Looks like people are selling their low mile 00R's. On Ebay right now is the 3rd R this month with under 200 miles. Wonder what these people are replacing these cars with. Maybe the much anticipated GT500???
My 2 cents on the future collectability of R’s and cars in general
When we think about low volume collectable mustangs that exploded in value, we usually think about cars from the 60’s-70’s like the boss cars (mostly 429) and the Shelby’s. When people bought these cars, there was no collector car world and no one sane saw these cars being worth 50-100 times their msrp. You bought these cars to drive hard and use them up. Virtually no one cared about paperwork, original parts, or numbers matching. When the car was used up it went to the crusher. Why would you buy a car and put it away? Fast forward 30-40 years and there is little supply to meet the demand. Most of these cars had parts or engines changed, were wrecked or rotted away, and the handful of truly original cars command a massive premium. Lesson learned big time. Of the 657 R’s built how many are truly gone? How many don’t have their original engine or parts? I would say very very few. Cars in general just last longer as technology advances and just look how many super low mileage R’s come up for sale on regular basis. So, there is much more supply to keep up with demand. So many R’s have been put away and preserved with their parts and paperwork unlike the mustangs from long ago. I think the R’s will go up in value but I’m not as confident as the people who think these cars will see $250k or more. I think the 2000R getting to $100k alone is going to be a long road ahead.
I could be completely wrong but I think the collector car world will be changing in the next few decades with electric cars coming on strong and the millennial generation taking a different approach to cars, let me explain. Manual transmission cars are declining to automatics and some performance companies stopped making them all together. More young people can’t and or have no desire to learn to drive stick and it’s no secret that newer generations are more into electronics and computer controls. Not that long ago electric cars were just science projects that no one took seriously, they had no range, no performance, and they took forever to charge. Now they are developing at an exponential rate and some of these cars are crazy fast. Problem is they are still expensive and take time to charge. With the Tesla model 3 not far away at under $40k it will be on a lot of people’s radar unlike a $100k plus model S.
There was a recent discussion on the Viper forum about people not driving their cars to keep the value in them and one member had a really good point. He said we are just one major battery break through away from gas powered cars being obsolete. It’s a bit of a stretch but not totally unrealistic. A few days ago on autoline daily an Israeli company announced they have developed a battery that can be charged in 5 minutes and has a 300-mile range, and they expect to put it into production within 3 years. This tech wouldn’t become main stream overnight but I think it will be taking a larger market segment as time goes on. Gas powered cars aren’t going away anytime soon and they will still be collectable but I think there will be a softening of the market as time goes on due to both supply/demand and a different desire of a newer generation.
Low cost + good performance + minimal maintenance = strong market presence.
A hybrid mustang is already in the works and what happens to the mustang world when it beats the GT?