To Sell Or Not To Sell: The 90’s Project Car Dilemma
With the US Federal 25-year rule expiring for the majority of our prized 90’s JDM toys, we are now in the thick of seeing the floodgates open in terms of overall market value for these vehicles. Global prices have shot up due to increasing demand, and when you look at it from a local context here in the Philippines, the trend isn’t too different; in a way, you could say it has even been exaggerated.
Global market values aside, the prices of grail Japanese vehicles locally have compounded further due to the fact that we have been unable to import and convert these vehicles since Port Irene closed during the mid-2010s. What we have in circulation since then is all that we have*, and as supply stagnates, demand will naturally drive prices up exponentially – as evidenced by prices of cars changing hands lately.
No, I do not know how those 4-digit plated 90’s cars have been brought in recently. Don’t ask.
The current market landscape is something that easily makes sense if you’ve tackled basic economics in high school. There really is no use wincing and whining about it when a whole generation of car enthusiasts bid top dollar to get a slice of the few hundred thousand or so of these coveted JDM vehicles in circulation. This is a sad fact we all have to live with, and admittedly, it gets harder by the day to get your coveted Japanese whip.
That said, I count myself lucky that I have my grail car sitting in my garage – which flips the script when it comes to this particular topic:
Are you poised to sell the RX-7 soon? And if so, what’s your price?
Those kinds of questions always have me tongue-tied for a few reasons; chief of which is because I am not actually planning to sell the car just yet – let alone figure out how much everything has cost me at this point. I have also learned from a few friends that even casually tossing out an audacious number these days can be tricky… because someone might actually call that amount.
“Presyong ayaw ibenta, pero nabenta pa rin.”
It’s crazy how these days someone can just pony up an absurd amount for one of these grail cars. The likes of Nissan Silvia S15s, for example, are now firmly in the lower to mid-7 digits depending on condition. While we grew up with these cars being lambasted for having B-Plates in the day and selling for half the price of a then-brand-new Civic, it’s clear to see that the tables have now turned.
But with the idea of cashing out on your 90’s project car in play, I present another question to counter:
Is it really worth it?
Consider the time you’ve poured into the car, the long hours at work just to get that part on Yahoo Auctions you probably had to outbid another gaijin for, not to mention the months (years?) it spent at the shop tying up loose ends well before you could drive it. Have you really enjoyed the car since sorting it all out? Have you gotten to know your car enough to say “I’m done” or “this really isn’t for me anymore”?
We all have our own impressions and reasons for project car ownership, and I believe this is always the first step to consider before letting go.
The next question, and perhaps the toughest one to answer for me is,
“What’s going to replace it?”
You could say that a good JDM grail car can fetch a mid-7 digit amount these days, but then you ask yourself:
What’s in that range that will fill the high-performance gap in my garage?
- GR Yaris?
- FL5 Type R?
- Stretch the budget a bit for an A90 or an M2?
- Maybe a Z?
- Maybe you’ve got a BNR34 or an NSX you can flip for a nice Porsche?
All great choices for sure, and none will give you headaches for the next few years… but believe you and me, there will be something missing.
I can’t speak for the other 90’s shitbox owners out there, but I really am still enjoying the difficulty joys of RX-7 ownership. Despite the rising costs of parts and maintenance, I am of the belief that it still offers something that no other car could behind the wheel. If I am to let the RX-7 go, where else will I find something pushing 400whp with amazing handling and a timeless look for the same price?
The options that meet this criterion will likely be more than triple the RX-7’s selling price anyway… because I’ll only want to cry inside a Porsche with a PTS Allocation and a Sonderwunsch interior.
To some degree, this sentiment will ring true for most of the RX-7’s contemporaries from the 90’s. All those buzzwords like ‘raw driving feel’, ‘visceral acceleration’, ‘communicative handling’, and the car feeling ‘analog’ are just simply true for these cars, and it is an experience that modern cars just can’t match despite all their engineering advancements. I feel that vehicles from the 90’s offer the true balance of technology, chassis development, and mechanical prowess, and this makes for a driving experience that can no longer be replicated by a modern car without certain compromises.
I keep repeating the word ‘experience’, because that is what I want everyone to think about when letting go:
Are you ready to let go of the ‘experience’ this car gives you?
The moment you sell it high, there is a good chance you won’t be getting it back. It’s not so much a question of money as it is finding another car just like it that’s still circling the market. Chances are, the guy you sold it to will hold onto the car for keeps – and your car will never see the light of day.
In this world of big numbers and absurd prices, it is still difficult for me to put a price on an experience. Much like spending on plans for traveling, you will spend on a car to make it drive a certain way, but the end goal for both traveling and building cars is to be able to live out and savor the present after all that effort to get to where you want to be.
When you see a car as something that enables you to enrich your life instead of a cash cow on four wheels, those prices can be put into a much better perspective.
If you’re poised to sell your 90’s JDM whip, I hope you took the time to read and think it over.
…Or, you know, you can dry your tears with all that paper.
