# Old Hondas and Toyotas become "collectibles"



## Lethe200 (Jul 6, 2021)

*Those Mundane Old Hondas and Toyotas Have Suddenly Become Collectible*
NY Times 01July2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/01/automobiles/collectibles/honda-toyota-cars.html

(excerpt)
Great examples of somewhat mundane cars, the ones that were owned by the parents and grandparents of Gen Xers and millennials, have suddenly become collectible and are selling for thousands of dollars more than they did about two years ago.

Just as online searches for comfort food recipes surged during the pandemic, the popularity of the automotive equivalent, vintage Toyota pickups, Honda Accords, Acura Legends and Volvo wagons, vehicles that used to be everywhere, are the newest fad in car collecting.

“During the height of the pandemic, people couldn’t eat out or travel and asked the question, ‘What can I put money in that I can enjoy?’” said Doug DeMuro, owner of the auction site Cars and Bids.

Apparently, one answer was cars from the 1980s and 1990s. For example, a 40-year-old, four-door, Honda Accord had a furious auction on the Bring a Trailer auction site last year. The opening bid was $2,100, but that was just the start for the nicely preserved, first-generation 1981 Accord Special Edition.

By the second day of the seven-day auction, the bids had already exceeded $10,000. On the last day, three people placed multiple bids and didn’t stop until the price had reached $21,000 (and a 5 percent buyer’s premium to the auction company).

To put that into context, a four-door Accord was priced at around $8,000 in 1981. The high bids for the Accord were far from an anomaly. “They’ve become hotter than ever before, just for the nostalgia factor,” Mr. DeMuro said.

“It’s actually easier to find a nice Ferrari from the ’80s or ’90s than a Honda Civic or a Dodge Caravan of the same vintage,” he continued. “Almost everyone took good care of their Ferrari, but nobody bothered to preserve the ‘disposable’ cars.”


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## WhatInThe (Jul 12, 2021)

Mechanically excellent. But the bodies pffft. And if they do need work yikes


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## Irwin (Jul 12, 2021)

The rich have money to blow on crappy, disposable cars from the '80s while there's a homeless epidemic going on throughout the country and we're nearly $30 trillion in debt. Something's gotta give in the economy.


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## Jules (Jul 12, 2021)

We had a 90 Accord for 20 years.  It was time for more bells and whistles.


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## Keesha (Jul 12, 2021)

Before we moved my husband and I both got rid of our cars. He had a Honda Civic with almost 300,000 kilometres on it. It wasn’t all that old though. He put in an ad to sell it for $3,000 and instantly got about 12 offers. One of them being $3,500.

Younger kids are buying them and suping them up. Mine we traded in for a few thousand to get a Mazda SUV. I was pleasantly surprised.


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## Don M. (Jul 12, 2021)

Used car prices have soared, due to the shortage of new cars.  Whether any of these fairly recent models prove to be "collectible" remains to be seen.  I suspect that once this pandemic becomes manageable, and supplies begin to catch up with demand, anyone currently paying a premium price will wind up losing quite a bit of value.  Much the same will probably happen with todays ridiculous home prices. 

IMO, anyone with a fairly reliable vehicle, which can be well maintained for a couple hundred dollars/yr, would probably be wise to delay any thoughts of purchasing a car...or house...for now.


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## fmdog44 (Jul 12, 2021)

Having bought a 2021 truck I had to rely on an owners forum like so many others to ask how this gizmo works and what does this button do, etc. and I insist on minimal tech just for this reason. Viewing some of the top of the line trucks the interior looks like a commercial airplane cockpit. My first car was a 57 Plymouth flathead six cyl., 3 speed stick and no radio!!


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## Skyking (Jul 13, 2021)

WhatInThe said:


> Mechanically excellent. But the bodies pffft. And if they do need work yikes


Yep, used luxury cars are dime a dozen mostly because the ongoing maintenance costs an arm and a leg.


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