To a point, yes, but it just plain SUCKS, when a 15 years old rice burner, with 150K+ miles on it, in marginal condition, with maybe 50,000 miles left in it, will still have people lining up to buy it, for $6K, just cause it might get 30 MPG. Whereas, a still presentable, LT-1 F-body, with another 125,000 miles left in it, with a lot more speed and style, can't draw even half as much.


Unless something drastic happened in my life, before I sold my '96 Z for $2500, I'd buy a trailer for my pick-up, strip the Z down and make it a track car, and beat the crap out of it....

 

Most are...not if you choose very carefully and wisely though; years ago my old man sold his 71 Stingray convertible 4spd with the original 375hp LT-1 for triple what he paid 10 years earlier in the late 80's (it's probably tripled again by now...), my Firehawk is holding it's value decent, and the Healey I got a while back has gone up exponentially for years.

A low mileage mint LT4 car would be a great investment IMO.

 

I paid $6500 for my 96 WS6 when it was bone stock unmolested and dealer serviced with 70k miles on it.

no way I'd get anywhere near that now. This was about 10 years ago when I bought it.

 

Biggest thing with these cars now is they are a collector car, meaning they have a vey limited audience who want to buy them. It's not like a civic or Camry where anyone looking for a "commuter car" will consider it, having more people looking at it drives up the price. There are people out there, few and far between, that still want an unabused lt1, you just have to wait until one pops up. You could drop the price and appeal to a broader audience, or understand that you have to wait for someone looking for THAT CAR to come by. There are tons of abused as hell f body's out there, most of these cars have had at least 1 teenage owner who beat the **** out of it in the last 20 years. For those looking for a good condition stock f body to modify, they understand they have to pay a premium price, but don't want to, so they say "ill give you $2500 since there's a ton of $2500 ones for sale", all you have to say is go beat up your head and wallet with that beaten up car, or pleasure yourself while driving this clean one. It's either buy the beaten one and put $2000 into it to get it driveable again, or buy a clean one for more. Then you have the guys who ALWAYS come on here, "I bought this cammed or 383 Camaro that I know nothing about and it won't run right and should I put this edelbrock intake or hypertech on it?" And you have guys like Ramair with a fully built one who are just sitting on it because you have so much money in it yet you can't find a buyer. Eventually life happens and you need money or lose storage and need to sell it, and you just have to cry as you watch your $20,000 invested drive away for $4000 in the hands of an idiot who only bought it because it was cheap. The only people that modified f body's SHOULD appeal and be sold to are guys who already know these cars, and unfortunately most people who know these cars and have enough money to buy a built one would go LS unless you are one of the very few super crazy ltx blooded guys. The LT1 has been fated for now as an intro to muscle cars car, not a desireable end game car. It's the 16-20 year olds that can't afford LS yet want a car to learn to tinker on and rebel against common civics and wrxs yet get 25mpg while commuting to college, that's what I was, and that's what the kid who's looking to buy my buddy's formula is. There is no good aftermarket for the ltx, so we have a limit of 4.060 bore so no good heads, 1000hp for our blocks so you can't even just boost the hell out of it, dealing with converting the PCM, converting intakes, etc where the LS is unlimited. These cars will never be valueable modified, the stock ones maybe in 20 years when your 40 and rich and want to relive your glory days and modify an LT1 like when you were a kid again. For now, there's no point in ever selling them. Keep it, look at it, tinker with it, and suprise a few unsuspecting idiots who just think of an ltx as the slow stepbrother of the ls.

 

I bought my 95 formula with 50k miles on it 7 years ago with some bolt ons. I paid 5k for it and honestly i felt like that was over paying but the shape and mileage as well as me not wanting to search any longer helped me buy it. Im glad i did. I love this car and its the only car ive held onto for more than just a couple years. However if i could do it over again i would of saved a couple thousand more and bought an ls1 car. The point is, you just have to find the right buyer. With ls1 cars in the 5-7k range in decent shape theres no point in buying an lt1. In my opinion anyway.

 

This about sums it up. The value of an LTx isn't there. It won't be for a while. I do honestly believe it will be one day, but that day is at least a couple decades away.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy mine. I've already surprised a few LSx vehicles. A GTO, G8, C6, C5 Z06, and was close to beating a ZL1 (missed third twice, ugh). Sometimes it's fun to be the "under dog" in the cheap old LT1.

 

Start modding one and you will loose more value, now you have to find someone that is looking for an LT with such mods, Way back around 99, I had $36k in receipts on my 95Z which I had purchased new, It only had around 45,000 miles, Motor was rebuilt to a 383, supercharged ect, I put it on Ebay and the highest bidder was $13,000 and the car still looked like new. Fast forward, I don't even want to think of the money invested, so its either keep it or take a huge loss, at times its better to take the loss now before you keep throwing dollars into it that you will never get back..

 

Cars are a hobby that wastes money like any other hobby, accept it and enjoy, or get another hobby.