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Value of our cars again

Gabor

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Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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4,428
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St. Louis
Seeing VR4coop's car on here listed for 12 grand then seeing it on ebay and not going higher than 8 grand makes me wonder what a modified old (not classic) car is really worth. click
I mean really. I've been going to ebay for years to find a going rate of things. Anything from cameras to electronics to clothing. Just hit completed items and you get an idea what they go for.
He got 1168 views. Probably 200 from here and the rest just strangers who are into these cars and have a basic idea what they would spend on a car.
So how do you determine what your car is worth?
 

turbowop

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Apr 29, 2001
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11,971
Location
Yakima, WA
Cars like coop's require a buyer with cash since financing an old GVR4 for that much is rather difficult. Just because it doesn't sell on Ebay within five days doesn't mean the car isn't worth the coin he's asking.
 

onesickcrx

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Jun 3, 2007
Messages
1,076
Location
NY
It has a lot to do with what someone is willing to pay. Meaning a mint 2004 Gsxr 1000 in black and silver is worth more to me then a 08 or 09 lol I just like them so I am willing to pay more for one. Same thing apply's to our cars if someone was looking for Coops car or another Galant Vr-4 and saw it was for sale they might have bought it on the spot.
 

JNR

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Apr 23, 2004
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9,814
Location
ca
yeah, it's going to be difficult (or have good luck-timing) to sell something like that and especially nowadays. It's hard enough to sell one of these (not talking the sub $6k let's say), let alone asking that much; not saying it's not worth it, but really have to (work to) sell it.
 

DR1665

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Oct 19, 2005
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4,642
Location
Iowa City, IA
When it comes to older, modified cars like these, the people who are willing to consider paying top dollar are going to be evaluating the entire package. You might find someone eager to own a low mile, 100% stock, original owner car, and pay a premium for that, but I doubt these command the highest prices yet. On the other hand, one could have the most methodical, bulletproof, white glove powertrain, but if the interior/exterior of the car appear less than pristine, it's just not quite there.

I suspect that the cars which will command the highest values (even relative, given the economy right now) will be the ones with light mods which reflect insight and careful consideration to every aspect of the car. People aren't paying $10,000 for the mods. The mods under the hood will have to add value to overall package. The exterior needs to be sharp, clean, and free of defects. The interior needs to be well cared-for. No threadbare seats or halfassed short shifter installations. Clean carpets and headliner. All the buttons, switches and gauges working.

You want to spend $8000 building a 2.4L with nasty cams, a ridiculous turbo, and EMS, that's fine, but if your super badass race car looks like an otherwise neglected grocery getter from the early 90s, don't expect to get half your money back. Remember, NOBODY pays a premium for used performance parts.

I say it's about synergy. The whole package has to work together. If you've got a race engine, it needs to be a prepared car. Those are harder to sell these days, it seems, but that's your best shot. If you drive the car to work or school or just pleasure, invest in making it look - on the surface - like you're interested in more than just beating on it at the track on the weekends.

Just saying...

EDIT: I think Coop's car is super nice. I bet that, if he swapped in a stock long block with some mild mods, an E316G, sitting on about 300hp, he could relist the car, not say a word about how it was set up previously, and still get $8000 for it. Then he could list the up-rated performance parts on their own to get a couple grand more, getting closer to the goal of $12K. Downside to this is, what is the value of time spent working on the car to do all this, right?
 
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mikus

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Jan 11, 2007
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Aurora IL
To me this hinges on whether the car is 'liquid' (ie an asset that you can convert to cash value in emergency)

Non-investment collector cars (ie, no Barrett-Jackson stuff) are not so much a liquid asset - you cannot convert them to true cash value in a short timeframe. "General use" cars are pretty liquid - you can move a Camry for market value relatively quickly.

Eg. liquid value on that vr4 is $8000 on a 10-day eBay auction, or
True cash value would be $12000 assuming a buyer shows up with that in say, a year perhaps.

Both are valid figures. The former is perhaps much easier to forecast than the latter
 

4wheelsqueal

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Joined
Dec 6, 2008
Messages
447
Location
Shawano,WI
This is a really good thread! lots of great responses. personally i love coop's vr4 and am glad that he is asking as much as he is for if for the simple fact that if it was any cheaper, i'd be trying to find a spot to hide my sixth galant from my wife. seriously, this car has all the hard stuff done;paint, motor, driveline. the problem, as has been mentioned, is in this economy, to find someone who likes all that has been done and appreciates how much time, effort, money went into it and to pay that price. all said and done, it's worth what he's asking. and i hope he doesn't lower the price!
 

Polish

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Jan 10, 2005
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The other things some may want to consider is not everyone wants a prebuilt car, and even less people want a prebuilt Galant VR4.

Sure it's nice to have some work done for you but there is no pride is showing up to race or at a car show with a car you didn't build, at least for me there isn't.

Most car people like to take pride in the fact that they built it themselves. Obviously there are exceptions to this rule but I think many people forget this when trying to sell a mint/modded car of any make. The market is simply not going to be the same, sure if some people had the money they might (IE; 16 year olds who *couldn't* build one) but how many guys who love wrenching and can afford such a car want a car that is more or less completed already?

Not many. Unless they have lots of money and not much time.
----
Now before anyone get ruffled I am not directing this at anyone in specific what so ever.
 

prove_it

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Jul 3, 2008
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4,201
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Sioux Falls, SD
I think a lot of it comes down to the buyer. Also it is nice to tastefully mod and build a car. Hack jobs and quick mods to get buy really drive the cost down. I would buy a previously modded car, but only if it was done right and I could easily return stock parts to it if I wanted. Ours cars are rare and therefore not as well known, so someone looking for an all wheel turbo, probably would overlook our cars. It's about selling techniques and finding the right buyer.
 

That is an amazing car and is worth every penny. For the money, it's hard to beat what a Galant VR4 offers especially considering one can be had for a few thousands nowadays. In my opinion, since it's a limited edition car, people generally like a clean stock car and as a result, you get more return by bringing it back to stock and selling off the parts. It's sad to say, but I really don't think the values for these things will take off in the near future that's why I'm not going to be bothering selling mine. We were hoping to piggy back off the Evolution craze, but it seems like hype for that car is dying off with the Evo X. The best case scenario would be if they started making good Galant VR4s again and sending them here. Our success would depend on the success of the new VR4s.
 

mikus

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Jan 11, 2007
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Quote:
Sure it's nice to have some work done for you but there is no pride is showing up to race or at a car show with a car you didn't build


on the other end - some buyers are content to maintain and softly mod the right pre-modded car. I was on the way to making #39 what #1886 was, and 'buying up' saved me thousands plus labor. You do have to accept that it'll never be truly 'your' car to many people, but it was worth it to me in that case.
 

Quoting Polish:
.....
----
Now before anyone get ruffled I am not directing this at anyone in specific what so ever.



/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif I'm gonna kick your ass if I ever meet you in person.








J/K I wouldn't stand a chance. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I bought 3/1000 because I liked all the stuff that was done to it and I wanted something I could just go out and drive right away and then build onto, something that not everyone else had. I could have bought a EVO, vette, 03 cobra, E39 M5 or anything else in the 25K price range, or a bit higher considering all the money I've spent on 3/1000 in the last year and a half.

Right now these cars are only worth what someone is willing to pay. There are still too many of them around. The more of these cars that get sent to the crusher the quicker our values will go up, mostly for stock unmolested cars, is what I'm thinking.

I agree with Brian though, Clint probably could have pulled half those mods and still got 8K for it and sold them seperately but some people just don't have the time or patience for that.
 

Polish

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Jan 10, 2005
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Location
NE, IN
Ahahaha, I thought of both of you (Mikus and Mike) as I posted that knowing you both bought high dollar GVR4's. No worries, I get why both of you bought your cars. Both sellers had great reputations and the cars were known to be super clean. I almost knew you'd both reply. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif I meant no offense with that statement, hopefully you got what I meant though.

Edit - In fact we even mentioned it in chat that you'd reply. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rofl.gif
 
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Talkin smack about me in chat? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Really though, after going through all of what I have with this car I can really appreciate those who like to start from scratch, however, if you aren't doing the work yourself you can plan on spending lots of money (and time) to pay someone else to strip a car, weld in a cage and then repaint it and put it all back together. Then factor in all the other big parts and you are into it for far more than the typical going rate for these cars.

What can I say, I'm impatient and want things now. Not a good trait, IMO.
 

Polish

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I have the same trait, no worries.

And no, no sh*t talking. I just knew you'd reply. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

mikus

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Jan 11, 2007
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Aurora IL
i keel you Pilosh
ph34r.gif
 

4wheelsqueal

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Dec 6, 2008
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447
Location
Shawano,WI
Rut Row!! Ninja's! Run Polish!
Personally i wouldn't mind buying someone else's built car. yeah you don't get the satisfaction of building it yourself, but you also don't have the headaches and /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif when you're building it. But i have built all of mine and love to be able to say that, too.
 

iLLeffeKt vr-4

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Jul 26, 2004
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NYC
Even the cars that are heavily modded are never finished. Some things can always be improved/fixed/changed to your liking so the statement "I want to modify it myself" doesn't hold much water. I purchased my galant back in 04 for 5k and it had a nice list of mods to it. Everyone told there's not much more I could do, however at least 10k dollars later I'm not so sure they were right. I changed rims (3 times), changed suspension to true coilovers, bigger fmic, bigger turbo, fully built motor, evo seats, etc, etc, etc. I mean even the guy that bought #3 for over 20k still put $$$ into it.

If your plan is to buy a car and modify the hell out of it then its better to buy one that's modded and change some of the stuff to your liking. I don't see the point of spending 6-8k for a bone stock car and dropping another crap load of money into mods. Might as well find a cheap one under 3k and go from there.

Now, if you want to own a bone stock gvr4 there's nothing wrong with buying a 6-8k example that's in nice shape and just do regular maintenance on it and no mods.

Obviously the cars (modded or not) that go for over 6k are harder to sell because not too many people have that kind of cash laying around. I doubt anyone will go to a bank to get a loan for a 19 year old galant. So its basically a waiting game. Sometimes they sell within few months, sometimes it takes over a year for the right person to come along. A lot of times these cars get parted out because no one is willing to ask the asking price.
 

Keep in mind that although the GVR4 car has cult status, it is of interest to a cult that generally has empty pockets, meaning the GVR4 is virtually irrelevant to the collector car market at least for now. True collectible cars are decreased in value by amateurish modifications. Also the mods will not offset otherwise poor overall condition. A very high quality resto-mod can offset the loss of value caused by being non-original, especially if the modded car was not the most highly prized version of the car to start with (not the case here) and the mods show skill and imagination in their application. But being modded automatically shrinks the potential market for the car. That does not shrink the value but it makes it more of a challenge to sell and realize that value.

Bottom line: do not buy, build, or mod a GVR4 on the expectation of getting a good financial return on the investment of money, labor, or love. Do it because and only because you like to.

Mike R.
 

gvr4ever

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Joined
Aug 6, 2002
Messages
6,190
Location
central Indiana
Right now with the economy, all cars are under valued. As far as GVR4s holding value, I think only a hand full are really nice ones. Assume that 1500 are left and maybe 300-500 are good clean non rust buckets that have been taken care of and ready for the road. I'm probably being generous with that number too.

Sometimes I think about selling mine, but I'm just not ready. Paint is still in really good shape, but I've gotten rust on the folds on door skins and truck lid. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif So far, no known rust on the unibody. I'd like to think I could get 5K for it if I had too, but who knows.

I think these cars will always hold value to the 4G63 lover and ODBI guys. As nice as it sounds to get a newer EVO or STi, the fact is, paid for is great, and having about 10 years of experience working on GVR4 and keeping it on the road, makes keeping it a smarter choice then getting something newer that I have no ideal about, and knowing that everything cost more on it. If I some how lost mine, I could consider another one, if I found the right one. I'm sure many buyers are going to want to get what they know.
 
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