Well, I didn't know where to post this, and since I am always on this board and I know a lot of cool guys read the posts, I decided to put it here. This link: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/auto...c_cars80_1.jsp
talks about the value of our cars, and other cars from the 80's and how much they will be worth in the coming years. Now we all know what the value of our cars is now, and how some cars from then are already worth a lot (TTA, GNX). But my question for all you guys is this: Will you always own/keep a thirdgen in your garage? and/or will you always have your current car? I know that I never plan on selling my car. There is nothing rare about it, but I never want to part with it. The article wants you to believe that the next expensive classic cars hobbyists will want the 80's sports cars and I agree with this. There will be even more thridgen owners who do not just "like the way their car looks," but want to know how to modify and learn about their thirdgen. This site will have a ton of new memebers. The people who used to go out and restore 302 '69 Camaro Z/28's will be after 350 '91 Z/28's. The 455 SD/HD T/A guys will be looking for the 80's version too. It will make having my current car in 10 years so much more worth it. My car will always be in my garage, and hopefully there will be plenty more muscle cars sitting next to it. As much as people respect the muscle cars of the old, they will respect our muscle cars in the years to come. We will be those old guys standing next to our car showing it off to teenagers just wishing they could have been alive when they were common on the road, or wishing that they could own one because of their rarity. Please don't lock this thread, just put it wherever it might make sense, because I don't know where that is.

~Matt

cool site! good information.

This belongs on the History/Restoration Board.

It sure does, moved.

I know I never plan on selling mine. Heck I wish I had never gotten rid of both my previous Firebirds, but I'm glad I got another chance to own one, and this one will stay with me 'til I die. Yes it has sentimental value *sniff*, but it's also a Firebird. The only cars I've ever loved.

i will never ever sell my car.

my dad used to have like a 70 something mustang fastback (i think, don't hate on me for having bad info). he gave it to his brother (who was a volunteer firefighter) and the brother was on his way to a call and freakin flipped it over. after i heard that story, i decided my son will get to see my first car

I plan to keep mine forever, the only way I will ever part with it is if it gets stolen or wrecked, but hopefully that will never happen.

yeah how bad did our cars outsell the 4th gens?

I don't know the exact numbers vegeta, but I think that 82-92 was the highest selling generation. If not, then it was 70-81, but only because it was the longest. If you go by popularity, 3rd gens are definately the winners. I know my car will always be with me, and I can't wait until I have others.

~Matt

I always plan on owning mine.....Nothing come hell or high water could make me sell it.

In any case, im aligned with this concept. ive said this for years, the third gen camaros and 80's stangs will be the 69 camaros and chevelles of the next generation. it makes sense,

although there are alot around....how many are in good shape? and how many will be in good shape in 10 years? thats where its gonna get interesting.

cant se me ever selling mine. prices are climbing rapidly in the UK, a mate just bought an 87 IROC, clean but nothing special for $6500.

Yea, I hear that in Europe F-bods are really rare and expensive. So if for some reason I need to sell my car I know where to put my classified ad.

~Matt

I completely agree. I am personally glad that I was around to witness and partake in the Third Generation F-Bodies. You really don't see too many on the road, and you see very few that are in good or better shape. I drive my car less that 1000 miles per year, and whenever I'm not driving it and see another ThirdGen car, especially a late model Firebird, I just have to say that I think that ThirdGens are THE best looking F-bodies ever made. Whenever my car gets out to a show I always have peolple looking at it bc you just don't see that many in that good a shape.
But I know that soon the restorations will become more popular and these cars will become the '69 Camaro today.

Probably the 3rd gens that will be worth the most are the following: not necessarly in this order:

1. TTA
2. Firehawk
3. 1LE
4. B4C
5. '90 IROC 350
6. '91 or '92 GTA
7. '87 20th ann. Vert Camaro

Probably any L98 Camaro or Firebird will fetch a good price as well.

ALOT.

I'm getting my peice of history soon, my 84 Z-28 Camaro. Maybe one day I can pick up a late third gen Z-28, or an I-roc

...Boy in 20 yrs I can see people picking up the honda, toyota, and nissian ricers like 67 Camaro's and Mustang's.

Do you guys think the pocket rockets will be collected? I sure as hell don't..

My car turned 20 this year... and since its an HO car, maybe that will be worth something extra someday.

That means you have a 83 HO car?? They are rare with only 3223 made. It will be worth money later down the road for sure....

Got any pictures??

WooHoo

Tom

Only problem now is that Adam put in a '79 350 with only the 305 HO's intake, carb, and distributer. I now own his old 305 HO short block and a friend of mine owns the intake, heads, and other bolt ons.

I would never sell my Recaro.I'm planning to pass it to my grandchildren. Thirdgens are getting rare and more expensive here in Montreal i don't know if that's the case in other places.

Is that the camaro production number? They made only 662 L69 Trans Am's inm 83 so those are even more rare. I doubt even 50 exist in original shape. 83 HO T/A is definitely on my list of dreamcars. One was on ebay with 5K original miles not too long ago.

As far as thirdgens.. we seem to forget how people were always remarking at how awesome the cars looked back in their day. They look relatively modern now in the 21st century, but in the 80s, the same cars looked absolutely futuristic and awesome. There was nothing else like them around. I'll never sell my 82 under any circumstances. My 85 has been aging steadily so it's probably not even worth $300 int eh open market, and I want to keep it forever too. My 84 is my newest addition and it was a really amazing original car till a fool got a hold of it and destroyed it. I may part that out in the long run, but actually I would really love to see it running and keep it. Personally I get too attached to my cars. The longer I have a car, the more painful it is to let go of it..

Ya sorry, that is the Camaro number. I do not know crap about the Trans Ams, and Firebirds....

WooHoo

Tom

The '83 HO Camaro is that rare? wow.... I'll have to work out a deal with Kevin (Karm) to see if i can get that shortblock back, and then, if that goes well, i'll try to peice it back to original condition from there.

Other than the 350, the car is 100% stock and original, and the 350 is built with most of the HO motors parts anyway.

I totally agree with you kizz, I have an attachment to cars, especially when I have had them for a while.

~Matt

When I found my T/A wasnt even looking for one, just saw an add for a black Trans Am at a local dealer. I noticed something different about the seats, saw some funny looking curved tubes on the intake, and observed rear disk brakes. After posting here I was informed of the rarity of it and bought it asap.

Mostly covered in the garage and taken out for sunny days and shows only, Im trying to preserve this specimen as long as possible, it only had 57,000 miles on it. I think Im approaching 63k now. May dad has drove it (he has a DeLorean) and also my older brother and they both loved it. Its almost a gokart.

The two tone treatment was standard on 85 Trans Ams, this was was ordered all black and with the Recaro seat option. The 85 TPI motor has the better cam in it and with the WS6, Im really pleased with the way it handles and performs. The car has been repainted and I have done a small seat repair but for the most part it is in unrestored condition.

Although the blue book value has dropped Im not worried at all and never plan on selling it.

Don

Other than F-body cars, what else had L69 heads? Any trucks or anything that use the same heads?

What about LG4 cars and the like? I swapped my motor out, and the motor is not going back in as long as Im driving it. On one hand, my father swapped in a 454 into a 67 maro, replacing the straight 6 that was in it. The car is worth far more as a big block than a 6, and an ss look alike with a 454 is worth almost as much as an original non rare optioned SS 396.

I thought that the L69 and the LG4 had the same heads. I thought the only difference was the camshaft and the air cleaner, but I could be wrong.

~Matt

Exhaust is different I beleive on the two, as Im suprised that crapp LG4 exhaust could let even 150 horsepower breathe. I have the stock y pipe and manifolds in my basement and just look at them and wonder why GM ever used them.

Yea, I no what you mean. When I installed my headers, I was amazed at how small the exhaust manifolds were. They really are the size of drinking straws. Good thing the headers are like paper towel rolls though

~Matt

When you look around and see a mint, super duper clean, shinny Third gen F body, it is just an amazing, sleek, sexy sports car period! Andrew

Holy you just raised this from the dead Batman...

Its actually too bad that the article is gone.

John

Yeah, I was gonna say I remember reading this A LONG time ago! I will say one thing...I wish I had more third gens. Had I never bought my Z in 2001, I would've bought another third gen in its place. Now, I love that car, and will never sell it...but it does take up a spot a third gen could sit. My '91 is my way of re-living my childhood, at a ripe old 28 With that said, in the next few years I think I'll FINALLY be able to buy a third toy and have an IROC. They're going up, which makes me nervous, but oh well...I have nowhere to put one right now. I have the 4th gen show car, and the third gen cruiser...now I need the third gen show car!

I think one thing that really our cars have is good looks, I cant think of anything made in the 80's that I thought I really like the looks of that car. To me even the Gran Nationals, and the Monte carlos are kind of boreing, The Fox (Mustang/Capri) are remade chevettes to me the F-body is really the only car I can look at and think its a good looking car.

John

I believe Thirdgens will become valuable overtime as well...
I personally will never sell my bird and that i'm currently making my 89 GTA T/A, my restoration project. I've been spending much of my time for the past year searching for quality gm restoration and NOS parts! Last year i've just recently purchased a NOS GTA nose emblem off of ebay, and it came in it's original box, bought it for a hundred bucks. Sure i could of bought aftermarket reproduction pieces at a lesser cost, but when it comes restoring my ride i'll seek OEM or NOS before purchasing aftermarket! I've also purchased a complete 8 piece T-Top weather stripping set from a local GM dealer. I was happy to hear that they still had these parts avaliable and they're not even restoration parts but rather NOS with updated drip rail provisions! Once i get the car partially repainted in some areas, after it's all said and done, hopefully the quality of the restoration will show that this car's value was indeed worth the blood, sweat, & gears of my passion for a thirdgen!

after all, as my saying goes "dedicated the preservation and restoration of our third generation!"

i must admit, when i bought my 83 bird i wasn't even looking to buy a car....but i saw this yellow bastard sitting there with "for sale" written all over it and had to stop to gawk. lo and behold the guy wanted 1500 i gave 1200 and became the proud owner of a running (albeit a measly 2.8 v6 instead of the original 305) 83 firebird.....that's a deal!! now i'm working on her slowly to put her into car show quality. here's the sad part though, at 35 years old i know it's part mid-life part sex appeal and such, but i do love not just the car itself but the act of building her up the way i want, unfortunately though my fav part of it all will be the day she's "done" and my son turns 16 and i pass those keys to him. (ok maybe i'll wait till he's 18 and give her as a graduation gift, or 21 and college is done.....) lol, i agree with all of these posts.....summed up it's simply this "get into an F-Body, it'll definately get into you"

I don't see how they couldn't become more valuable. I remember growing up in the late '80's and early '90's. Third Gen Camaros and the Fox body 5.0 Mustangs were a dime a dozen. Anytime I would be out and about I'd see tons of late '80's Irocs, RS's and lots of early '90's RS's. The only ones I didn't see that many of were the '91-'92 Z28's. Looking at the production numbers on this site I can see why. Then all of a sudden it seems like they dropped off the face of the Earth.

I told this story before, but not too long after I got my '92 Z28, I took it to the car wash, and washed it up and waxed it. On my way home I drove through my downtown area. There was a lady walking and she had her young son with her (probably 9 or 10), I drive by and I see the kid stop and he just started pointing like crazy, you would have thought I was driving a Lamborghini or something. Then I thought to my self, "well, as young as he is, this could have been the first time he's seen one of these cars." I think they've aged pretty well especially since the last third gen production model is pretty close to 20 years old.

Also are those production numbers on the '92 Z28's correct? I can't believe they made so little of them. If so, I wonder how many are still in one piece and drivable today?

The overall f-body numbers I have are:

1stgen 67-69 : 1091349

2ndgen 70-81 : 2779967

3rdgen 82-92 : 2369599

4thgen 93-02 : 1006755

Pretty sad how 3 years of 1stgen outsold 10 years of 4thgen. No guarantees on the numbers, but they should be darn close.

GT

I've noticed this too. Back when this thread was new I'd see third gens all over the place. Now it's a rare treat to see one on the road.



I had this happen to me as well. I was driving with my ttops off and windows down so I heard the conversation.
son : "what is that?"
dad : "it's a trans am, an old one"
son : "trans am?"

Yes, the 92 Z28 production numbers are correct. Geez I replied to this post 5 years ago LOL.

You guys are right though, some of the looks you get from young kids is hilarious, a "what is thaaaaat?!", type of stare LOL. Sometimes they'll even yell "nice car!", even though I have a feeling they don't know what it is yet most of the time. A mint Third Gen is an eye catcher to pretty much any age.

I had a guy in a 1969 Charger with the Aero package, high rise spoiler & all give me the thumbs up a few years ago on the express way... I think that was a good complement.

John

I had mine appraised 2 weeks ago and it came back 6000 minus the rear bumper slight fad, Little chips, headliner replacement and ( didn't get this ) carpet slightly worn which came out to 4100. I was mad, thought it was worth more.

Anyway, I plan on fixing those eventually with the paint going to be the pain in the rear as I want the door jams and under the hood sprayed too. I went to my old body shop in South Miami and the very nice gentleman who ran it the last 16 years sold the business to an Italian guy who did not want to repaint it as he said it would take too much time covering the jams and etc as he only wants collision work. The entire staff stayed with new ownership which is sad because they do incredible work. You find Mercedes, Porsches, ferraris and etc in there which would make any thirdgen owner wobble at the knees when you start being cocky about your car. Anyway, on the another shop to get that perfect factory job. Andrew

Who did the appraisal?

BTW, Bumpers never matched the rest of the car from the factory. they were painted at different times.

John

One thing I've noticed recently is how hard it's getting to find our cars in the junk yard. Back 3 or 4 years ago when I had my old car, I could find thirdgens all day at the boneyard, especially the ony I usually go to, south of downtown dallas. They had an entire section of the yard just for thirdgens, probably 40 or 50 cars at any given time. Fast forward 4 years to now, and they have 2 or 3, all of which are almost totally stripped, and were V6 base model cars to begin with. This is an enormous junkyard with probably 2000 cars too. I went 2 weeks ago looking for a few tan interior pieces, and didn't find a single one. In fact, the only part I went home with was a freakin dome light.

I had a local guy from Allstate Insurance do my appraisal. At first he said the car was so good looking for it's age, but I was just disappointed in his negative reports. I will get it all fixed eventually. Andrew

There inlies your problem, I suspect that AllState is the one insuring your car. Get an independant appraiser. The Inurance company will give you a LOW appraisal as they do not want to shell out the cash if something happens. If you get an independant appraisal it will more than likely be higher than saleable value, but rather it takes into account other issues like what you have into it, espeically if you have reciepts.

An appraisal is NOT what the car is Worth on the market, it is what it would cost to replace what you have. SO they take into account what it would cost for another car, and then add what you have done to it to make it what it is.

For example my 87 I have appraised and Insured for $25,000, I have about $22,000 into it PLUS my labor which according to an insurance company is Free if you DIY. My 89 Formula 350 Vert is appraised at $15,000 right now BUT I have done nothing to it. In reality my 89 Vert is worth WAY more than my 87.

Make sence?

JOhn

Reading this makes me drop everything and get another Iroc, I sold it early this year to get a nice L98 auto, I had an 88 Iroc 5 speed and man was it fun. I know that the 5 speeds are getting more rare. I will soon have another one.