Good Bets to be Automotive Investments

2008 - 2010 BMW 535i E60 Wagon $15,000 to $30,000

Its relatively rare like most wagons.  This is a $70,000 car that was state of the art five years ago. Its like a video card that was made to be overclocked, but even out of the box its a superior performer.

The body was created by Chris Bangle and two thousand years of German Engineering. The front half is mostly aluminium and other exotic alloys. Why only half? To get 50/50 balance on the tires, all of which are driven.  BMW has a fantastic paint system that starts with a full e-coating of the frame. Looking at cars ten year old its pretty clear the European luxury brands have conquered rust. This boost value incredibly because its unlikely the car will ever need a full tear down paint job.

Next the N54 twin turbo engine is one of the finest power plants every conceived let alone created. Unfortunately it had some huge nagging problems. First the high pressure fuel pump that fed fuel directly into the cylinder was prone to failure. This is good news bad news, the good news is it has accelerated the depreciation. The better news is the aftermarket loves the N54 engine. Replace the turbos, add a better inter cooler, exhaust and air filter and you may have Honda like reliability. A few upgrades and your 300hp luxury sportwagen is now a 350 Hp beast without even tweaking the boost or fiddling with the chip. There are lots of options to pump the N54 up to a stable 500Hp.

Most direct injection gasoline engines have  problem with gunky valves. There may be a solution for the N54. Nevertheless its another issue that has increased the depreciation of this near perfect car.

Lastly the 2010 535ix had most of the latest tech available, lane departure and infra red vision included.

In summary this is a collectible car you can use as a daily driver, that can haul like both an SUV and a race car.

Toyota MR2 1984 -2005  $1000- $15,000

There are  3 body styles available the last was available in North America between 2000 and 2005.  I like this version because its a convertible. What makes it collectible is its mid engined. One option I would investigate is putting a Pirus or pure electric drivetrain in.  This is another summer daily driver that I predict will always be desirable.

Jaguar XJ(R) and Super V8 2007-2009  $15,000 to $30,000

Both of these cars are rare. New they both cost over $100,000. Al aluminium construction makes rusting out a distant problem. Due to their extreme light weight all models of the XJ are great candidates to be converted to pure electrics. Although the first al XJ came out in 2004, the later models look better and have most the legendary Jaguar gremlins tamed.

Standard equipment was a 500Hp 4.2 liter supercharged V8.