Collecting cars is stupid: Why you earn miles with your car – not value – | Opinion – car news

A few years ago I was lucky enough to be there at the launch of the HSV GTSR W1 on Phillip Island.

This was the pinnacle of the Australian automotive industry – the fastest and most powerful production car ever built Down Under. It was a moment of triumph and joy for HSV, or at least it should have been.

Sitting at the wheel of one of the W1 prototypes and waiting for my turn, one of the senior engineers at HSV leaned through the window with an expression of pride and pain.

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“That’s what they were built for,” he said, referring to high-speed laps on the track. Then he sighed and added: “But they just end up in garages.”

He was right, of course, that people would buy the W1 for its historical significance as much as for its added performance. In fact, now, just a few years later, these last HSVs are changing hands for huge sums of money.

When new, HSV charged $ 169,990 (plus road costs) for the W1 and now they’re selling for more than three times that. A look at this week’s classifieds showed five W1s for sale. The cheapest was advertised at $ 495,000 and the most expensive at $ 630,000.

Not a bad return on investment in just four years.

But these are not investments, these are cars. Cars designed to be driven, enjoyed and, hell, even beaten up.

HSV didn’t bother to secure a limited supply of Chevrolet’s fantastic 6.2 liter V8 supercharger “LS9” just to make the W1 look great in your garage. The engineers also didn’t add any V8 supercar-derived dampers, ditching longtime tire suppliers Bridgestone and Continental in favor of Pirelli, thinking this would help raise the price in 2021.

No, HSV did all of this so that the W1 was the best car it has ever built. It deserves to be driven, not hidden.

The $ 630,000 W1 has driven 17 miles in total over the past four years. That must make the engineers at HSV cry when they think that all their efforts are in vain. Corvette-derived engine, racing bumpers, and stickier tires to a stop.

The really annoying thing is that HSV didn’t even have to build the W1. The company already made the farewell GTSR, which had a unique body kit but the same powertrain as the existing GTS – which would have been much cheaper and easier to produce than the W1.

Those cars now fetch double the original price anyway (so each of the past HSVs was undoubtedly a wise financial buy) but it adds to the frustration that the blood, sweat and tears HSV poured into the W1 from so many Owners are wasted.

It is of course not just limited to HSV. Collecting cars has been a pastime for the wealthy almost since the invention of the automobile. Nowadays, however, it has been turned into an art form by some – both collectors and car companies.

Many brands use special editions and custom designs to attract wealthy buyers looking to fill their inventory with future items for sale. Lamborghini may be the master of this business model, often building cars in runs of less than 10 pieces to ensure they become collectibles right away, but know full well that they won’t see asphalt under their tires.

Perhaps the best example of modern collectibles is the McLaren F1, which recently sold for $ 20.46 million ($ 27.8 million) at the Pebble Beach auctions. This car was designed by legendary Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray to be the ultimate driver’s car – light, powerful and with a central driving position. He didn’t design it to be in a collection for decades, which this $ 27 million car did. In 26 years he has covered 391 km, which is an average of only 15 km per year.

Some may think this is an amazing long-term investment that has sold new for around $ 1 million. I think it’s a waste. It’s like locking a bird in a cage and never allowing it to spread its wings and fly.

The irony is, because cars like the McLaren F1 and HSV GTSR W1 are so special, they’re going to increase in value anyway. Mr. Bean star Rowan Atkinson is known to have crashed his McLaren not just once but twice and still managed to sell it six years ago for $ 12.2 million. It’s a win-win situation; not only was he making a handsome profit on his investment, but he was clearly driving the McLaren with a certain amount of enthusiasm, the way it should be driven.

I was fortunate enough to take part in the Porsche Tour section of Targa Tasmania earlier this year and it was good for the soul to see some very collectible Porsches (911 GT3 Touring, 911 GT2 RS, 911 GT3 RS etc) filth from five days On the way.

While cars have become investments like art, most people don’t buy art and then hide it in the basement where everyone can see it. That would destroy the purpose of creating art in the first place.

It is the same with cars, hiding them fails to create them. Cars are meant to be driven, designed to get dirty, scratchy and count kilometers on the odometer. If you hide them in your garage because you think they will be worth something in a few years or even decades, you are wasting the best years of a car life.

Sure, your car can safely accumulate more value in the garage, but you should be earning miles and memories on your car.