Can we still enjoy our cars?

[NSX 2000]

A bit of a clickbait article, but the title does make you wonder?

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/can-we-still-enjoy-enthusiast-cars-or-are-things-getting-out-of-hand-210187.html

Not sure if prices have cooled down but when old Escort XR3's cost more now than when new you have to wonder.

[lotusolly]

Personally, i would find it very difficult to justify the expenditure to buy my car and join the fold from scratch at this present time.
In contrast to that and having reached 19 years of ownership last week, I think I would be pushed to have managed to own any car for that duration, have covered 60K miles and still have what I consider to be a very nice example for less than the NSX has cost me in general maintanance.

I have spent further money on personal modifications to the car but we all know that's a cost you don't expect to get back! (Unless justifying to the wife!):)

On top of that the value of the NSX has increased by a higher percentage than any other investment I have made over the period.

Looking to the future I don't see the current new cars being kept for much more than a 10-15 year life span as the cost of replacing a battery pack seems to be beyond the value of the car and can't be justified.

The big question seems to be that with newer cars not reaching classic status do the maintainable classics become more valuable or does technology/taxing move to make them undesirable?

Olly

[Papalazarou]

I find it hard to see much of the new stuff being worth a great deal in the future. There doesn’t seem to have been any sweet spot periods for a while. Arguably the 80’s was the biggest one. The supercars were fantastic, but fantastically flawed. The hot hatches were born. As was the era of the turbo. Cars of this period had more luxuries, were more reliable, easier to drive and well and/or simply built. That’s why you can still see Mercedes 280 estates in Egypt with a million kms on them.
The NSX obviously redefined supercars, but what’s happened since. Certain models have defined certain sections of the car world and some cars have created niches that previously didn’t exist. But I can’t help thinking that a lot to do with clever marketing.
There are a lot of reasons why stuff is collectible. I guess the more fickle reasons will cause those cars to fall out of favour. Time is also slowly eliminating
certain cars and brands as they become less desirable to the younger generations, who do not understand or relate to them.
Nostalgia will always be a safe place for many of us however. If I can get excited about early 80’s BMX’s. Then people will continue to find cars of theirs or their parents era appealing. So the 80’s 90’s is still in full flow and should be for quite a while.
The worst thing about owning cars like the NSX is that very few people drive them now. The exciting time when we all went to meets and did track days is over. Perhaps in 20 years when there aren’t many left, our older selves will get our cataracts done, screw on a hip or two and get back out in these olds classics.