Classic Cars Not Crashing

The collector car market is the highway to Hell, too, but it’s slower than the stock market.

Charles Lumpkin owns C&S Classic Cars Inc. of Springdale, which deals mostly in muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s. Those cars have been popular with baby boomers in the past few years, at times increasing in value by 10 percent a month.

“Some of those cars went from $200,000 to $800,000 in a year,” Lumpkin said.

But that market, including the hot rod segment, is down about 30 percent from a year and a half ago, he said.

Compare that with the stock markets: The S&P 500 was down 42 percent on Dec. 18 from June 2007; the Nasdaq was down about 41 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 37 percent.

That’s not to say a muscle car would be a good investment right now, but they seem to be holding their own.

“I honestly think the leveling off in the market is good because it’ll open up an opportunity for the average guy,” Lumpkin said.

Lumpkin had seven cars in stock on Dec. 18 and his favorite, a 1969 Rally Sport Z28 Camaro, will sell for about $75,000 now, he said. In mid-2007 it would’ve brought $110,000.

Lumpkin pointed out one bright spot: the market for true classic cars (like a Model T) and for foreign cars has stayed fairly level.

Of course, Lumpkin is headed out to Scottsdale, Ariz., in mid-January to check out the annual Barrett-Jackson auto auction and see how the market is going. In 2008, the auction broke its all-time record, selling about $88 million in cars, trucks, motorcycles and various vehicular oddities. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in 2009.

Lumpkin isn’t taking anything to sell and has no plans to buy, unless he sees just the right thing.