JAPANESE 2021 VALUE GUIDES
IF RIGHT now you are in front of a screen or peering at your phone while people with a lot more money than you try to spend it on extraordinary cars, don’t despair.
Drifting past your window is a large multi coloured iceberg, comprised of all the interesting and still affordable cars that remain in the market.
Yes, the prices of these cars are increasing as well, but only in keeping with a market where the cost of other assets is climbing as well and money that people have parked in a bank is earning the better part of nothing.
Some of you may have witnessed a recent auction where sixfigure sums were bid for a couple of high-profile Holdens but where a selection of well-kept and interesting Japanese models were also sold at prices well within the bounds of affordability.
There are aberrations of course and some weeks earlier, a pristine Honda Accord did confound observers when bids soared to $36,000. There was also a Subaru Brumby utility that went within a whisker of $20,000 but vehicles of this stature rarely reach the open market.
Even among upper echelon Japanese performance models where prices have climbed significantly, very few have reached levels that you know can’t be sustained when economic conditions change.
R32 Nissan Skyline GTRs have been under-appreciated and generally undervalued for many years but now have begun to assert themselves in the global market. Watch especially the values of locally delivered R32s which are already double the price of recent imports.
Honda remains a brand with collector potential and a lot of undervalued models. S2000 Roadsters have doubled since 2016 but still offer value, as do Integra Type R coupes.
Higher up the ladder we see the quasi-exotic NSX, which when new was regarded as a supercar ‘dud’ but is now bringing exceptional money at Japanese auctions. Those cars then appear here at prices that haven’t been seen since the NSX was new in the 1990s.
The appearance of a new Supra has sparked interest in earlier versions and consequent climbing prices. As a result, twin-turbo cars built late in the 1990s have been offered at considerably more money than the brand-new ones.
If you don’t have $200,000 for an NSX or $90,000 for a Supra there remain plentiful opportunities to buy interesting Japanese models at considerably lower prices. An attractive and scarce Datsun 180B SSS coupe was knocked down during 2020 for a super-attractive $22,000, however if that is still too much, wellpreserved 180B and 200B sedans are available at half the SSS price.
Some cars that 20 years ago were derided as ‘grey’ imports have found their way into the collector mainstream and bringing significant money. Among them is the R31 Skyline Turbo coupe which Nissan was happy to pitch into battle with BMW’s M3 (which you also couldn’t buy here) for the 1987 Touring Car title but not import for local sale.
Cars that we saw back in the 1990s and recent arrivals have been doing way better than the deriders might have expected; one making $80,000 and typical pricing now in the $50-60,000 range.
Seems that holding onto that unfashionable car and letting the market come to you is a good strateg y after all.