kkritsilas
Well-Known Member
Bruce,
I also think that our cars are cool, unique, and very cheap to maintain and reliable. I also think they were some of the best looking cars of the 1980s. However, that is you and me. It is not a feeling shared by many people outside of this board. You will see all sorts of prices asked for the J bodies (and Ms and Fs, for that matter). What they actually sell for is an entirely separate matter, though. The prices that I quoted for my 3 cars are far closer to selling reality than the $10K prices asked. The person who sold me the Mirada CMX actually wanted $1400, and settled for $800. The people asking for $10K may actually sell that car, but I am willing to bet at far lower than the asking price, or end up not selling the car at all. There may be 360 Miradas at $10K, but outside of that, almost all of our cars are at below $5K, and by gut feel alone, most are in the $2.5K - $3K range. The only price that counts for anything is the selling price.
As I have written before, I firmly believe that the J bodies will increase in value first, to be followed by the M body 2 doors, and then the F body 2 doors. But until such time as we get a SEMA Grand Prize winner/Ridler Prize winner based on one of the J bodies, our cars will continue to go unnoticed. As long as they stay unnoticed, their prices will not start increasing. It will be like the A bodies; for the longest time, they went unnoticed, but eventually, they did go up in price. The A bodies are not ever going to be in the price range of a '70 'Cuda Hemi Convertible, or even a "68 Charger RT 440, or any Superbird/Charger Daytona, but they are into the low 5 digits (~$20K for a really good one). Similarly, our cars will eventually get noticed, and also become valuable, but it will take time, or perhaps never happen. Part of the reason is that there never were high performance factory J bodies. They can be built to be as high performance as you want, but there no Mirada R/Ts, LeBaron Six-Packs, or 'Doba Hemis. That is part of what attracts people to the late 60s muscle cars, and even if they are not the genuine article, there are a lot of "tribute" cars being built from the "plain jane" cars (i.e. Satellite to GTX, Coronet to Superbee, etc., which I think a partial fraud). None of that plays into the J and M body world, and only the F bodies have the late Road Runner to aspire to.
This doesn't change anything about our cars. I like mine, you like yours. As far as I am concerned, I didn't buy my cars to impress anybody but myself. I have had Mopar guys give me a hard time because my cars don't have big blocks, because they are not popular cars, etc. I couldn't care less; none of that diminishes my appreciation and respect for my cars. But, the people giving me the hard time are the ones who will spend $48K on a 383 Dart GTS.
Sorry for the ramble, just wanted to discuss some stuff with some like minded individuals.
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