Classic Cars

by Bob Gelber

Recently, I was at a car show and auction in of all places, Zephyr Hills, Florida, which is about twenty miles northeast of Tampa. What I found most interesting about this particular event, held at a locale that people refer to as “old Florida,” was the demographic of most of the crowd attending. They were “country folk.”

The vehicles represented at the event were also very southern, from beautifully restored pickup trucks to lots of muscle cars that would warm the heart of any NASCAR fan. What amazed me the most is that at the auction everything on the block was going for really big bucks. It was as though every car had a trunk full of fresh catfish, because they seemed to be selling for more then they were worth. Either it was auction fever, or these southern boys have a lot more disposable income than they get credit for. Lesson learned: don’t underestimate a guy who has a pot-belly, wears cowboy boots and chews tobacco. The collector car market is alive and well all over America.

When one really thinks about it, collector car buyers are different in every part of the world. On the east and west coasts, there is a much more varied selection of vehicles available. True, muscle cars and American cars are the most popular, but there is a very big contingent of foreign car enthusiasts. Don’t forget, New York and New Jersey are the nearest American ports servicing Europe. In the early days most imported cars arrived here first. Add the fact that we are traditionally more internationally inclined at all taste levels and one can understand the popularity of the imported car.

Around the mid-twentieth century, in the south and middle America, it had actually been considered un-American to drive a foreign car. Put it this way, you didn’t want to be seen in a German car right after WWII. In the farm belt, the Ford pickup and Massey-Ferguson tractor were kings. In fact, they still are and that’s why these types of collector vehicles get action. There is a very strong collector market for farm tractors. If you really study them, they are fascinating machines and quite attractive in a functional giant Formula One race car sort of way.

Of course, California is probably the most car crazy part of the country. The year-round great weather combined with a hedonistic lifestyle produces the formula for all types of great cars. Don’t forget that because of the dry weather, most California cars don’t rust. Every serious car collector knows that the best place to find an old car is in California or Nevada. However, the really interesting cars are on the coast, with an active market for cars of all types, especially Porsches and other exotics.

Collector cars are very popular in Europe, mainly because history is very important to the Europeans. Here in America, we bulldoze historic sites and build shopping malls in their place. Shamefully, there is very little sense of history here in America. When one really thinks about it, the car collectors of the world, especially in America, should be thanked for keeping a small facet of history alive.

However, car collecting in Europe is very nationalistic. British cars are very popular in England, Italian cars in Italy and German cars in Germany. Of course landmark cars can cross national barriers. Vintage Italian Ferraris, British Jaguars and classic Mercedes are highly desirable everywhere, but they do bring more money in their parent countries. It is not uncommon for serious car collectors, as well as members of the trade, to go out of their way to purchase a British car in Italy or an Italian car in Germany. Sometimes the savings can be substantial. The same can be true here in the States. Look to the southern and midwestern states for less popular models and if you get lucky, you may find a foreign car for cheap.

The popularity of certain oddball collector cars has made them unbelievably valuable. I’m always amazed when I see car auctions on the Speed channel. There are cars I see that are being sold for forty, fifty and sixty-thousand dollars that nobody would touch ten years ago. I won’t name them, but there are certain Chrysler products that were real black sheep. They didn’t sell well when new, because frankly, no one wanted them and now I see whackos bidding wildly to have them in their garage. Family trucksters like the lowly station wagon, especially the wooden ones, are now worth $100,000. At least the woodies were popular when new and quite attractive with the same appeal of a vintage wood boat.

Vintage British sports cars are getting more and more valuable, and collector Ferraris are totally unaffordable, period. As for me, I’m going to stick to buying the cheap stuff, like sailboats, Cessnas and a small place in the Hamptons.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com