Looking back through the Unique Cars classifieds...
1975 Ford Falcon XB GT – Advertised August 2010
For a while there it seemed the whole XA-XC series – with exception to the hardtops – was being overlooked by collectors, all of whom just had to have an XY or, at worst, one of the earlier ‘square-riggers’. Times have changed, probably in response to the silly prices being charged. In any case, if you had bought this car a decade ago and looked after it, you would have done pretty well out of the deal. Thiry-odd grand was still a lot of money back then, but having a car that puts a smile on your dial and still comes up with some capital growth is a sweet combo.
Then: $32,990. Now: $85,000-95,000
1990 Holden Commodore VN SS – Advertised November 2011
VN SS is one of those local cars that quietly found a collector following without most of us noticing. They’re not yet at a point where a good one is monstrously valuable, which is a good thing if you’re in the market. Meanwhile doing a complete resto won’t necessarily make financial sense, but bless you for preserving the car for future generations to enjoy. However there are a lot of people out there who see it as an important model in local muscle car history, which means it should do well in the long term. In the meantime, they’re fun to play with and easy enough to maintain.
Then: $13,500. Now: $30,000-40,000
1961 Volkswagen Beetle 1200 – Advertised December 2008
What are the odds? We just tripped over this very car (or a very close doppelganger) for sale, now at $19,000! Lots of otherwise sane people we know, such as our own Glenn Torrens and Dave Morley, have a serious passion for these things and highly recommend them as a starter classic. Owners plonk prices on them that vary from cheap resto prospects through to seriously delusional, so this is a market where you need to go in with your eyes wide open. As with a lot of things in classic car land, some of the ‘logic’ is counter-intuitive, so the older it is, the more expensive it’s likely to be. A nice more or less original example like this should do okay long-term, but condition means everything.
Then: $1999. Now: $15,000-25,000
1964 Porsche 356C – Advertised February 2007
Be it ever so humble, there’s nothing that picked up better capital gains over the last decade or so than an air-cooled Porsche. For those who must have an early example of the layout that put the brand on the high-performance road, the C is a real catch. It’s regarded as a worthy upgrade over the B with real sporting ability. In the upper of two states of tune it boasted 90 horses from its 1.6lt boxer four and proved to be a very capable sports car. In the right hands, it could show much bigger machines a thing or two on a tight and twisty road.
Then: $67,000. Now: $200,000+
From Unique Cars #446, November 2020