Buying your muscle

[cudamadd]

As you know I live down under Australia. One of the things that has crossed my mind many times is this . How do you guys feel about the rest of the world buying up all your muscle cars We have a ton of American cars here ,Newzeland  ,and Europe also have a lot ?  Does this practice push up the price of your car when you guys what to buy one ? or for a young person getting started in the hobby ?  Some one did say some time back  that if you did not start sinking the ships there would be nothing left for you . over the last five years that I know off  there has been a 440 fj5 super bird and a 70 road runner 383 car and a 69 ss 396 4 Spd Camaro shipped back to the mother land ,as my brother works on the shipping dock tells me . 

[RUNCHARGER]

I live in Canada and we bought a lot of new musclecars back in the glory days. More per capita than the USA actually. It does make me sad to see them migrate away over the years. I guess it just shows our modern population doesn't value the musclecars as much as other cultures do. Canada had tons of rare stuff like Hemi Convt.s etc. and there just aren't many here anymore to be honest.

[70 Challenger Lover]

Once upon a time, it bothered me. Not anymore. I love America and everything it stands for but one thing about my fellow countrymen that bothers me is our dependence on inexpensive foreign made goods. So much in fact that most people expect everything to never increase in price. So when a car does come up for sale, too often the response is a scoff followed by some stupid comment about how the car is overpriced because in 1980, you could buy the same car for $1500 dollars. Plain and simple: Americans are cheap. It's not that foreigners are willing to pay more. It's that Americans expect the car to stay the same price decade after decade because many other products we buy stay inexpensive.

I've sold a couple of cars that went to Europe. In both cases, it was on eBay and could have stayed here but American muscle car lovers expect bargains. In both cases, I had offers for 10k less than the what foreign buyers paid and I also had lots of Americans tell me I was dreaming. Yet they both quickly sold and are now overseas.

I'd love to see more American muscle cars stay here but I don't believe it's my moral responsibility to sell them at a substantially lower price to keep them here. Owning a muscle car is not an investment for most of us. It's a hobby and we generally lose money on each one. When I get bored with one and sell it, I want to recover as much as I can.

As far as others trying to get into the market. They can. They need only save their money or take out a loan. Both are doable. They can also watch YouTube videos and join forums to learn so they can do more work themselves and get in on a project cheaper. I know lots of people at work who make FANTASTIC incomes and talk about someday buying a nice 20-30k muscle car but they just can't justify the price. Yet they buy 900k homes, drive 70k disposable pickups and take 15k yearly vacations. It's all about choices.

[cudamadd]

70 challenger Lover. Thank you for your reply fantastic answer 

[chris NOS]

"How do you guys feel about the rest of the world buying up all your muscle cars We have a ton of American cars here ,Newzeland  ,and Europe also have a lot ? "

Well ,in France now there are some new company importing cars because the guys moved to California , open up on site some shop to prepare the car before they leave. Doing some vidéo on facebook, youtube , starting some interest for some guys that didn't have before .
So some cars are leaving usa , BUT , usualy it's cars in the 15 000 -25 000 usd range, pick up ,corvette,mustang coupe ,the ones there ton's off it in USA ,and even, in the past a lot of rust buckets that nobody would buy in US ,were fixed fast with bondo and send to europe by unscrupulous company , there are a lot of horror storys about this in our hobby.

in Europe there are only few people ready to pay big bucks for the real muscle cars. And in europeens culture if you are going to spend 80k or 100K then you come in range of a lot off Porsches, ferrari,alfa romeo ect .... that are lot more easy to sale if one day you want to move on.

i was following an 70 Hemicuda in switzertland ,it took One year to sale it , there 's a company "pedal to the metal" in Nederland that have some expensive  muscle for sale and they stay realy long time for sale on their web site ...sometime years...(often overpriced ...)

So i think there's realy just a small amount of quality/rare cars leaving the USA for Europe , the market is realy small, don't have to be scared .
Even the rare ones are going back to USA , if i would have to sale my GT350 i guess i would send it back in America ...

[RUNCHARGER]

One thing is for sure: It takes much more dedication to own one of these cars when you live overseas. Cost of transporting the car, Import fees and regulations to deal with, higher cost and difficulty in accessing parts, much higher cost of fuel etc.

[JH27N0B]

I am sometimes surprised how lazy and fickle US buyers can be.  At least for mid to the lower realms of the higher end cars.  People trying to sell cars in the teens to 30s usually can sell quickly.  I get the idea the highest end cars usually can find homes among the cadre of very wealthy collectors.  But the 40 or 50K to 125 or 150K range it's tough to find guys who will pony up.  Therefore I find it interesting when in North America no one will buy a car, then someone from Europe or down under grabs it, knowing they pay a bunch on import duties and shipping on the car.
I wonder if the FJ5 Superbird mentioned is the same one a shop here in IL restored, and belonged to the shop owner?
He restored it and won many awards.  Trailered it to many shows to display in his shops display at the shows.  He was trying to get $125K for it, but no one would buy it. Then someone in Australia bought it, and he told me the import duty would have been around 60K.  So not one cheap American would pay 125K for a concours Superbird, yet someone overseas would pay over 180K when all was said and done?

[70 Challenger Lover]

One thing is for sure: It takes much more dedication to own one of these cars when you live overseas. Cost of transporting the car, Import fees and regulations to deal with, higher cost and difficulty in accessing parts, much higher cost of fuel etc.

I think the overseas buyers are smart to get cars already restored but done nicely in the mechanical areas too so they are more reliable. I know the RT I just sold to a Swedish buyer appreciated that all the metal work and mechanical stuff was pretty much done. If I tried to do muscle cars for a living, I'd focus on them as my target buyers and make the car pretty much ready except in the paint and body department. Getting good bodywork and paint is probably much more doable but get the car in great shape everywhere else. And I wouldn't focus on concours perfection either. Overseas buyers want it to look good and perform great but I really don't think they care of panels are plug welded and stitched versus original spot welds.

[js27]

I was scare at first thinking it would make it harder for us to buy but now I am happy they are going to people who love them as much or more then we do. You need to pay more and go through so much more to get them and to go through that is love. Also in case the crazy politicians here declare war on old cars at least some will be saved if they are out of the country.
JS27

[70 Challenger Lover]

I was scare at first thinking it would make it harder for us to buy but now I am happy they are going to people who love them as much or more then we do. You need to pay more and go through so much more to get them and to go through that is love. Also in case the crazy politicians here declare war on old cars at least some will be saved if they are out of the country.
JS27

I don't know how true this is but a German buyer of my Superbee told me the regulations are insane when bringing in older cars. They inspect the cars to ensure the gauges read metric, the tires have to have certain safety ratings, etc. He was saying there is quite a lengthy process to bring in a US car and get it on the road. That sounds more like a government at war with old cars yet buyers put up with it and bring them over.

I too am glad they are making their way into the care of people who really appreciate them. The other thing I hate seeing is the stupid hillbillies who leave a car out in the harsh elements for decades until it is a completely worth hunk of crap. I just want to puke every time someone posts one of these awesome cars being slowly destroyed through neglect. The only satisfying part is when they try to sell after it's too far gone and no one wants it anymore. Serves them right.

[HP2]

I don't know how true this is but a German buyer of my Superbee told me the regulations are insane when bringing in older cars. They inspect the cars to ensure the gauges read metric, the tires have to have certain safety ratings, etc. He was saying there is quite a lengthy process to bring in a US car and get it on the road. That sounds more like a government at war with old cars yet buyers put up with it and bring them over.

Fairly typical response for European countries. Most countries see old cars as gross polluting, rolling death traps and believe everyone should be driving late model cars with enhanced safety features. They also have massive recycling programs far beyond ours and their population density drives a whole different set of regulations than anything we are familiar with in the western hemisphere.

[70Barracuda]

Friend was selling a 63 Corvette roller.  Guy from Sweden brings his mechanic, works on it four days putting as much on it as possible to be able to say its a car and not get taxed on all the parts.