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Old Jap sports cars rising in price!


nowhereboy

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I can't help but notice the price of most the iconic jap cars from the 90's and early 00's has been increasing steadily in price over the last couple of years. I remember a few year back when I bought the Z £6000 gave a wide range of options, supras, evos, skylines, type uk sti imprezas, s2000's etc and these days most of these cars you're looking at £8000 + for a good example. Their's some facelift s2000's for going for £16,000 + on pistonheads at the minute :scare:

 

I'm probably just stating the obvious here but it looks as tho the glory days of cheap jap sports cars will be over within a few more years. Interestingly the 350Z prices haven't seemed to budge (typical).

 

It's just got me thinking, my plan was to keep the Z for a few more years then eventually get the car I've always wanted (R33 GTR) but the way things are going that car may end up costing a small fortune a few more years down the line.

 

What are peoples predictions for the future of classic jap sports cars? Maybe I'm just over exaggerating....

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R33s are going up quite quickly so bear that in mind, bought my GTST couple years back for £4750 sold for £5250 now I would be paying something like £6000 for it at least. Paid top money for my current car a GT Four but already had more than one person on the forum offer to buy it for more than I paid.

 

For me the ones to look out for are 300zx TTs. They are really on the climb after bottoming out.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by coldel
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Yup everything is going up in price.

 

A few years ago my mate bought a mint Evo 7 for 7K now I cant find one for less than £8.5K. Its the same story with most Jap Cars atthe moment :(

 

Not ideal when I'm looking for a new daily :lol:

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I suspect the problem is that they're getting harder and harder to find decent examples - take the 300zx TT as an example, could have picked one up for £1500 a few years ago but now decent ones are £4-5k - rust, engine failures and crash damage will be taking a lot of these cars off the road.

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If I were you I would be looking for that r33 sooner rather than later, as Skylines seem to be shooting up in price and you will kick yourself for not getting one when you could afford one. I think you will probably have to wait a while before the prices of the 350z begin to rise.

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Biggest reason for the increase in skyline prices if the 25 year rule in the u.s.

 

This is why r32 prices have rocketed up and why r33 prices won't be far behind them.

 

I paid more for my incoming 33 than I would have a year or 2 ago

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300 TTs the problem is the targa tops, the drainage basically funneled the water into the sills to drain out a system in them...of course this got blocked up and you can guess the rest.

 

I think as well, a lot of these cars by now will either be low mileage or have been rebuilt/forged so in terms of performance you are looking at cars as quick as most hot hatches, have an element of cool about them, and a fraction of the price.

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I would say the fact 350z prices havent budged in a couple of years is a good thing :)

 

Gtr's (lesser Skylines too) are probably the safest bet because of their heritage/hype.

 

There are no such things as rally reps being made any more, a piece of history in the making. Deltas have been going stratospheric for years, jdm stuff is the next era of rally cars.

 

Never quite put my finger on the Supra thing, ok the 2jz is a great engine, but, the car isnt particularly quick (unless tuned), its not that old or wasnt when they started to rise and there are still quite a few about?

 

I also think a big thing is, there have been no where near the number of imports coming into the country because of the exchange rate, its mainly been personal imports and specialist boutique importers, rather than say auctions at the docks, there were two at Southampton within 2 miles of each other, 200 plus cars a week each. Although i have rumour these might be back soon with the increasing exchange rate. I appreciate these were mainly banging out mpvs and such like, but there were maybe 15-20% sports cars. I bought my first Rx7 from there and a host of other stuff, 2 Supras, Evo 4 R33 Gtst (worse thing i ever bought no offence) etc I also remember seeing the odd 350z there the first year they were released over here, my first 350 was imported way back in 04.

Edited by Jetpilot
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I sold my zed 3 years ago for 7k, would probably still sell for around that today

 

My r33 gtst I bought for £3300, a couple of years later it got written off and I was paid out £5500

 

Iv noticed loads more. Was considering an s14 a while back. Used to be plenty for under 2k, now they're nearer 4

 

S13s- used to be a good few for under 1500, now you can't find many for under 2

 

I think a lot get tracked/written off/broken for parts so fewer in the road also help prices rise

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Never quite put my finger on the Supra thing, ok the 2jz is a great engine, but, the car isnt particularly quick (unless tuned), its not that old or wasnt when they started to rise and there are still quite a few about?

 

Surely the tunability is a big factor, as it is with Skylines? I don't think that they're that quick as standard either (although admittedly I've never been in one).

 

For me though, the Supra shape is a true classic - same with the 350z as it happens :)

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My poor old neighbour sold his RS 500 Cosworth about 12 years ago for about 12k.

The guy he sold it to moved it on for 30 plus! There are exceptions but in general I feel modern cars disconnect you from the visceral driving experience. There is always personal sentiment among various generations for vehicles they either lusted after or owned at some stage in their life. Certain vehicles create such an impression that they span generations entirely.

Most of us as enthusiasts probably have a wish list and have made regrettable sales selling vehicles for peanuts that now command silly money.

Predicting future prices as I see it is based on certain criteria starting with the obvious rarity factor through to the impact the vehicle had when launched.

The problem is I'm a consummate petrolhead that's always looking for the next owning experience :)

I can safely say I will never make money on a car unless it's bought for a song and is easy and cheap to repair.

Yeah I've broken even a few times and got it right once by buying a little Lupo Gti 6 speeder with leather for 1500, paid 35 quid for a sensor and put a years MOT on it and moved it on for 2700.

Unfortunately the BMW I had at the time ate my profit in a week :)

If I can sell the Z for the same amount as the original price I paid that would be great, I'm not holding my breath though.

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Although the price of the Z32 (300ZX) are appearing to rise if you look on Autotrader/EBay etc the problem is they're not actually selling for that price. It seems that it's only people already into Z32's that are buying them. For some reason they're not seen as iconic as Supra's etc so people dibbing their toes into 90s Jap sports cars overlook them.

 

If anyone is seriously considering getting one then a friend's selling a 1989 SWB slicktop for sale for £650 - hit me up if anyone's interested. It needs a bit of TLC (running ok tho) and would make an excellent project for someone. I'd buy it myself but want to get my own TT back on the road before anymore projects!

 

S.

 

edit - since we all love a good car pic here's one of my NA Zed (sadly off road for good now)

 

10628147_10153554044220021_5710948547402261559_n.jpg?oh=4ee82ca54d0d326fdea2bf13243d3eca&oe=56857C98

Edited by Squee
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I think Paul Walkers death had a lot to do with bucking prices , I bought my R34 GTT for £4600 and a year later I sold it for £9600 after spending about £1500 and a bit of time tidying it up

 

I hadnt intended to sell it and thought it worth about £7k but when I was offered that it had to go, the buyer sold it a year later for about the same

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the problem is they're not actually selling for that price.

 

Wise words on any car, advertised and sold prices are two very different things and unless your in the market and making offers (and viewing condition) you never get to know what anything gets sold for.

 

I like to do an advanced search on ebay for sold listings to see what has sold and for what :)

Edited by Jetpilot
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