What car to make money on. One year, max £50k

[pSyCoSiS]

Personally, with £50k to invest, I would say buy one of each of the following and enjoy them whilst they appreciate...

• A decent, early example of an Mercedes R129 SL (under 10k will buy you pretty much a mint example, and I can see them beginning to rise)

• Pristine BMW E39 M5 (£15k will buy you the better examples out there)

• BMW 8 Series (the later, Individual Sport models for less than £10k). Values of the E31 have just shot up over the past year

• Jaguar X308 XJR 100 Edition for less than £8k (these will soon have their day, and the 100 limited edition is already creeping up in price)

• Early Phase 1 Mercedes W140 600 SEL for under £8k - these are also starting to increase in value and rarity, so snap up one whilst you can

Or, if only one car, then I would say:

E30 M3 (you can still pick up a half decent one for under £50k, and the values of these will only ever be going one way... UP!)

[69Routemaster]

given the time restraints, your success is almost certainly down to your ability to spot and negotiate a bargain, rather than the car you choose as an 'invesatment'. however, for the sake of the experiment, I'd go for a market squeeze and buy EVERY Mk1 TT Quatro Sport (240ps, no back seats) that is for sale on PH classifieds. 5 cars from 7 to 10k leaving a bit for polish and tires and storage. you'll have your self a genuine bone-fide appreciating classic and ALl the stock allowing you to squeeze the punters when you sell...

[FredClogs]

I've wanted one of these forever, they're steadily climbing now way beyond the standard Karmann ghia. You could build a very nice collection of valuable old vws for £50k.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Karmann-Ghia-Type-34-fro...

[Fishy Dave]

A selection of the following, very low mileage and original of course:

Renault 5 GT Turbo
Fiat Coupe 20VT
MX5 mk1 BBR Turbo
BMW Z3M Coupe
BMW Z4M (longer term future)
BMW M3 E46 manual, possibly a CS (prices for low mileage good ones appear to be rising)
TVR Griffith
924 Turbo
944 Turbo
968
996 Carrera 2 Manual
Triumph GT6
Citroen 2CV

Questionable whether they would rise sufficiently in 12 months though?

Edited by Fishy Dave on Tuesday 11th August 12:57

[Beanoir]

i'd buy 2 997 Carrera S....then sit and wait

or if only 12 months then i'd happily invest in 996 flavour at the moment.

[Mr Whippy]

I wonder if cars are really depreciating in value, and our money is depreciating harder, resulting in static or rising costs?

Or maybe cars are just in a bubble, fed by cheap and easy credit.


It's likely a combination of the two, but I honestly can't say which is the dominant factor here.


Either way it's scary and I'm not sure I'd be happy putting £50,000 into a car if it's bubbled, nor would I be happy putting £50,000 into a car if the former is the case and I had other debt liabilities like a mortgage still kicking around!




Sorry to put a downer on the article PH, but it's either tulip mania which is bad enough, worse still when fuelled by credit... or it's the beginning of the end of the current financial/economic paradigm, in which case clearing debt like mortgages would be my number one goal, not trying to be a smart arse and making money on a car!

[Strawman]

Mr Whippy said:

Sorry to put a downer on the article PH,

This was a thread started by a user rather than a PH editorial article.

[BJG1]

405dogvan said:

and even if you could, I get the feeling selling one wouldn't be too easy - buying a car from a dealer (premium price) would require selling privately to avoid getting your pants taken-down and you might be waiting a while for a sale (and would likely get nothing like the figures dealers are asking)??

Again - what cars are 'for sale' for and what people will pay (and who they'll pay it to) are not the same thing - people get excited when they see cars for-sale at higher prices but when it comes to selling, it's amazingly hard to GET that money sometimes.

Yep, there's no way I'd have bought mine privately, which means it'll have to go up a lot in value to sell for a profit, not the £5k a year they've been doing for a while.

[Muzzer79]

pSyCoSiS said:

If only one car, then I would say:

E30 M3 (you can still pick up a half decent one for under £50k, and the values of these will only ever be going one way... UP!)

This is what doesn't sit well with me.

Lovely as they are, £50k is an awful lot of money for 30 year old BMW 3 series and how much further up will they go?

The same could be said for a lot of other stuff.

I mean, Ferrari 348's? Possibly the most disappointing Ferrari in years but because it's got a Prancing Horse on it, people tout it as the next big investment opportunity.

I personally believe that, short term, everything that will rise has already set sail and anything still cheap enough to 'invest' in won't give good yields for at least another few years. Assuming the market doesn't change.

[Cheapskate]

I'm hoping all the UK W208 CLK55s rust away and I have a substantial percentage of the remaining RHD production (with one of them). It might take more than a year though...

[Mr Whippy]

Strawman said:

Mr Whippy said:

Sorry to put a downer on the article PH,

This was a thread started by a user rather than a PH editorial article.

Oops sorry, it had a fancy image linked with a BMW 1M in a car park on the front page, I assumed PH were promoting it, hence the apology to them

Sorry OP too then

[CabbageMS]

R32 GTR
Evo VI (preferably TMak)

Personally I think you can get some good deals if you're willing to do some rebuilding yourself. For example turbo failed R32s.

Then put remainder into something else, diversity is normally a good idea for protecting investment.

Edited by CabbageMS on Tuesday 11th August 16:58

[Mr Whippy]

Cheapskate said:

I'm hoping all the UK W208 CLK55s rust away and I have a substantial percentage of the remaining RHD production (with one of them). It might take more than a year though...

Oooo, the last one I really liked while AMG were a bit more subtle. The Brabus ones looked cool too. Their purple press car 5.8 V8 (iirc) was very nice... probably a pile of orange metal by now though

By the time the SL55 AMG arrived the entire series were starting to get a bit 'obvious' for my tastes.

[LMA37]

Any Flat 12 Ferrari, there are still some models going cheap, but they will rise for sure.
Last of the Shelby's whilst the old fella was still around, a SuperSnake would be my choice but probably a bit over the 50K by the time you import it.

[NRS]

I would have to agree that it looks like the market is changing and it's getting more risky in regards to investments for putting money in cars now, and that's someone who has not even been in a bubble market before.

• Lots and lots of normal classics are moving slowly up, not just quality ones. Tends to be a sign of a bubble.
• Cheap credit and very poor interest rate in bank means people look more alternative investments - cars is a good example.
• Lots of people thinking car prices are going up and so they need to get it now before it's too late. Therefore they overpay to get into the market.

A year might be ok, but it is risky. The global economy seems to be moving out of overall recession. Discussions about interest rates starting to rise. This will probably be slowly, but people always panic once they feel a bit of pain. Not to mention a lot of people don't live within their means so rising interest rate will mean they need to make cuts and free up cash, not "just" pay a bit more per month.

Gold is at a 5 year low. It's another investment when interest rates are low/ worry about financial markets are doing. Thus there is a positive expectation on western markets improving. Plus China is stil growing, just not as fast.

And one thing people are forgetting when they are saying "I have made loads on car x". Well, until the money is in the bank they have made absolutely nothing. They may make £50k on that car, but if the car market crashes (which it probably will as people tend to panic at the risk of big losses) and it goes back down to the price you bought it at you made nothing. Same goes if you sold it, bought another car and that car drops to the price you bought the first one at.

Now, if you just want the car for the car then it's no problem (money is there to be spent) but it's getting closer to risky times now. Just check the people who have been ignoring the oil price recently. All signs saying a long low, and yet many investors are trying to talk up their investments that the price will go back up soon. Even quite a lot of companies haven't properly adjusted to the "new" price world they operate in (which is actually far more normal over historic times).

[Wills2]

Strawman said:

Mr Whippy said:

Sorry to put a downer on the article PH,

This was a thread started by a user rather than a PH editorial article.

This is true, but 2-3 years ago they wouldn't have picked up on it and put on the front page as a feature, that tells you all you need to know about the current market mania.

I cannot remember a time within recent memory that so much exotic metal was for sale everything is on offer, look how many f40/918/GT3 there are for sale, people are cashing out and I don't blame them.

[NRS]

The interesting thing is the top of the market seems to have quietened a bit now. Almost everything else below is following because the most desirable models moved, which is never a good sign. Think it might be a year or two yet, but some people are going to get stung.

[Wills2]

A rising tide lifts all the boats.

[JonathanLegard]

Mr Whippy said:

I wonder if cars are really depreciating in value, and our money is depreciating harder, resulting in static or rising costs?

Or maybe cars are just in a bubble, fed by cheap and easy credit.


It's likely a combination of the two, but I honestly can't say which is the dominant factor here.


Either way it's scary and I'm not sure I'd be happy putting £50,000 into a car if it's bubbled, nor would I be happy putting £50,000 into a car if the former is the case and I had other debt liabilities like a mortgage still kicking around!




Sorry to put a downer on the article PH, but it's either tulip mania which is bad enough, worse still when fuelled by credit... or it's the beginning of the end of the current financial/economic paradigm, in which case clearing debt like mortgages would be my number one goal, not trying to be a smart arse and making money on a car!

Very true. I'm in the position where I could spend 50k on a fun car with investment potential and as much fun as it is to trawl the classifieds for M Coupes, Honda NSXs and M3 CSLs, I have this idiotic voice of reason nagging away, telling me we're at the top of the market or very close to it.

So, I'm going to sit on my money and bore people with all those stories of what I nearly bought.

[daveofedinburgh]

+1 for Ferrari 360 manual.

Still surprised that these can be had ~£50K. Be aware that people will suspect it may be an MR-S.

Same logic as Harris around 458 manuals (IIRC)- a modern Ferrari with a proper manual is unlikely to be anything less than a sound investment.

E46 M3 CSL

996 Turbo