Everyone loves a good sale. Buyers get a hit of dopamine from knowing that they saved some of their hard-earned cash and sellers get the satisfaction of another satisfied customer. Unfortunately, sales only last for a limited time, much like these five cars that may get uncomfortably expensive within the next year.
5.BMW E39 M5
The BMW E39 M5 is one of the best sedans cars ever made, and is possibly one of the only real contenders for the moniker “four door sports car.” Sorry, Nissan Maxima fans.
Trends in the market have prices steadily increasing to the point where a somewhat used E39 M5 with a few frayed edges like this one has an asking price to nearly that of a used E60 M5 that’s six years newer and 100-HP more powerful. Prices for great condition, low-mileage later model year (‘01-’03) M5s could potentially reach $30k within the coming year, so it may make sense to buy one now before you have to pay a massive nostalgia tax.
4. Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo
The Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo is a car that hasn’t aged particularly well, but it damn near defines the look of its age. It was developed at a time when hair metal was on its way out, your sunglasses had “turbo” embossed on them in zebra print, and grunge wasn’t just the stuff at the bottom of your sink after doing the dishes on meatloaf night. The car had more power than most other cars in any class at the time and wore a sporty wedge-shaped body that remained unchanged for its entire production run. It was the quintessential ‘90s car and buyers are willing to pay for that, with original examples increasing in value, hitting nearly $30,000 asking prices for early models. There may still be cheap rough cars for sale, so it might behoove you to take a look at this aging sports car sooner rather than later.
3. BMW E36 M3
The BMW E36 M3 was the odd child out of the M3 lineup, mainly because the U.S. version didn’t get the 332 horsepower inline six cylinder engine that the humblebragging Europeans got. Instead, we got a 240-HP inline six that was, relatively speaking, enough. I owned a four-door version of this car, and at no point did I think that the car needed to house more power, the chassis was more than capable and it was apparent that overall chassis balance was placed as a top priority for the North American models.
With prices for the older E30 M3 going into the stratosphere at blinding pace, clean E36s are being picked up by enthusiasts who have realized that not only was the E36 a better car to live with day-to-day, but it had more power and a better-designed chassis than the classic E30. Prices are climbing to low five-figure levels for original manual coupes with reasonable mileage, and they’ll only go up from there. Get ‘em before they get too hot.
2. Porsche 911 Targa
It’s no surprise that Porsche 911 values have been increasing steadily - the air-cooled models aren’t made anymore in any capacity, they’re the ultimate analog driver’s car, and the overall design of the car remains largely unchanged for nearly six decades. The last of the vintage 911s, the Targa, was seen by enthusiasts as the most affordable one mainly because of the omission of the rakish lines of the Coupe and the addition of a rigid Targa strengthening brace so owners could remove their tops and feel the wind on their collective comb-overs.
The time of cheap Targas is coming to a close, however, as they’re climbing past the $30,000 range, matching that of coupe models of a similar vintage and mileage. After having driven a late ‘80s Targa, it’s everything a vintage sports car needs to be - rough, challenging, and ultimately a hell of a lot of fun under the speed limit.
1. Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4
In the ‘90s, Japanese halo cars were all the rage for yuppie stock brokers and mid-life crisis baby boomers. Now, they’re the collector’s icons of a bygone era for successful dot-com millennials. One of the more notable cars during this era was the Mitsubishi 3000GT, with its all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, twin-turbocharged, manual only VR4 model topping the less than stellar range of cars.
The car wasn’t particularly well-received at first, but with indicators like rare examples of this 1999 VR4 going for north of $30,000 and many other examples following the upward trend, it may be the indicator that the time to buy a Japanese turbo car is now.
Yes, I followed my own advice, and no, I don’t regret it for a second.
Tavarish is the founder of APiDA Online and writes and makes videos about buying and selling cool cars on the internet. He owns the world’s cheapest Mercedes S-Class, a graffiti-bombed Lexus, and he’s the only Jalopnik author that has never driven a Miata. He also has a real name that he didn’t feel was journalist-y enough so he used a pen name and this was the best he could do.
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