Classic or Current Camaro for the Same Money?
We all love classic muscle cars so why don't we all own them? Maybe we should.
1. Reliability and Maintenance
In his 1970 Camaro review, Regular Car Reviews' Mr. Regular opined something to the effect of, "you don't want an old car, you'll never stop fixing it." He was basing his comments on his early '60s, Ford Falcon. If he had the $45,000-$65,000 nice 2018 V-8 Camaros cost to spend on a fully-restored 1968 RS, maybe he'd be singing a different tune. Granted, even a restored 50-year-old car is going to have a few 50-year-old parts left on it and will let you down sooner than a brand new car will. But every car will eventually break, and as easy as reading codes and plugging in plastic connectors is, turning wrenches on a classic yields a different kind of reward.
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2. Speed
No one is going to dispute that new Camaros are faster than old ones, but 50,000 dollars is a lot of money and if you want 600+ horsepower you'll find a way to get it for that much coin. If you want 600 reliable horsepower in a well-opted, numbers matching Z/28 you might have a slightly tougher time of it. Settling for a little less performance, swapping in LS power, selecting a base model as a starting place, or buying someone else's project are all ways to make a little room under the price cap. You're not going to get trounced by a heavier, newer car if speed is high on your list of priorities. Remember: no warranty means no warranty to void.
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3. The Practical Stuff
Usability, comfort, fuel economy, emissions, safety. Let's take those one at a time. First: Who cares. No one buys a Camaro for any of those things. You're not daily driving a Camaro if you live where it snows. If you want to save the planet, reduce, reuse and recycle a 1969 Camaro. Don't you have room for a car that you won't use all the time? Push your boat/snowmobiles out of the garage and into the yard. There are options for less-polluting, higher-mileage engines, but nobody seems to swap 1.2-liter fours into muscle cars. Safety is an important consideration and the newer car undoubtedly does a better job of protecting you, we just wish it was a little easier to see out of.
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4. Long Term Value
No one really knows what the future will bring, but the bottom isn't going to drop out of the 1967-1972 muscle car market anytime soon. Houses go down in value sometimes, and gold bars, but not muscle cars. We're living in another golden age of the American performance car, but you can never tell how history will play out. If we could, we would have all bought Hemi Superbirds during the oil crisis of 1973. We'd have more confidence in the long-term value of the current crop of cars if they didn't borrow their style so heavily from their namesakes. Copies are seldom worth as much as the originals.
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5. The Eye of the Beholder
Which brings us to arguably the important category: attraction. It's harder to make an ugly car pretty than it is to make a slow car fast. You can't see fast when you look at a car but you can see beautiful. Whether falling in love all over again every time you look at your Camaro is worth giving up the niceties of modern technology is a question only you can answer. In the end, your decision might be as simple as whether you prefer Aloha Bobby and Rose or Transformers.
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