Well, to be fair, I have a hard time seeing the value in a 25 year old Civic too, but then I have a hard time in seeing the value in one NOW. No telling what generation next will be nostalgiac about. If history is any indication, though, they will be buying up the cars from their youth, like every generation before them. Thank god shag carpeted vans haven't come back. Maybe cuz there aren't any left...LOL!
prices ya know 3 years ago before that movie "the fast and the furious" came out i could find hondas and toyotas especially the celicas and civics for $800.00 bucks to 1200 all day long. now since the movie all the copy cat kids bought a bunch of seasoning for the "rice" and theres a high demand for them. now that same car that was worth 1200 is now 3000!!!!! i dunno what the future holds. but i can say that the price sure did go up, but in 20 years from now try finding a honda civic with only 100,000 miles. seems like when i do find maverick's or fords, they have relatively low miles so-to-speak. and the civics will have 300,000 miles 10 years from now. and they're not going to bring that much. or Maybe? dunno.
Tell that kid "5.0" then watch it ring a bell in his head. I have had first hand experience in watching how youth gets converted into the rice scene. My brothers friend is young, around 16 or so. He just got his drivers license. Before my brother got a mustang, he had a civic, and his friend was like oh yea, civic this, civic that, and my brother was like civic this, civic that "f-your slow stang" (not really, but we always had arguements how he tried to tell me a civic is better than a v8 for modifying. I argued and argued and argued for years against my brother and he wouldn't budge. See he was another victim of the trend, it is way too easy to fall into the same steps in which your peers travel. Joe has civic, jane has civic, mike has civic, damnit, there must be something really good about these cars!!! well, the day FINALLY came where my brother got a higher paying job. The moment came when He would stop talking trash, and put all kinds of $$$ into his 96 civic to make it fast. He had the cash, 3g + was going to get him an acura motor and 14 seconds.....woohoo. Then it may have been here, but Somebody posted an absolutely wonderful artical about rear wheel drive vs front wheel drive, vs awd. THANK THE GODS FOR THAT ARTICLE!!!! He finally saw the light, and realized that for the amount of money he had, on a limited budget, it would take wayyyyy to much money to make the civic do what he wanted. He chose to go muscle, and after long research, he decided on a 80's mustang (because he still wanted computer control for added reliability/driveability) and wound up with an absolutely stunning 86 mustang gt ttop car for $1100. It all came together for him, especially when he blew the doors off a brand new s2000 honda with his $1100 stang!!!! Now he has more damn mods than I have on my stang. ANyhow, back to his friend, and how they follow peers. Since my bro has gotten into american muscle, all of his friends have changed there thinking about japanese vehicles consider them a waste of $ to modify. Yay COREY!! The trend is Youth. Youth is flashy, youth is young, youth wants to be seen, to be heard, youth wants the newest, biggest, brightest toy, and what more to make you seen above the rest of the crowd than the newest japanese car sporting a loud pipe and stickers. Meanwhile the older crowd matures and gets more into muscle. The young ones may be into japanese and rice cars, but the serious motorheads almost ALWAYS come into the v8 muscle scene, and for this reason our cars will never die.
I'm sure some people will disagree but I'm going to throw my 2 cents in...I'm barely 22 so I can relate. Now before you say oh he's just another dumb kid..I learned to drive on a 66 chevy Malibu, my first car was a 65 Dodge Coronet 500 with a 383, my second a 70 Mav Grabber Clone with a 302 with heads and a cam..etc.. I now have a 72 Mav Grabber with a 289 everyone swears is a Big Block. So no I don't drive, or have ever driven, an import. But you have to give these guys a chance. Yes, most of them are louder than they are fast. But how many of the older guys had to settle for a 6 cylinder in the 60's b/c they couldn't afford a V-8. My dad's first car was a v6 b/c his dad wouldn't let him get a v8. And how did your parents and the older generation look at Muscle Cars and the people that drove them? They caused insurance to go up, etc... But I love American Muscle cars. But if a kid puts time and money into a car respect him for it. Whether it be an import or a classic. The civic is the the mustang of today. Remember not all mustangs in the 60's had v8's. They made Camaros with a v6 and a 2 speed tranny not all of them were the big block power houses we see build today. I think the younger kids should be encouraged to persue their interest. And as far as what these will be worth in the future..who knows? Did you ever think those Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays cards you bend in half to stick in your bicycle spokes would be worth enough to buy a house? Probably not or you wouldn't have been folding them in half! It's all part of this great nation we live in! The freedom to choose and to be an individual. So the next time you hear a noise that sounds like a swarm of bees (my least favorite sound in the world) Remember back to when you pulled your first 2 barrell carb off and swaped it with a 4 barrell. Or the first car you put duals on...And appreciate that in a slightly different way, your passion is being passed on.
Let me just say that I think many of your conceptions about Import racers are entirely wrong. Just about every kid I know who likes them or owns one can't even tell me how to change their oil and don't even know what torque is all they know is the stupid HP figures that the companies give them. I can't even carry on a conversation with them because they don't know anything about their cars they just think that its fast because its a Honda. They hear and read about cars that run like 40lbs of boost and go wow Honda's are so good there 4 cylinders can beat anything. But they don't realize that those engines are over $50,000. I think its the lastest Car and Driver has a article on performance 4 bangers and they spend like $70,000 on one of those ugly Mitsu Evolutions (whos engine will probably self-destruct like all Mitsu's other sports cars) and it pulls out like a 13 sec. run. The fastest car was a S2000 with like $60,000 into it and then the bring out a stock Z06 vette and it ripped them all a new one in handling, speed, etc. They also like their small engines cuz they can floor it all over town and still get good gas mileage and eventually get going fast. Also From my experience also those kids aren't spending money on their cars and staying away from drugs they doing both. Sorry to rant but this is something that I deal with everyday I go to school.
They do both? Where in the world do they get the money? When I was in high school I was lucky to have enough to keep the rod running, buy enough gas to cruze for the weekend, have enough to go on a date to try to get some (that seldom worked out), and hopefully have enough left over to get someone to buy a 6 pack. I guess $20 went alot further back then.
I can't speak for all of them, but one kid I know ended up taking out loans, to have his engine rebuilt etc. This guy was is in my automotive class last year, and the teacher asked him some simple questions about the setup and he didn't know the answers. The teacher ask why he didn't know and all the guy could say was that the guys at speed shop made the recommendations and he said sure go for it. He didn't understand what he was spending his money. These guys had to look at this guy and see a blank check walking into the shop everytime he came it! This guy ended up with 20k in car, and blew it up on the dyno when he put too much boost to it! His dad cosigned for the loans, and to say the least his dad was not happy!!! I will give the guy some credit, he was coming to learn something for himself.
Forgot to mention, the dad didn't know that the son had a NOS kit installed on the car, which is why the engine blew up . . . too big of shot! For what it is worth, that's the rest of the story.
All I can say is that it can be clocked with an egg-timer how fast people go from being young and ideal to old and stagnant. For the most part I think that everyone made good and well-taken points. However there have been a lot of very over-generalized comments made about what it means to "truely be into cars". To me it sounds like a lot of over-heated testostorone (can't spell to save my life) and envy that at sixteen you and/or your parents wouldn't/couldn't shell out that much for a new car. Don't get me wrong I love the mav, think it's the best car ever made, but I also realize that it has serious limits. I also admire that fact that a generation or two of small inexpensive japanese cars that in all actuality are very reliable has raised so much rucuos. Just my opinion. Jeri*
They can have their ricers....I'll take the 'Vette, (and my Maverick, of course) a car that they will never be able to hang with no matter how much money they spend, even though 4-cylinders are "SO much better"...
viagra? All I can say is....who just asked what was the best kind of motor oil?.......When I got back from the mini-meet/car show a couple of weekends ago, I was telling my wifeabout all the cars......all ford show.....and after a while of my descriptions and general comments, her great statement was......... .......wow, who needs viagra when the car shows are around..... .......Robert:bananaman .....wow, 3 pages of import v muscle..who woulda thunkit....
No one is saying that they are so much better. Just that they too have their place and that it takes dedication to spend that much money and time on anything.
Jerilyn, I was referring to an earlier post where some kid was telling one of the board members that 4-cylinders were better than V-8s. None of my remarks here have been directed at you personally, and we're all just expressing opinions here. By the way, do you have any pics of your Maverick? I also have a '73 and like to see photos of other's Mavericks...
