The headlines have been relentless. "Dow plunges another 600 points." "Consumer confidence slips again." "Banks in every country facing liquidation."

Those of us who have been around the collector car market for a while can't help but think of the crash of 1987, which started the flow of funds into the collector car market. The trillions of dollars being pulled from stock markets around the world today will be put somewhere, and it's not unreasonable to think that some portion of it will go toward old cars.

But there are some differences from 1987. Then, collector cars were just beginning to make their meteoric rise, peaking in 1991. Our situation today is that muscle cars peaked two years ago, and the sports, classic, and exotic market has been flat at best for the past several months. So we're not starting with undervalued cars, but much more fully valued ones. Will collectors and investors think that a GTO at $28m is only half way to its true potential? Will they start chasing Hemi 'Cudas again, viewing them as undervalued?

Also, in the previous run-up, the Japanese and Europeans were the primary market movers, as their economies were doing quite well, which is not the case at the present time. So we are unlikely to see a sudden rush of foreign buyers.

Each of the SCM pundits has his own opinion, and many of them are expressed within the pages of this issue. No matter what the overall economic conditions are, collectors will continue to buy and sell cars, some for entertainment, some for investment, and some out of necessity. We simply counsel that it is a time to be prudent, to buy because a car will fulfill a need rather than be a financial instrument.

In other words, buy a car that will allow you to participate in the Colorado Grand or the Muscle Car 1000, or because it will simply satisfy a longtime yearning. Buying a collector car today, in the belief that it will go up significantly in the next few months, marks someone as exceedingly brave and willing to take great risks for what may be great returns.

Thinking globally, acting locally



Moving from the global to the local, we had our chance to make our own contribution to the local car economy a few weeks ago. In typical SCM fashion, it was done without any forethought or logic, but with a high degree of entertainment.

Silver Auctions had one of its twice-annual sales in Portland recently, and my daughter Alex and I went out to say hi to owner Mitch Silver, and to hang out with the usual SCM suspects who frequent the event, including Monte Shelton, Dave Stewart, Bob Ames, and Stan the Russian.
I was not looking to buy anything. Until we walked by a 1999 Land Rover Discovery I, shining brightly in burgundy metallic over tan leather interior. It had been brought to the auction by longtime SCMer Dave Martindale, who specializes in first-rate presentation of merchandise.

What's "need" got to do with it?



Alex had never seen a Disco before (or at least noticed one), and immediately fell in love with the inward-facing rear jump seats, along with the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser-style roof-mounted small windows. "It's so much smaller and cooler than our Suburban." (Did I mention we own a Suburban, which up until this instant had been a perfectly acceptable way to deal with our 4WD needs?)

She took a picture with her cell phone and sent it off to Wendie. It was barely sent before my phone was ringing. "It's SO cute! Can we buy it?"

Now, I'm not the airhead I might appear to be so far in this story, and am aware that nearly every automotive magazine on the planet had declared the Discovery I to be one of the worst-built trucks on the planet, with repair records enough to sink a small country (Iceland comes to mind, but of course its economy has already collapsed). Making things even more problematic, the Disco was showing 150,000 miles, which is about four times around that very same planet, or 500 trips across England at its widest point-more than any British car should ever be asked to do.

Martindale said he was looking for $5,000. The Disco crossed the block, and a few winks and nods later it was mine at $4,400. A swipe of the credit card and we were driving it away.

Fighting over the jump seats



We've had to attend to a few small things, but fundamentally this seems like a decent vehicle with some miles left on it. It has become Wendie's vehicle of choice to tool around in. Alex loves taking her friends out for rides, and they fight over who gets to sit in the jump seats. And Wendie's boys, Tyler and Drew, insist on as much seat time as possible-did I mention they like the jump seats?

I won't say it's a great vehicle, or even a good one. I won't say that the purchase makes any fiscal sense, or that I won't lose money in the end. But what I will say is that, for not much money (none at the moment, as the charge hasn't come through), my family has yet another vehicle added to the fleet, one that seems to be offering a lot of automotive swagger to them, in ways that appeal to them. And I've discovered a new excuse to buy something-my wife and the kids think it is cool.
For the moment, my car-buying itch has been scratched, and the RSS feeds that constantly stream old cars to my desktop have been deleted. For the moment.

In keeping with the theme of buying things that we really don't need, did I mention that Executive Editor Duchene believes we need a pair of pre-1958 Italian motorcycles to have a Team SCM for next year's Giro retrospective events? If you'd like to be a part of the team, and/or happen to have a 125-cc to 175-cc motorcycle or two you think we should own, drop me a note at [email protected]. I promise we won't offer the Discovery in trade. My family wouldn't let me.

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