Barrett-Jackson Auction Results
 

I've enjoyed watching the Barrett-Jackson Auction on the Speed Channel this weekend.

I thought it was interesting when the announcing crew indicated that some of the high-end muscle cars were selling for only 50% of what they would have sold for last year.

I just watched a 1970 Hemi Cuda that was numbers matching with only 21K miles sell for $150K. Granted that the color, a burnt brown, may not have been super popular, but these cars used to sell for $500K.

I haven't watched enough of the auction to see if there are still people paying $3 - $4 Million for the ultra-rare vehicles like they have for the past few years. I'll report back in another post.

At the beginning of the auction, Barrett-Jackson's CEO, Craig Jackson, commented that the tight mortgage market has not had an impact on the price of collector cars. That's what you would expect him to say. The results, however, seem to be telling a different story.

Top car sells for $1.7 Million
 

It would appear that the combination of a tight credit market and a weak real estate market reduced buying pressure at Barrett-Jackson.

This year's top selling car sold for $1.7 Million. Not the $4 - $5 Million that we saw for the past two years.

The 2009 Corvette ZR1 sold for $1 Million with the money being donated to charity. The winning bidder was a Chevrolet Dealer in North Dakota - Dave Ressler. I don't know anything about him but he sure looks like a class-act based on what I was able to see on TV.

The guy in the Ferrari Hat that was the center of attention two years ago was a "no-show" for this auction. There must be more to that story?

I don't see how anyone could argue that the market for collector cars has softened. It will be interesting to see how Barrett-Jackson does in Florida and Las Vegas later this year.

Leno warns that new CAFE laws may kill future cars
 

Another portion of the Barrett-Jackson I enjoyed were the comments made by Jay Leno when he was introducing the 2009 Corvette. He commented that this may be the last great Corvette because the new CAFE laws will prevent manufacturers from building cars like this in the future.

I don't think most Americans have any idea the extent to which the new CAFE laws will effect their lives.

It reminds me of California's goofy law a few years ago that mandated that a certain percentage of vehicles had to be electrically powered. Ford went out and bought the Think Electric Car Company and Chrysler went out and bought GEM. Millions were wasted before the law was dropped. :mad:

As always, it will be interesting to see how the future unwinds.

It's Back, the 2009 Barrett-Jackson starts today...
 

If you have any interest in collectible vehicles than the Barrett-Jackson auction is definitely worth some of your time this weekend.

The auction is in Scottsdale, AZ and starts today and runs through Sunday. There is extensive TV coverage on the SPEED Channel.

With the tough economy it will be interesting to see what the prices are like. In fact, one sign of the tough times is the fact that General Motors has a number of vehicles from their Corporate Collection that are being sold off to generate cash.

After watching the first segment I learned that GM is selling off 229 vehicles - it was actually somewhat sad to see them selling off a 1917 Cadillac in an effort to generate cash. :(

On the plus side, you could have purchased the 1,000,000 Saturn vehicle with only 34 miles on the odometer for about $8,000. :)

Final piece of GM Auction Trivia - most of their car are being sold with Branded Titles (Junk, Rebuild, Scrap) just to keep the lawyers happy.