Z4Ccoupe

Man, that '82 brought back some memories. Had one like that but not nearly so nice. Mine ran pretty flawlessly, unlike NC01TA's friends experiences. I only had a couple of issues with mine. Occasionally the headlights would pop up properly but the headlamps wouldn't light. The other issue was autocrossing it with the T-Tops out. I could see daylight around the T-Tops after an event. In a day or so of city driving, they would settle back into place again. Can you say flexi-flyer?

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I've made it a point to stay far away from the Ceasefire cars myself, however the regular Q-jet versions were fine. One of my friends had a nice '83 Trans Am in the early '90s that was doing great on its original 4bbl 305 engine....it just had no power. Shame on GM for not offering a 350ci in those cars sooner.

Y2K_Frenzy

You’d have to find the one guy that thinks it’s special enough to pay six figures and then that guy would have to hang a big marquee over it saying that it’s rare and special in order to justify his purchase.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Welcome back to 2016!

But I think you may have missed my sarcasm in this part of that post: "but I won't comment on where the decimal point will fall within those six figures." In other words, there might be six figures involved, but the decimal would fall between the 4th and 5th number on this one.

onyx dragon

A guy that had a T/A at the tuning shop I go to sold his last year. 100k on the odometer, obviously raced (nitrous, intake manifold, tuned, stripped back seat, throttle body, intake, etc) to Carmax for $24k...from what I gather, the dealership had someone lined up that had been looking for a 4th gen Firebird.

What I don't think anyone could foresee in 2016 was Cash for Clunkers combined with the last gen Camaros, Chargers, Challengers, and the continuing Mustangs decimating the ranks of these cars. I don't see them on the road often. Whenever I'm out in mine I'm constantly getting offers or people asking me if I want to sell it, and that's with it being in desperate need of a paint job.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Cash for Clunkers? That was in 2009 from what I recall.

The price spike of 2021-22 had less to do with any particular car becoming a "collectible" (or more collectible) and more to do with overall inflation (especially of the used car market). Prices have since stabilized, and have even begun to decline in the latter half of 2023 and beyond (as seen by average auction results).

Y2K_Frenzy

Up until not so long ago Carmax wouldn’t buy or sell anything that was over X amount years old or had over X amount of miles. I’ve seen them listing 200k mile Camrys recently though.

onyx dragon

I guess CfC was that long ago. Doesn't seem like it.

As for the prices, I mean, auctions aren't the only way these cars sell. Edmunds says $7400, to $12000 average. That's using my mileage of 72k, and putting the car in average condition. Some of the folks on here have much nicer cars, and most have fewer miles...but some have worse as well. When you figure that, for instance, my car was purchased at $26,500, $7,400 to $12,000 23 years later isn't bad.

Collectible, probably not, but these cars will be desired. Heck, people already want them. They were good performance for a decent price. You could even get one with a factory limited slip. The biggest driver, IMO, will be nostalgia...like it is for all cars.

onyx dragon

Yeah. My GF sold her Pilot with around 30k on the odometer for $27,500. She paid off the Pilot and put the rest down on a Wrangler.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

No, but it gives a public window to information that is otherwise private when sold via a dealer or private party. When asking prices start coming down (or when the ads that don't follow the decline end up sitting forever) you know that the market is changing, but this still doesn't really tell you their actual selling price. When I bought my '74 ~2 years ago, even during the height of pricing nonsense, I still ended up paying nearly 30% less than original asking price, but that data isn't available to anyone but myself and the seller. This is where auction data can be useful as a general reference, but I agree that it's not the end-all on value.

But what has happened in the market in the last several years (spike and now some decline) isn't just specific to 4th gen Firebirds or F-bodies in general. This has basically happened across the board in terms of the special interest/collector/classic/antique market.

One thing I have learned in my many years in this hobby is that unsolicited purchase offers are usually about as valuable as the air with which they are spoken. There are exceptions of course, but usually as soon as you show serious interest the offer either disappears or the actual dollar amount ends up being...discouraging at best.

NC01TA

You are not alone in trying to see them. Last week we completed a 1,200 miles trip to the FL panhandle and I am always looking for 4th gen Camaros or Firebirds on the road. With all the driving we did, we saw ZERO. Not one single car. No wonder the comments were endless whenever we parked somewhere. When we were in bumper to bumper traffic on I-85 heading south from Atlanta, a truck (car carrier) kept honking his horn and my wife said the driver wanted her to roll down her window. He yelled out, being funny of course, to take one of the new Lexus cars he was hauling off the back for the Trans Am. These cars are magnets for comments.