DTM DreamWorks 

Owning such vehicles is something that should  be thought about. Often I have seen people fall pray or heck even victimized by the allure of an exotic or classic or collectors car.

Prospect Ferrari owner? One should consider what their expectations of Ferrari owner ship are and should be for them. Often times I see so many disappointed owners or owners that made emotional decisions and end up with cars that drove
home and spent more time in need of massive mechanical work.

1. One problem I see all to often is owners who spend 10,000-75,000 on a classic or exotic and they end up with a car that really needs to 15,000-50,000 in total over all work.

This easily can sour a first time buyers relationship. 1970's & early 1990's prospect owners should think about some important facts.

This goes for anything Classic and or Exotic, exclusive means limited and often times this means a lack of OEM equipment available. Also repairs and up keep! Often early car owners seem to forget that major overhauls on such cars like Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini often require the engine to be dropped for servicing. The parts and labor are never cheap. Often times the dealer is not always capable of servicing Classics.

2. Myths! There is no such thing as a cheap exotic sports car or classic. Get this out of you're head.

With classic cars some of the issues are more due to sourcing parts and keeping things functional and original, for example it is possible to find a Ferrari 308 GTS for 25-37,000. And a Porsche 911sc for 10,500 - 20,000. However the parts are very much still Ferrari and Porsche. This means you will spend Ferrari and Porsche prices for factory original goods, and sometimes you have to use factory original parts.

Need a engine? expect no less then 15,000 and beyond, especially if we are talking factory original or even factory specification. Sometimes some of the parts are not capable of being re used.

Servicing Bosch mechanical fuel injection or Jetronic systems are not exactly cheap. Another problem are emissions and if you are from California is strict about modernized EFI systems and laws are also expanding, ie they change like the wind.

3. Value, Value is a very amusing thing to me. There are a few things to watch out for. Millage can dictate a vehicles price.
But don't always be fooled by millage. ( especially Porsches ) I find cars with a bit of millage on them tend preform much more reliable. This is due to the nature of the flat six design.
When these engines sit for great lengths of time the engines can rot away like a sand castle at the beach as the tide comes in. Ferrari's too!

Specialty cars : Replicas, Tuned, Restored, Cars with
notority etc These can increase the value of a car depending. The quality should exceed that of OEM factory quality. Documentation is absolute.

Race Cars : There is a big difference between a car that was in a GP event and a car that was a Club Race. Race cars are great but you need to expect that these will cost and to keep them original and healthy is not cheap.

Media and Low Balling : The media and market like to attack
numbers. Sure numbers do equate exclusive, but this does not always equate cheap if the production numbers were more. Grade is a small factor but we really should consider what the inflation. People often over look this, value should be matched.
Although it's a neat little trick that the media and market likes to pull on you. If we took 1970-1980's market prices and calculated the inflation of today we would see that these cars actually held or hold a common value and when new were infact identical if not more then Ferrari's or Porsche's of today.

Another issue is that there has been a trend designed into our marketing system of when a new generation is introduced the values of previous generations tend to decrease. This is true but often excessive.

Performance has been in late the recent establishment for sometimes the arguement in value. The validity is often wrong in logic.

Again the market also in the end really comes down to what people are willing to pay, but this is even flawed as missinformation is quite frequent in the automotive industrey.
And popularity and fads are always in and out of fashion.

Mick-

PS, much of the information and things to think about can
be applied to cul