Interesting Terminator Auction results

[13COBRA]

DISCLOSURE: I don't have a dog in the fight, and I don't necessarily agree with the low values, but these are true statistics that I am passing along.

As far as the condition goes, 4.0+ is preferred and a 4.0 and a 4.8 may not have any noticable differences in condition, just a different auction house performing the grading.

Unfortunately this is the kind of stuff that keeps trade-in values low. There's a huge following on this site, obviously, of Terminators and other Mustangs alike so it seems natural to me that someone on this site would pay more than the typical customer off the street.

Another thing holding values down, is NADA Book Values. This chart is based on 2004 Cobra with 10,000 miles, hence the $3,625 add for odometer adjustment. The vast majority of lending institutions will base their loan value off of NADA Clean Trade-in.

KBB shows to be a little more accurate (in my opinion) on the same vehicle, and you can see that the reason it's higher is they double the odometer adjustment to $8,588.

 

[SID297]

You might need to start hitting the auctions and socking them away.

 

[13COBRA]

You might need to start hitting the auctions and socking them away.

"Sitting" money, doesn't make money though...

 

[CobraBob]

Interesting info, Nick. I agree that those KBB prices seem more accurate and true to what we typically see for a 2003-2004 Cobra with, say, 20K-30K miles. Vehicle mods often affect the private party pricing, too. Higher mileage adjusts the odometer adj. downward.

 

[c6zhombre]

Auction prices? 99% of the people here are not dealers and won't be buying from an auction. NADA has always been a joke as a reference point for a low mile, clean terminator. Nothing new there. That list is very short on details and is spread over a year. Winter months historically draw the least interest and hence lower sale value if someone is desperate to dump one.

You really need to see these vehicles to get a fair market value. I have seen 10,000 mile cars that look very rough. Paint poor, other unsavory aspects. Then you'll see a 35,000 mile car that looks immaculate. Bottom line, extremely clean and lowish mile terminators will hold good to great value. It's not going away anytime soon.

 

[BlksvtCobra01]

Interesting info. I also think color will play a part in the future. As well as the mystichrome and 10th anniversary package. I know this isn’t the time of the year to sell. Another thing is for some people correct me if I’m wrong you won’t be able to get a full loan for what people are asking. You will have to come up with a bigger down payment. Interest rate will probably be higher as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Goose17]

"Sitting" money, doesn't make money though...

It does if the asset is appreciating. Buy a car at its price low-point, drive it a bit and sell it for a profit if you are so inclined.

The Terminator price low-point has already come and gone. I have already seen nice examples appreciating.

 

[13COBRA]

Auction prices? 99% of the people here are not dealers and won't be buying from an auction. NADA has always been a joke as a reference point for a low mile, clean terminator. Nothing new there. That list is very short on details and is spread over a year. Winter months historically draw the least interest and hence lower sale value if someone is desperate to dump one.

You really need to see these vehicles to get a fair market value. I have seen 10,000 mile cars that look very rough. Paint poor, other unsavory aspects. Then you'll see a 35,000 mile car that looks immaculate. Bottom line, extremely clean and lowish mile terminators will hold good to great value. It's not going away anytime soon.

Boom. Shot the messenger. lol

I have no hard feelings, just passing it along as I got it.

But did you happen to see the part where I said "Unfortunately this is the kind of stuff that keeps trade-in values low"? That has nothing to do with consumers buying at auctions, it has everything to do with consumers trading in their vehicles to dealerships. Let's be honest, 40% of dealerships don't know the difference between a 2003 Cobra and a 2004 Mach 1.

It does if the asset is appreciating. Buy a car at its price low-point, drive it a bit and sell it for a profit if you are so inclined.

The Terminator price low-point has already come and gone. I have already seen nice examples appreciating.

Not disagreeing, but if you have $20k wrapped up in a Cobra, in hopes of it even tripling in value in 30 years....SURELY you could have made more in 30 years if you have purchased and flipped several cars for a $2-3k profit each.

 

[c6zhombre]

Boom. Shot the messenger. lol

I have no hard feelings, just passing it along as I got it.

But did you happen to see the part where I said "Unfortunately this is the kind of stuff that keeps trade-in values low"? That has nothing to do with consumers buying at auctions, it has everything to do with consumers trading in their vehicles to dealerships. Let's be honest, 40% of dealerships don't know the difference between a 2003 Cobra and a 2004 Mach 1.



Not disagreeing, but if you have $20k wrapped up in a Cobra, in hopes of it even tripling in value in 30 years....SURELY you could have made more in 30 years if you have purchased and flipped several cars for a $2-3k profit each.

Not shooting the messenger at all. I just think your example here is too limited to draw a ton of conclusions. It's 12 cars over a year time span, from auctions, you cannot see the car details or condition of the car, and the sample size is extremely low. They made over 19k of these cars, so something tells me far more than a dozen change hands every year. You aren't telling us anything new that NADA is slanted toward a dealer. Always has been. Over half of your examples were transacted November thru March. Off peak season for sure.

 

[13COBRA]

Not shooting the messenger at all. I just think your example here is too limited to draw a ton of conclusions. It's 12 cars over a year time span, from auctions, you cannot see the car details or condition of the car, and the sample size is extremely low. They made over 19k of these cars, so something tells me far more than a dozen change hands every year. You aren't telling us anything new that NADA is slanted toward a dealer. Always has been. Over half of your examples were transacted November thru March. Off peak season for sure.

NADA is slanted towards a dealer? Do tell.

I was saying it was low. Once the dealer owns a vehicle, they would want the highest NADA possible, in order to get the most carry.

 

[SID297]

"Sitting" money, doesn't make money though...

Depends. Bet you would have minded siting on a few Ford GTs for the last 10 years. Probably doubled in value between 2008 and 2013.

 

[13COBRA]

Depends. Bet you would have minded siting on a few Ford GTs for the last 10 years. Probably doubled in value between 2008 and 2013.

We had 3. Bought at $127k, $132k and $150k. Sold for, respectively, $255k, $309k and $291k.

But even on the one we made $177k on, that took 10 years to do. So $17,700 a year. The original $132k could have purchased 13 Focus and they could have made $1500-2000 a car, so after one year you would be up $1,700 minimum..and not had $132k sitting there not doing anything.

My dad is big on buying and holding...but when you break it down to him like above, he gets it...but he just looks at the opportunity cost as the cost of having a cool piece of art in the garage.

From a sole financial perspective, I can't think of any 1 car that would be a huge money maker. But, I'm always open to being proved wrong.

 

[SID297]

We had 3. Bought at $127k, $132k and $150k. Sold for, respectively, $255k, $309k and $291k.

But even on the one we made $177k on, that took 10 years to do. So $17,700 a year. The original $132k could have purchased 13 Focus and they could have made $1500-2000 a car, so after one year you would be up $1,700 minimum..and not had $132k sitting there not doing anything.

My dad is big on buying and holding...but when you break it down to him like above, he gets it...but he just looks at the opportunity cost as the cost of having a cool piece of art in the garage.

From a sole financial perspective, I can't think of any 1 car that would be a huge money maker. But, I'm always open to being proved wrong.

I figured you did a little arbitrage there.

 

[13COBRA]

I figured you did a little arbitrage there.

We basically saw the market starting to jump and we snagged up several at what we thought were 'safe' prices. Looking back, we very easily could've purchased 10-15 more at <$200k, but at the time that seemed like a very unnecessary risk.

 

[HPLouis]

That 4900 Mystichrome is my old car. All I kept getting is tire kickers and a-holes calling me up and complaining about how I'm asking too much ($30K) for that car. People would lowball me and offer $18K and start cursing when I said no. I sold it for $27,225 and the guys turned around and immediately auctioned it for $31.5K and the car still sits in Ohio: 2004 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra Convertible Mystichrome Carol Stream IL 23231431

 

[cj428mach]

Terminator values really seem to be trending down on Facebook. A lot of people only see the performance factor and say i can coyote + tvs and make xxx for less money.

 

[RDJ]

NADA is slanted towards a dealer? Do tell.

I was saying it was low. Once the dealer owns a vehicle, they would want the highest NADA possible, in order to get the most carry.

the standard NADA is worthless for these cars. the book to look at is the CPI one "Cars of Particular Interest" black book. it will have much more realistic prices for these cars and is used by financial institutions to value collector cars for loans. My credit union uses them and I think some banks do

 

[gimmie11s]

Interesting info in this thread.

For a casual car buyer/flipper like myself having access to dealer auctions is a game changer.

 

[13COBRA]

the standard NADA is worthless for these cars. the book to look at is the CPI one "Cars of Particular Interest" black book. it will have much more realistic prices for these cars and is used by financial institutions to value collector cars for loans. My credit union uses them and I think some banks do

Same car.... Black Book.

 

[Weather Man]

The clean low mile stock cars will continue separating from higher mile and/or modified cars.

The 90's ZR-1 guys thought they were the cats meow and many were wrapped and salted away, they got their asses handed to them.