Cool Cars We Bought for $5K Apiece: What’re they worth now?
Cheap classics are a rare breed today. Inflation and a hot collector car market have seriously cut down on choices for enthusiasts with four-figure budgets. But that was the case in 2019, too, when cheap classics were also a rare breed; it led to an entertaining little experiment that played out in the pages of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine.
To prove that a fun car could still be had for under $5K, seven Hagerty staffers fired up their computers, set their Craigslist/Facebook filters to $5000, then went shopping. One of us cheated a bit, one had the stones to buy an Italian car, and another wore jorts (now framed in the Hagerty editorial office). These were all running, driving classics bought in order to prove that there were still good, affordable old cars out there. Read the full story here.
Now that it’s been a few years, we thought it would be fun to check in and see, price-wise, where those cars are now.
1991 Pontiac Firebird
Bought For: $3050
Condition #4 value in 2019: $4050
Condition #4 value in 2023: $4800
The bird’s buyer, Brad Phillips, rationalized this pick because he wanted “a perfect ‘first car’ for a budding collector or enthusiast.” So it was no big surprise that he found his $5K ride with a recent high school grad selling his first car. Luckily, the kid was a Pontiac freak and took good care of his deep-beaked third-gen coupe. Since most high schoolers can’t swing a WS6 Trans Am, though, Brad’s ’91 was a base V-6 model with the automatic. The most yawn-worthy specs, but at least it had the Sport Appearance package (emphasis on Appearance) with fog lights and side skirts.
Domestic favorites like the third gen (1982–92) Firebird are lagging behind their ever-more-expensive import peers, but the pandemic boom did at least see Brad’s bird net a few hundred bucks, and median condition #2 (Excellent) values for the third-gen Firebird are up 31 percent since the end of 2019.
1987 Honda Prelude Si
Bought for: $5500
Condition #4 value in 2019: $2000
Condition #4 value in 2023: $7200
Our buyer, Larry Webster, found his red Honda Prelude Si in rural Ohio. He cheated with 500 extra dollars plonked down, but the Facebook find yielded a clean car with documented maintenance and 109K miles. Not bad for the kind of 32-year-old Honda that most people drive hard, often, and not very carefully.
Japanese classics of the 1980s were already hot in 2019 and they’ve only gotten more expensive since. We don’t currently carry Larry’s ’87 in the Hagerty Price Guide, just the 1988–91 cars, but a look at those is still shocking. The condition #4 (Fair) value in late 2019 for an ’88 Prelude Si was $2000. Now it’s $7200. The #2 values have jumped 96 percent. Wow.
1984 Alfa Romeo Spider
Bought for: $4300
Condition #4 value in 2019: $7700
Condition #4 value in 2023: $9900
It takes a special kind of courage to buy an old Alfa Romeo off Craigslist. After Alfa left the U.S. market in 1995, the reputation for rust, dodgy electrics, and finicky powertrains kept old Spiders and GTV6s temptingly cheap relative to their style and capabilities.
Cheap Italian cars have produced more regret than Jose Cuervo, but our buyer, Evan Klein, looks like he did pretty well. He took the plunge on a silver ’84 Spider with a salvage title and 103,000 miles. Bold move, but the Spider was owned by an Italian and boasted no rust(!), a new muffler, a re-cored radiator, and leather seats from a later Quadrifoglio. It’s gotten a little more valuable since 2019, too, as #4 values have jumped more than two grand over the last three and a half years.
1954 Chevrolet Bel Air
Bought for: $4750
Condition #4 value in 2019: $3700
Condition #4 value in 2023: $4800
The Tri-Five (1955–57) Chevrolet was a groundbreaking automobile and is the quintessential 1950s American car. But our buyer, David Zenlea, couldn’t afford the fins on his Bel Air, not with a $5K budget. So, he went for a ’54 sedan. Powered by the good-old Blue Flame straight-six with three on the tree, very green and a little bit rusty, it’s the oldest car in the group.
Surprisingly, it’s also one of the more notable gainers, with #4 values jumping over a grand since 2019, and #2 values for 1953–54 Bel Air sedans are up an average of 24 percent since then.
1990 Volvo 760 Turbo Wagon
Bought for: $1225
Condition #4 value in 2019: N/A
Condition #4 value in 2023: N/A
When shopping for cheap wheels on a shoestring budget, you can do a lot worse than an old Volvo. Our buyer, Rob Sass, sprung for an upscale 760 Turbo wagon with 275K miles (“barely broken in!” Volvo folks will half-jokingly tell you) owned by a 92-year-old retired dentist. The top invoice on a stack of receipts was for $5200, and the car boasted a new top end, turbocharger, front suspension, brakes, wheel bearings, water pump, and hoses. Rob essentially got an entire mechanically restored turbo wagon for the cost of a brake job on a new Volvo. Well done.
We currently don’t carry the 700-series Volvos in our price guide, and they don’t have the same following as the venerable 200-series bricks, but if we look at a 240 DL wagon from the same year Rob’s was built, the #4 value leapt from $1800 in late 2019 to $4100 today.
1969 MGB GT
Bought for: $2700
Condition #4 value in 2019: $3200
Condition #4 value in 2023: $4000
Buyer Cameron Neveu had his heart set on a cheap British sports car and found a lovely white ’66 Sprite in Northern Ohio that he just had to have. Alas, it was sold just before Cam made the trek down from Michigan. The MGB GT he wound up with is just about the opposite of the Sprite—sprayed matte black and sanded through in spots for a faux-patina finish. “Looks like it survived the Great Chicago Fire,” said editor-at-large Aaron Robinson. Mechanically, though, the car was solid and ran “like a watch.” And the beauty of MGBs is that the parts supply is vast enough and the community big enough that you can fix anything on these entry-level classics.
The British sports car market has for the most part been sleepy but stable the last few years. Bs have gotten more expensive since 2019, but what hasn’t? The #3 (Good) value for Cam’s rattle-canned coupe would still be just $7700 today.
1964 Dodge Dart 270
Bought for: $3999
Condition #4 value in 2019: $5800
Condition #4 value in 2023: $4400
A garageless guy in the Pacific Northwest, buyer Stefan Lombard was confident he could find something cool, cheap, and close by. He did. Little JDM Kei cars are common in this corner of America, but he even scoped out a 1988 T-top Fiero. The Kei cars didn’t fit his needs, however, and the Fiero was “almost too nice,” so he wound up with a nifty Dodge Dart 270 sedan. Slant-six, push-button automatic, original purchase documents, one owner, and “just one spot of rust that went beyond the surface.”
If you’re into patina (and you kind of have to be with a $5K budget), this Dodge had just the right amount. But it seems that ’64 Dart four-doors aren’t on many people’s hot lists. It’s the only car out of the group to drop in value.
What have you scooped up on the cheap lately? Are there any $5000 classics in your future?
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Once again I will say that Prelude values have gone quite up compared to where they were. Still love them.
Preludes are going up because they are the automotive equivalent of an endangered species. Most young peers bought as their second new car ever, graduating from the Civic. They were run hard and not given much appreciation. Then they were sold to street racers when it was time to get married and raise a family. The street racers thrashed the daylights out of them and many were written off in serious crashes. That leaves the odd corner case Preludes to miraculously survive this long. Little wonder why they’re going up so much nowadays.
Bought a ’81 Corolla Liftback with 170k km in Dec 2021 for $3500 cdn from the original owner. No rust, looks great, needed the driver seatback rewelded (oversize mechanic broke it) and a stater heat shield (made it myself). It puts Ferraris to shame at cars and coffee meets.
Probably worth more now but Hagerty doesn’t track any of my ’80s Toyotas.
Should have bought the fiero
It was a great car, but it would have been a shame (and eventually a leaky problem) to store it outside. It deserved better.
Over-paid on some of these by a lot.
yup
Buy what you love.
Drive it. Maintain it. And if it goes up in value, that’s great.
If not, who cares?
Unless you a flipping cars like they do at a car lot it is hard to make any money off of them especially if you keep them for a long time. I bought a 2004 Silverado 2500HD new, still have it, and have spent almost as much in insurance for it than what I paid for the truck in 2003. Figure in gasoline, oil, tires, repairs for 20 years and that truck is a money pit. Having vehicles is a love so do not worry about the cost. If you like it, buy it.
Purchased a 80 VW Rabbit 4 dr slushbox for 1500. 69 k miles needed a axle,domelight ,fuel sending unit, horn etc. Minimal rust fair paint …..Not a thrifty on fuel as you would expect. Gets me to work with a lot of smiles. Poor build quality compared with D issue Bunnies …cheap…cheap cheap…
I bought a 1993 LeBaron convertible in the fall of 2021, for $4500. Spent $2k on a new top and hydraulics, did oil change and a couple of belts. It had 27,000 miles on it and now has 30k. Don’t know what it is worth now, but it doesn’t matter because my fiance (we’re both 70, both widowed) and I have so much fun cruising in it!
In 2020 I picked up a 65 mustang lots of rust but ran drove and had brakes for 3k. Good luck finding that now.
I bought a 1997 Thunderbird with 70,000 miles on the clock for 2500$ in October 2021. . Never winter driven, and from the 80 year old original owner. His son had had already upgraded the brakes, tires, and front end to get it safety certified , then they couldn’t get an offer on it. The car is basically like new ,and the A/C blows ice cold. That is more important to me at 67 then horsepower. I have had the only one at every cruise night I have been to since I got it.
Just my opinion, but there were several cars here not worth buying in the first place, especially at the price. 4 grand for a rusty-looking 4-door Dart? $4750 for a dull-paint-finish 1954 Chevy sedan, with rusty bumpers? $2700 for that crummy-looking MGB? Well, to each his/her own. The decent-looking cars for the price here were the Firebird, maybe the Prelude, the Volvo, and the Alfa.
1954 Chevy Sedan & MGB GT? Two of the great cars from my past.
My mother passed her ’54 Chevy Bel Air 2-door on to me. It was Horizon Blue & White. I remember when she bought it, it cost $1600. Within a couple of years, I decided to take it to a drag race. It seemed like it had a lot more in it than the 19-second e.t. Well, I had learned a few things about that car in my years of reading Hot Rod magazine. Within a year, I had turned it into an NHRA K/Stock Class Record holder for a few months. Best e.t. was 16.2 at 81 mph as a D/Altered. And, then disaster—BOOM! when a re-used rod small-end pinch bolt let go. I still have a piece of the camshaft to remind me to never use old hardware when building an engine. BTW, the Bel Air trim was 15 pounds heavier than the Model 210. That 210 would have been in J-Stock because of the difference.
MGB’s—I had 4 of them. The first bought new in 1965 for $2600. A fun car, but it was BRG with black top & interior. I owned it for two years and was hit 24 times because it was invisible. My last one was Mineral Blue with a tan top & interior—much more visible. This one was my daily driver and occasional vintage racer. for 12 years until 2005. By the last 2 years I had replaced almost all of the Lucas electrics with either Bosch or a Japanese piece. So, it was super reliable. Then I had Dave Headley (Fab-TeK) build an engine. Wow! It would run all day at 7,000 rpm’s racing, and withstood a couple of over-revs. And, brought my speed on Watkins Glen’s Back Straight to 120 mph. It was a true Dual-Purpose car. I miss it.
Not in the $5k range but broughtvq 23k mile 2005 1sb optioned 6 speed vette that came with $10k in factory options for $19800 February 2020. Car was totaled February 2022 (no one hurt) with 37k miles. Insurance gave me $28,800.
Crazy world but I see used car price starting to level off the last 5 months.
Almost stopped locally to see a Fiero that’s been near the highway, recently WAY over valued by your guys.
Sitting near the road, under a tarp for years. Can only see the body silhouette and oem type wheels.
Finally asked myself, do you really want to even ask the dude?
Myself said, NO. Thanks myself for avoiding another potential heap of dung with another possible dead relative sad story!
To each his own, indeed. When I saw that Bel Air, I thought “That is a sweet ride.” Especially with those wheels. They really seal the deal. Then I saw the Dart. Also not a bad auto, and more in my wheelhouse, as I’d be uncomfortable working on the Chevy. The Dart I could see upgrading to 4.5 inch bolt circle hubs, maybe with discs on the front and a dual circuit master, some 15 inch Mopar rally wheels. Even as a 4-door, it has some character. Can you put a price on the smiles you would get out of it, and of the smiles on the people you see along the way?
Condition 4 cars for under 5k are typically not bargains at any price let alone an investment. If you are keeping it it a whole lot cheaper to start with a 3+ or a 2. There’s a reason these cars are typically less than 5k. Money pit written all over them.
Kind of depends on what your plan with them is. If full restoration, sure, they’re a money pit. But for cheap fun – buying them and driving them the way they are – they can’t be beat. Especially the Dart and the ’54 Chevy. The best smiles per dollar ratio you’ll ever get.