in a new generator. You’d put a new alternator alternating!"

Kevin: "Yeah, absolutely! Then you could put that back if you want!"

Jonathan: "Yeah, you can you can shelf those parts! But you know, just to see how beautiful this was! I didn't want to take it off and put a new piece in there! But if it becomes an everyday car, someone's going to say, 'I don't want the risk of that!'"

Kevin: "Yeah, and you know what? There are certain things that I step in and say, 'Look, if you're worried about driving it every day, at some point they did drive them near every day!' So it's all here! It's up to us whether or not we can mentally kind of wrap our heads around that. For us in particular as well, when you come in, if you don't like it, that's okay! Someone else will! If you were the guy that didn't—weren't always the car guy and had this on your wall, it's fine! Then buy what you had on your wall! Don't buy it because someone else told you to buy it! Buy what you like and let scarcity do its work, because it will!"

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