Hagerty listed the Roadmaster Wagon as the collectible wagon to buy now!

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2017/11/21/wagons-to-buy-sell-hold?sf81545934=1 - Hagerty listed the Roadmaster Wagon as the collectible wagon to buy now!

Great article! Does that mean we are ahead of our time?

Looks like I bought mine just in time!

maybe they'll start insuring them now.....

Nice to know I am one step ahead of the game this time lol .

Gerome wrote:

Nice to know I am one step ahead of the game this time  lol .

Me too. I bought my 96 white WB4 8 years ago with 70,000 miles for $5200. Zero rust, nice clean South Carolina car. My wife finally quit bugging me to sell it since she didn't like driving it (I got her a 2002 T bird convertible), so I hope to keep mine forever. I've stockpiled some of the essentials like mint extra seat skins, chrome moldings, door panels, and wheel centers, the last items thanks to my buddy Silverfox.

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maybe they'll start insuring them now.....

I had to provide a few links to completed sales, but Hagerty had no issue in insuring mine (1996 Caprice) for $12,000 last year, and that will increase next year to $15,000. Their insurance for classic cars is not the typical comprehensive policy.  It's more like a life insurance policy on the car.  If it is damaged, and it's under the total policy limit, it gets fixed.  If over (it's dead), you get the total policy value.  There is no haggling.  Just be prepared to document the condition of your car if you are insuring it for higher value, and be patient with their requests for evidence.  Note: if you conspicuously mod the car (ghetto wheels, a paint job that lacerates your eyes, etc), you'll decrease it's insurable value.  Sleepers... not a problem.   You might want to hang onto those wire wheel covers until you get some pictures of your car, freshly washed, waxed, vacuumed, and silicone-slimed, on the beach, at sunset. Membership in car clubs, and pictures of the car at meetings (Wagonfest?) also help assure the company that it is not just a rustbucket that you are trying to insure and then burn.

Sprocket wrote:

maybe they'll start insuring them now.....

My 96 Roady has been with Hagerty for two years now. No complaints!

I guess I need to look into this....I just have regular ol insurance on mine. I always figured...if something happened I would just take part off, scrap and find another one. But now I kinda feel like Im in too deep. lol

dmg4 wrote:

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maybe they'll start insuring them now.....

 Note: if you conspicuously mod the car (ghetto wheels, a paint job that lacerates your eyes, etc), you'll decrease it's insurable value.  Sleepers... not a problem.

Ah, that is why I don't do this insurance. Plus I like to drive it a lot. I got those ghetto wheels fo sure.

brokecello wrote:

dmg4 wrote:

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maybe they'll start insuring them now.....

 Note: if you conspicuously mod the car (ghetto wheels, a paint job that lacerates your eyes, etc), you'll decrease it's insurable value.  Sleepers... not a problem.

Ah, that is why I don't do this insurance. Plus I like to drive it a lot.  I got those ghetto wheels fo sure.

Lol

they seem to use weird parameters in the article.

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I got those ghetto wheels fo sure.

You ain't got a thing, if it ain't got that bling!

dmg4 wrote:

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I got those ghetto wheels fo sure.

You ain't got a thing, if it ain't got that bling!

That poor 307.....

lol Wheels and exterior modifications aren't going to decrease your insurability on a collector car.

Chris - Hagerty gave me an offer to insure my car. You'll be fine with yours.

Does anyone know if any of the specialty insurers will insure a car that isn't garage kept? My insurance is very cheap (a little over $300 per year, full coverage, 100-300,000 liability) with State Farm, but I'm concerned if it got totaled I might be in trouble value wise. My car has about 130,000 miles on it, but looks like 30,000.

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lol Wheels and exterior modifications aren't going to decrease your insurability on a collector car.

We don't really disagree. I did not write that mods decrease the "insurability" of a collector car; only that some mods will decrease the maximum value for which Hagerty will insure a car. Hagerty will still insure it, but possibly for less than an original in what appears to be "stock condition". That's not my opinion, but that of Seth Halbert at Hagerty.

The reason he gave is that it is already difficult to document the replacement value of these cars. Sales are few and far between, and range from rusted-out beaters worth $1500, to low mileage cream puffs in near-original condition. The more mods you make, the more difficult you make the job of finding relevant comparative sales, and there are mods (generally the most conspicuous and potentially irreversible ones), that however tasteful they seem to the present owner, decrease the replacement value of the car from the perspective of an insurance company, and some potential buyers.

That aside, we own these cars to be happy, not to make money. If modding makes you happy, then do that. Nobody wants to hang around unhappy people. But the insurance company views matters sometimes from their own unique perspective.

Amen to that.

The Hagarty article bothers me a little bit how they talk about the cars like they're investments. The average schmuck probably isn't buying a wagon as an investment, but because it's a wagon. That's why I bought mine...

That's Hagerty's business. Investment cars.

With each passing year, nice examples of these cars (like all others) move farther from reach for the average schmuck and become collectable. I felt the same way about my 1949 Chevrolet 3600, my 1957 Bel Air, my 1963 Fury, my 1964 Impala, my father's 1973 Chrysler New Yorker, my 1980 VW Rabbit Diesel, etc, etc, etc. Who would want these old, tired crapboxes? Any of them, even the VW, would now be an investment car.

Right now you can still find $1500 beaters. Hagerty is simply taking notice of a tipping point for these cars. Soon...poof... the affordable ones will be gone!

Buy them cheap while you can.

Yep. How many guys in the 60s and 70s were passing around tri-5 Chevies like they were $1000 winter beaters?

Everybody was.

RedandBlack wrote:

Yep. How many guys in the 60s and 70s were passing around tri-5 Chevies like they were $1000 winter beaters?

Everybody was.

I wasn't alive back then, so it's hard for me to imagine. Although, my first car was a 1993 Mustang Gt that I bought for $900 and sold for $1,900 after putting 100k miles on it. At the time it felt like an outlier.

I wasn't either, but I've sold enough of those cars to hear all the stories. lol

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How many guys in the 60s and 70s were passing around tri-5 Chevies like they were $1000 winter beaters

Zero, from my memory. Minimum wage was $1.65 per hour, gas was 0.33/gal, and I paid $200 for my '57 Bel Air, $100 for the '49 pickup, and my father gave me the other cars with instructions to drive them to the scrapyard after I had killed them.

dmg4 wrote:

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How many guys in the 60s and 70s were passing around tri-5 Chevies like they were $1000 winter beaters

Zero, from my memory.  Minimum wage was $1.65 per hour, gas was 0.33/gal, and I paid $200 for my '57 Bel Air, $100 for the '49 pickup, and my father gave me the other cars with instructions to drive them to the scrapyard after I had killed them.

Well, I mean if you factor in inflation it's probably in the ballpark.

My dad sold his 1969 SS 396 Chevelle in 75 for 350 bucks. He didn't want my aunt's boyfriends to trash it while he was stationed in Germany.

I sold this...




To buy THIS!



I wish I was kidding...

Yup, back then there wasn't several things driving up prices:

Cable TV shows
Barrett Jackson and the Like
Special0ty car dealers '

Cars were used and tossed. Period. Yeah a few were kept, but not like today. Around 1980 a good car cruise in FL had 20-30 cars and those were mostly 60s muscle cars that were only 10-15 years old at the time... Here is a list of cars I either sold or passed on as I didn't have the money or a place to park it (all cars were transportation to me except my Austin Healey which was still my Pop's at the time)

In no particular order:
1960 Austin Healey 100-6 that would turn over but not fire up, was pretty beat up but striaght. - Not bought, could have had it for $50 in 1983.

1958 Impala,# matching fully restored with 348 tri power and the triple color interior, hard top no posts - Passed on it, 1990 Bay Area, CA $11K.

1970 Chevy K-5 Blazer 4spd, 4wd, 350, posi . Bought for 1200, new engine, body and paint, accident a week after paint. sold for $500 trade in on 79 Cutlass. with a 260 V8. sold in 1985

79 Cutlass, bought for 2K, sold for 800 a few years later as I had 3 cars. 1985-89

1973 Granville Convertible. 455 Bought it from a stripper (the dancing kind) for 1200, used it for 9 months and sold it for 1100 whereupon it was used as the getaway car in an armed robbery. Probably could have gotten it back, but it was a NY car. 1991-1992

1983 XJS with V12. bought for 7500 sold for 3500 5 years later, only put 10K on it. Loved it but needed to pay the mortgage on the house while out of work. 1989-1994

1973 Trans am 4spd with 455 - could have had it not running for $500, passed 1988

Buick GNX with 50K miles for $20K in 1989 offered 17, didn't have the other 3. Should have gotten a loan!

I know there are others I can't think of right now.