Refresh my memory. How long has it been since low mileage GNXs have been under $50K???
Doesn't seem that long to me.
Doesn't seem that long to me.
6k-Mile 1987 Buick GNX on BaT
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It's been a few years now. They went up into around 100k, crashed back down into the 50s, and then have been climbing back up since.
Obviously I'm not talking the below 1000 mile crowd, but more like the 10k -20k mile cars. The ultra low stuff has always been a higher bracket.
I'm sticking w/my story☝️that feels like a waste though,like if i had a smoke show of a wife and didn't ride her like she owed me money just so she's in good shape for the next guy..
Long before I had even close to 50 grand to buy one to flip for 150 grand in profit. Sigh.
I am feeling emotional. Someone hold me please...
While I completely see the point on keeping a historical example of one of these rare cars in pristine condition, I am pretty sure I couldn't keep from out behind the wheel of a car like that. Especially if I was a much younger me. I was like some of y'all here. I couldn't help but try and find more ways to mod most of my cars to suit my liking in my younger days.
If your goal of buying one of these was to sell these cars 30 years down the road, now's your chance. Get all you can for it. I couldn't afford one back then, and I certainly am not going to pay the prices they want for them now. Not worth it. This is where you buy high, and then you're stuck with it unless you lose money. Nobody knows where the price will go. My prediction is the prices will drop in a few years on cars like these. Mainly because "they" want gas prices to be 10-12 bucks/gallon. I can at least afford to buy the gas for a while.
If past history proves true, gas prices go high, gas hogs get sold off. That's how most everyone in my high school back in the mid-to-late 70s were driving muscle cars they bought for dirt. (No way will a GNX go for dirt, but prices won't be sustained.) The high school parking lot back then was almost like a car-show today. Off the top of my head, all parked next to or near each other: 60's Tri-power Pontiac, 65 Mustang fastback, 440 Road Runner, 70 GS Stage 1, my 69 442, a friends 69 Cobra (Fairlane with 428), 69 GTO Judge, 70 454 SS Chevelle w/bench (dark green and scary- purchased for $1200), 69 Z/28, and lotta more interesting vehicles. Wagons, more door sedans, and "parent's spare cars" filled the rest of the lot.
Although some had some dents, and a bit of rust from living in southern Illinois, most of the cars were used as daily drivers because it was all we could afford in school. And back then, many had a lingering weird smelling smoke smell leftover from lunch break. 🙂 It was quite a show when many of us left the parking lot at the end of the day. Mostly bias plies and a smooth asphalt road out front of the school back then...
If your goal of buying one of these was to sell these cars 30 years down the road, now's your chance. Get all you can for it. I couldn't afford one back then, and I certainly am not going to pay the prices they want for them now. Not worth it. This is where you buy high, and then you're stuck with it unless you lose money. Nobody knows where the price will go. My prediction is the prices will drop in a few years on cars like these. Mainly because "they" want gas prices to be 10-12 bucks/gallon. I can at least afford to buy the gas for a while.
If past history proves true, gas prices go high, gas hogs get sold off. That's how most everyone in my high school back in the mid-to-late 70s were driving muscle cars they bought for dirt. (No way will a GNX go for dirt, but prices won't be sustained.) The high school parking lot back then was almost like a car-show today. Off the top of my head, all parked next to or near each other: 60's Tri-power Pontiac, 65 Mustang fastback, 440 Road Runner, 70 GS Stage 1, my 69 442, a friends 69 Cobra (Fairlane with 428), 69 GTO Judge, 70 454 SS Chevelle w/bench (dark green and scary- purchased for $1200), 69 Z/28, and lotta more interesting vehicles. Wagons, more door sedans, and "parent's spare cars" filled the rest of the lot.
Although some had some dents, and a bit of rust from living in southern Illinois, most of the cars were used as daily drivers because it was all we could afford in school. And back then, many had a lingering weird smelling smoke smell leftover from lunch break. 🙂 It was quite a show when many of us left the parking lot at the end of the day. Mostly bias plies and a smooth asphalt road out front of the school back then...
If and when prices fall it's not likely going to be because of gas prices - these cars weren't driven, aren't being driven, and arent likely going to be driven due to the cost (yes money, but more originality concerns aka lost value) to make one reliable at this point.
No, if history has shown one thing it's that the typical result of an overheated economy with rampant inflation is an ending in recession. When you combine that past, a recurrence of sub-prime borrowing ESPECIALLY in car loans on overinflated 'shortage' prices for an aged asset underwater, with the technology being made obsolete by legislative fiat... well. Did I mention how many of those loans were securitized like the home mortgages of the 2000s bubble? Then we add all that "free" child tax credit money that will end abruptly, money people have used to change housing, open payments on stuff they can't afford without it?
My guess is a bunch of those asset classes drop HARD when the brakes get thrown.
You might be right. Or it may be a combination of the two. Regardless of the reason, it's going to be from economic hardship due to idiotic policies. I'm not getting into the political realm of this, but when gas prices skyrocket, even 15-20 mpg cars won't cut it when you can buy cars with 40 mpg +. So when people stop paying stupid money for the "regular" GN's, 442s, Monte SSs, etc., G-bodies and such, so too will the demand for the mantle piece versions that sit in the corner sucking up spare money thrown away just to keep it looking like it would go fast.
And then again, pragmatically, what's so special about the GNX anymore? Historically, for those who lived it back then, it has more significance in my opinion, because most of the younger crowd look at you and go "whut?" at the mere mention of the cars of yesteryear. 13-14 second cars aren't all that and a bag of chips today. 276 or 300 HP or whatever they actually made back then was something, today your turbo 4 cylinder in the Ford Focus RS can keep up all day long with just about anyone behind the wheel. Similar 0-60 and 1/4 mile times and 350 HP for the Ford. Who needs a V6? And that's before any mods. For less than 1/2 the price or lower, you can purchase plenty of cars of today that could make a GNX look like a pig in every aspect of performance. But that's not what makes it collectible. It's the dream of kids who couldn't afford one then can afford one now. Even if it is almost 1/4 million dollars. And with less than 600 made, that's built in rarity.
As I stated before, I'm NOT afraid of a GNX blowing my doors off because it's straight line performance is middling by today's standards, and the ones that are left likely will never leave their parked positions except on a trailer, and not flogged if they did drive one down the road. I doubt I'll ever see one on the street again in regular traffic. So I ain't scared. I still think they're cool AF, but that's because I lived through those days.
In other words, the groups that actually care about a GNX is getting smaller. I'm glad they made their stamp on the world, but I think it would have been nicer to start off the G-body performance cars with engineering they used on the GNX.
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