[McLaren-TAG]

A couple of threads over the last few weeks got me thinking. Threads talking about putting cars up for sale then removing the ad, and the other about whether or not the our cars have become garage trophies too valuable to sell.

This post isn't about answering those questions, since everyone has their own purpose and their own reasons. But some of the responses about the current value of air cooled 911s in general and the pros and cons of prices either going up or down etc got me thinking about the nature of what we're doing today and how it will translate into tomorrow's classics and hot rod project cars.

The general rule of thumb is we covet the cars we grew up with when we were in HS and the cars you lusted after but could touch back then being something we'd gladly spend disposable income in buying, restoring, driving, racing, etc.

As the years go by the complexity of cars has tended to make them less and less "repairable" by the garage mechanic. Massive amounts of electronics and computers, low voltage wiring and data links, drive by wire not to mention emission controls. Now with composites and hybrids becoming mainstream it's going to be even more complex.

So what happens going forward? I'm not entirely convinced that the hot cars today will be so easily restored or maintained past a certain shelf life and certainly nothing that would be economical to repair should one of the major components I mentioned above go awry because it would be way beyond the skills of most.

So what happens then?

Curious about the discussion and thoughts but what I've been coming back to is a belief that the cars that can be maintained by the back yard mechanic are going to hold their value if for no other reason that they can be maintained relatively indefinitely.