Date:         Sat, 17 Sep 2005 17:48:10 -0700
Reply-To:     Jim Arnott <jrasite@EONI.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jim Arnott <jrasite@EONI.COM>
Subject:      Investment cars, was VW means 'Vacation Wagon' :-)
In-Reply-To:  <432CA628.2040005@charter.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Disagree.

Tell that story to any diesel Westy owner... Or Jaguar E-type owner.

Westy: $3k invested. Appreciated to ~$7.5k.
Jag: $5k invested. Appreciated  to $20k+.

Yeah, that qualifies as "investment."

Some vehicles "depreciate." Some don't.

Priced a late 60's Mustang or Austin-Healey 3000 recently? If it's
complete, you'll pay more for it now than you would have when it was
new. A lot more. Next big thing? T2 buses are slowly climbing. Buy one
for under a grand and start working on it. By the time you're finished,
you'll get your money back and a profit.

In my life, I've never owned a car newer than ten years old and I've
lost money on exactly three of them.

The key is picking the right ones. I've been right about 90% of the
time. And I've gotten to drive some really cool iron.

Jim

On Saturday, September 17, 2005, at 04:26 PM, John Rodgers wrote:

> One can only have "equity" in  property that is an investment, and
> either maintains or appreciates (Real Property) If that property is one
> that depreciates, then it is not an investment but an expense,because
> the depreciation will eventually equal the equity and there will be no
> value at all. Vehicles are machines, they depreciate in value and thus
> any "Equity" is eventually lost.