Commodore value rising

[someguy360]

My vy is a sleeper with black leather interior and dash, and fat black 18 inch rims, and new bolt ons all around, new bushes and lowered suspension

If you want to sell it as a collector car with collector car money, this makes it worth less not more. People looking for a clean VY want one thats not been touched and doesn't look like a boy racer special (and yes aftermarket wheels and lowered suspension gives off that vibe no matter how clean the car is), yes bushes etc will be a good thing but you've modified it, another big one is that the interior is now no longer original as execs didn't have leather, that detracts value not adds it when it comes to cars becoming collectors items and special interest stuff.

A $10,000 car with $10,000 of mods is still a $10,000 car.

Also big difference between XC Coupes with V8's etc and a 6 cylinder XC sedan/Wagon, they are still worth bugger all in the big picture 50 years later in comparison to the V8/coupe models.

Everyone looks through rose coloured glasses at their own car thinking it's something special and something different because they've put the work and money in. Your blood, sweat and tears is not someone elses problem and they aren't going to pay more for it. It's still a $1500 car.

I love it when people are like "The wheels alone cost $2k so I'm not taking 3k for the car". Thats because you don't make back the money you spend on modifications. You do modifications to make the car suit your taste, not as an investment in resale value. Just because you think your car looks "killa" in the KFC drive through with hectic rims doesn't make the value go up by even a dollar.

My statesmans got a full caprice conversion, bigger/better brakes, modified engine (with house deposit kind of dollars spent), respray etc etc. The car is now worth less than what it was if it was kept all original. Just because the caprice interior was better and more expensive doesn't mean putting it in another car increases that cars value in fact it almost always goes the other way.

 

[J_D 2.0]

Lighter elements are very abundant in the universe. Everything starts out as hydrogen and over the eons slowly gets converted to heavier elements.

Abundant yes, easily extracted, not necessarily. There is about 180 billion tons of lithium in the oceans but at a ratio of 0.2 parts per million it’s a long bow to draw to say that it could be extracted economically.

We‘ve got a long way to go to build up resource extraction capacity to deal with the pending green transition. Various governments around the world are writing cheques our resource extraction capacity can’t cash by promising to ban new ICE vehicles by 2035 etc.

Like I said before the amount of effort and resources being put into EVs would be far better off being put into more renewables and storage capacity in the electricity grid and the electrification of everything that is tied down to the grid (electric space heating using heat pumps, cooking with electricity instead of gas, heating water with electricity instead of gas, etc).

That would be a far better use of resources and energy than digging up and processing tonnes more lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper etc (and the resultant carbon emissions from doing so!) to solve only 8% of the problem!

*End Rant*.

https://www.science.org/content/art...y-unlimited-amounts-critical-battery-material

 

[J_D 2.0]

If you want to sell it as a collector car with collector car money, this makes it worth less not more. People looking for a clean VY want one thats not been touched and doesn't look like a boy racer special (and yes wheels and lowered suspension gives off that vibe no matter how clean the car is), yes bushes etc will be a good thing but you've modified it, another big one is that the interior is now no longer original as execs didn't have leather, that detracts value not adds it when it comes to cars becoming collectors items and special interest stuff.

A $10,000 car with $10,000 of mods is still a $10,000 car.

Also big difference between XC Coupes with V8's etc and a 6 cylinder XC sedan/Wagon, they are still worth bugger all in the big picture 50 years later in comparison to the V8/coupe models.

Everyone looks through rose coloured glasses at their own car thinking it's something special and something different because they've put the work and money in. Your blood, sweat and tears is not someone problem and they aren't going to pay more for it. It's still a $1500 car.

I love it when people are like "The wheels alone cost $2k so I'm not taking 3k for the car". Thats because you don't make back the money you spend on modifications. You do modifications to make the car suit your taste, not as an investment in resale value.

My statesmans got a full caprice conversion, bigger/better brakes, modified engine (with house deposit kind of dollars spent), full respray. The car is now worth less than what it was if it was kept all original. Just because the caprice interior was better and more expensive doesn't mean putting it in another car increases that cars value.

Agreed. Collectors are always looking for unmolested original examples with low kilometres. Once you modify it your reducing the potential value considerably.

That’s why I bought a molested example when I bought my SSV! My plan was always to drive the tits off it so buying a clean original example didn’t make any sense to me as I’d spend too much time worrying about potentially reducing the resale value down the track by driving it too much.

One thing I would say is that people should leave collector cars for the collectors. By that I mean that if you do have the money to buy a mint collector car but plan to drive it every day then don’t. Buy a decent well used example and drive it every day.

Our Holdens are only going to become rarer a rarer and reducing the pool of mint cars by buying a mint one and driving it every day does a disservice to the history and heritage that should be preserved into the future.

I‘m sure that probably offends some people here if they have bought mint examples that they drive every day but that’s just how I feel about it.

 

[someguy360]

I‘m sure that probably offends some people here if they have bought mint examples that they drive every day but that’s just how I feel about it.

This will offend people here too, but sometimes the brutal truth hurts.

I've been involved a bit in car valuations/auctions etc over the years.

But a V6 exec that was primarially used as a fleet car or a taxi is NOT going to be worth collector money just because that manufacturer no longer exists, it's just not. COVID was a much bigger driver of used car prices the past 2-3 years than Holden closing down but because it happened at teh same time coincidentally all the Holden fans think that Holden closing suddenly made their cars worth a small fortune, and the market is slowly starting to readjust now that the pandemic is dying down and inflation/cost of living is rising and people are using their disposable income to travel again rather than buying things while they are stuck at home.

Look at all the other cars that had sports/v8 models and then a base model. The base models are always worth a fraction of the price of the desirable models.

90's Falcons are a good example at the moment:
4L intech EF/EL/AU base model in good condition - $1500-2000.
XR8 Manual EF/EL/AU in worse condition - $15K+

90's Commodores are the same:
VN Exec in pristine condition (and the big driving factor in this value is historic rego) - $6-8k
VN SS in average condition - $30-45k.
VN SS in mint condition - $50k+
VS HSV's - $40-50k+ in mint condition

VEs currently:
VE Omega - $1500-2500
VE SSV - $20-25k


Your car is not special because you've bolted some bits to it and kept it clean. If you want a car thats going to be worth collectable money you need to buy a model that wasn't a base model and will have some sort of market appeal moving forward and for the love of god, don't modify it with bits that weren't meant to be on it from the factory.
Keeping the car all original will be a bigger deciding factor than milage when a car becomes a classic collector item.

People will pay $80k+ for a HQ 308 whether it's got 100,000km or 500,000km as long as it's all original. Believe it or not as a car gets older and gets into classic status, milage becomes in nowhere near as important or relevant. Those prices I've quoted above are irrelevant of milage because once a car hits a certain desirability level there are more important deciding factors in a value than the milage.

It's a thing I've seen way too often is people getting so worked up over keeping their cars as low milage as they can and end up not enjoying them while they own them, which actually isn't going to make a massive difference to their sale price. Once a car hits 30+ years old most don't even look at the odometer when bidding on a classic car, they look at the overall condition and the desirability of that particular model/trim level.

The only exception to the rule when it comes to milage on classic cars is when it's an abnormally low milage (aka a 1970s car with 30,000km etc) that will certainly make a difference.

Drive the wheels off it, enjoy it, don't hide it in the hopes that you might make a profit because in all odds your probably going to store it for 4-5 years to make $1000 more than if you sold it now.

 

[figjam]

One thing I would say is that people should leave collector cars for the collectors. By that I mean that if you do have the money to buy a mint collector car but plan to drive it every day then don’t. Buy a decent well used example and drive it every day.

Our Holdens are only going to become rarer a rarer and reducing the pool of mint cars by buying a mint one and driving it every day does a disservice to the history and heritage that should be preserved into the future.

My stock CV8 .......... first 4 years. 80Km .......... next 5 years, 30Km ......... last 10 years, 25Km. Why ? Because I don't go to work anymore, and have 2 other cars that are more day to day useful.
As for the Cross6, it is as rare as rocking horse poo, only 7 for sale during the past year, therefore extremely classic.
Carsales.com prices for an over-abundance of Monaros indicate it is 'worth' as much as I paid for it new.
I'm confused now. Am I a collector, hoarder or user ?

 

[chrisp]

I love it when people are like "The wheels alone cost $2k so I'm not taking 3k for the car". Thats because you don't make back the money you spend on modifications. You do modifications to make the car suit your taste, not as an investment in resale value.

In the country town where I grew up, there was a Holden dealer. It was interesting to see the trade-ins (secondhand cars). They’d be traded in with aftermarket wheels but the dealer would remove them and replace them with the OEM wheels before the car goes on the yard.

I suspect that this dealership might have also owned the high-promoted mag wheel shop in town. So they might have had a nice little circular economy going! Sell a car, sell aftermarket wheels, trade-in car, resell wheels,…. Lots of money going in to the wheels that aren’t adding any value to the car (arguably devalue it), but lots of profit going to the business that sells them.

 

[someguy360]

In the country town where I grew up, there was a Holden dealer. It was interesting to see the trade-ins (secondhand cars). They’d be traded in with aftermarket wheels but the dealer would remove them and replace them with the OEM wheels before the car goes on the yard.

I suspect that this dealership might have also owned the high-promoted mag wheel shop in town. So they might have had a nice little circular economy going! Sell a car, sell aftermarket wheels, trade-in car, resell wheels,…. Lots of money going in to the wheels that aren’t adding any value to the car (arguably devalue it), but lots of profit going to the business that sells them.

Yep, you are much much better off keeping the original wheels in the shed.

When you sell the car put the stock wheels back on then sell the aftermarket wheels for extra profit on marketplace because the wheels aren't going to add value to the sale price of the car.

Thats why you often see marketplace ads for cars that say "won't come with pictured wheels" because they'll sell the wheels separately after the cars gone, which is the smart thing to do.

 

[RWD4ever]

With the way prices are going up with these holdens it would be silly to sell my vy right now yea?

My vy is immaculate all around but has 290,000kms on it

I believe now i could get 5000 to 6000 for it

But lets say i shed it, if i can pull my fence down haha, and in 3 to 5 years would it be worth plenty more...

Even if its an executive

There's one for sale $5,500 with only 23,000 km. I would grab that instead if the odometer is genuine....

 

[someguy360]

There's one for sale $5,500 with only 23,000 km. I would grab that instead if the odometer is genuine....

The big thing to remember as well is just because cars are listed for $5,500 online doesn't mean thats what they are selling for, you might find they sit there for months with no interest.

You need to look at what they sell for, not what they are listed for.....two very different things.

You as the owner don't get to dictate what the value of the car is, just because it's special you you and think it's worth $6k doesn't mean the market agrees with you. The market is the one that dictates the value of a car.

Delusional sellers will list cars for what THEY think it's worth to them and not what the market thinks it's worth. For example I've seen a really mint HSV SV93 VQ with a factory 5L, factory pearl paint etc and it's an amazing looking car. But he's had it listed for $35k, so far it's been up for sale for 6 months, so clearly the market doesn't yet deem these worth that value.

That being said one with 23,000km will be worth more than one with almost 300,000km as it's not really old enough or collectable enough for people to look past the milage at this stage.

 

[Commo64]

Yea but that $600 wagon is a heapa shitta haha

My vy is a sleeper with black leather interior and dash, and fat black 18 inch rims, and new bolt ons all around, new bushes and lowered suspension

In Adelaide there are plenty of people wanting vy commodores, ve cant sell em, we got a ve at work on gas 160,000kms has not even got a bite

People don't really care about "bolt-ons" like that in the car market and people probably won't pay much extra for a car like yours because of it's modifications... Stop thinking that you own something worth a lot of money, because a V6 Commodore will never become as desirable as a HSV...