In 2010, most all Camaros and Firebirds have a lot of miles on them. That's what happens as cars get older. Let's take a look at what average mileage is now via the current NADA books:

NADA Average Mileage - Updated for May 2011

1997: 165,000 - 170,000 +
1998: 155,000 - 160,000
1999: 145,000 - 150,000
2000: 135,000 - 140,000
2001: 125,000 - 130,000
2002: 115,000 - 120,000

Given this scenario, customers need to understand that most of these cars now have over 100,000 miles. We don't normally buy higher mileage cars here at RPM Motorsports but at this point we all are just going to have to realize these cars are getting old and they have miles on them. We would much rather buy a nice 105,000 mile car than a beat up 70,000 mile car. I would be very cautious of any low mileage car that looks rough. Last year we saw a 50-something K mile blue 2000 Z28 at a sale that was beat to death, wrecked, rebuilt and obviously had more than 50K miles which meant it had the instrument cluster changed out with a lower mileage unit.

PRICING:

So how do you value these cars? As of 2010, that's a very tough one. Every financial institution we know of uses the NADA Book. Even the NADA books now do not reflect the actual value of a very nice, clean F-Body. NADA books are very good books for newer cars. The problem comes when cars get as old and beat up as most Camaros and Firebirds are now. So what exactly are these values listed in the NADA book? It's quite simple, NADA book values are AVERAGE values based on cars sold in previous months. Let's say that in Jan-Feb 2010, NADA had 1,000 1999 model Z28's reported to them as sold. Have you gone out and looked at 1999 Z28's? If you have, you know how beat up most of them are. NADA takes the selling price of all 1,000 of those 1999 Z28's sold and uses those prices to determine the values they put in their next book. Well guess what folks ? Most of those 1,000 1999 Z28's were junky cars, just like you see today for sale. When you take an average of all cars sold, mostly junky, some nice, you get just that...... an AVERAGE value of all the cars sold. When most of those cars are junky, your computed value is the value for a fairly junky car.

What this all means is that a really nice, super clean, better than average car is worth MORE than the AVERAGE value shown in an NADA book. When these cars were fairly new and most all of them nice, the NADA values were spot on accurate. When you have 3 beater 1999 Z28s worth $4000 each and one really nice low mileage one worth $8000, your average is $5000. You are NOT going to go buy a nice low mileage 1999 Z28 for $5000. We have made this statement many times before and today it is even more true. You are NOT going to buy a super nice 10 year old sports car for the AVERAGE value shown in an NADA book. We are currently having to pay the same or more than we were paying 2 and 3 years ago for the same cars and now these cars have more miles and more wear on them.

Beyond the NADA book we have the joke that is called Kelly Blue Book. The Kelly Blue Book is only useful for one purpose: for new car dealers to screw customers on trade-in values since their values are way too low on anything older than 5 years old. I can't even begin to tell you how irritated I get when a kids mom comes in here and trys to quote Kelly Blue Book values to me on a 10 year old Camaro. If you do that, you will be kindly shown the door..... LOL ! We can show you places to buy a 10 year old Camaro at Kelly Blue Book values but don't expect much, take a trailer or tow truck with you.

As we have stated over 2008 & 2009, we are trying to diversify our inventory as good Camaros and Firebirds are just no longer available and can no longer pay the bills. It's pretty much game over now. Camaro's and Firebird's are now more of a hassle than they are worth carrying. We're sad to see this day come but there is no way to make money on nice Camaro's and Firebird's at this point. With 95% of these cars being junk, all of our customers want the really clean, nice low mileage cars for the same price as the beat up junky cars. We are sorry but a nice clean low mileage F-body is now a collectors car and will bring more than double what a beat up piece of junk car will bring at a dealer sale. While this was fun for the 8 years we have been doing this, it is now extremely aggravating and not worth our time. We find ourselves spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars fixing cars up and then customers still do not appreciate that the cars we carry are much better than the other junky cars out there. We will no longer be buying F-bodies under $10,000 unless we get really, really lucky and find something nice for a deal(don't count on it). The only F-Bodies we will now be looking for will be 1-owner low mileage collector WS6's and SS's with price tags in the $15-25K range.

R.I.P. F-Bodies, what fun you were while it lasted.

Update: January 2011

In all of 2010, we only saw a couple really nice low mileage LS-1's. Both cars brought close to full NADA Retail at dealer sales. A couple weeks ago we watched a very low mileage 2001 V6 Camaro bring OVER NADA Retail at Tulsa's big dealer sale. We have our eyes open but it's basically impossible to pick up nice low mileage F-bodies at a price to where we can sell them without asking over NADA Retail. We did pick up a fairly nice V6 Camaro a few weeks ago which sold immediately. Today(1-26-11) hell froze over and we were able to pick up a 100% virgin 1-owner Tulsa-area 1999 LS-1 6-Speed Formula with only 80K miles and the slickest shifting Hurst 6-Speed we have ever seen.(Sold in 1 day, went to Dallas) These cars are pretty much gone and we had pretty much given up any hope of obtaining any more slick ones but crazy enough, we came up with a couple in the past month. Keep your eyes out on the website, the super-slick ones don't last long.

Update: May 14, 2011 - Hell Freezes Over Again !!!!

Nice clean cars are getting even harder to find now, bordering on impossible. Yesterday we actually got in 2 clean LS-1 cars. For all those that have been calling and asking for these cars, check the Camaro/Firebird page NOW !, these won't last long.