FTO AUSTRALIA

This is just a theory, and by all means hack it to pieces and argue it to death, but here goes:

With the recent leglisation changes coming in, in NSW, the value of an FTO could increase. Since it wont be seen as a high performance vehicle because it isnt supercharged,turbocharged or a V8, it will now be much more appealing to people who wont be allowed to drive skylines, silvias and other turbocharged cars. Like what other cars will give you 150+ kw without being turbocharged or a V8, and still look very sporty.

but like i said, its just a silly theory... but go the FTO.

Well my opinion on this is that the value of the FTO will go down instead, because if the leglisation passed, & FTO turn out to be a great alternative as you point out.

Every single importer will bring them in, & Australia will be flooded by FTO, just look at the S13 Silvia, their price had drop so badly due to the popularity, now for every taxi on the road there's a S13 Silvia next to it hehehhee.

i dont reckon theres gonna be a whole flood of FTO's becuz young guns dont generally look at the FTO as a 'performance car' they would rather stick with the Silvia's becuz they are fully sic re!

That's assuming you can even get an FTO imported. So far as I know, no one has a compliance licence for importing them at the moment and it's going to be significantly more expensive than it used to be when they do start importing them again.
And that's IF the laws don't change AGAIN.

Ture, but it was like that when S13 started, & so was the skyline R33 GTsT. If there's money to be make, then i'm sure the importer will be smart enought to get the compliance plate for them. Anyway even thought there aren't many compliance plate for FTO since the RAW, the FTO prices hasn't gone up or holding its value, in fact in the general market, FTO had gone down in value.

But I guess the only way we can tell is to wait & see, & of course we all (as a FTO owner) want the FTO to go up in value.

i cant see any 10 year old car going up in value. The FTO will hold its value for the next year or so until it slowly starts to drop down to the 10K mark.

Look at the 1993-1995 Lancer GSR.
This car is valued by Redbook at around the 9-10k mark, yet you would struggle to find an example for this price range as they sell for more like 13-15k.

Well yeah thats ture, but you comparing red book vs market value, which never the same at the first place. I just look at the market value, & i don't see a FTO going anywhere at the moment.

But hey, like you said Grant, all these are just theory, so I hope i'm wrong & the FTO value goes up like rocket.

I donno about the value going up, it will always depreciate, it just is a matter of how much by. I think with these laws coming in, you may or may not get more people interested, but i doubt it as those revheads that drive V8's will probably never go for an fto.

My 2.2 cents.

All cars depreciate... even if there is more demand for them - people arent going to pay more then what they are currently selling for (in most cases)... they will just look at other alternatives.

there isnt anywhere for them to get complied, so therefore they cant be imported

meh, i didnt buy my car to make money or as an investment, and i expect to lose money when i eventually sell it, but thats just the way it is.

but yeah, it would be great if they did increase or hold there value!

I donno about the value going up, it will always depreciate, it just is a matter of how much by. I think with these laws coming in, you may or may not get more people interested, but i doubt it as those revheads that drive V8's will probably never go for an fto.

Yeah most revheads think there a 4 cyl.

the only way u can make money off your car..... is to have personally imported it or bought a bargain, kept it remarkably clean and looked after the vehicle without doing many kms.... that way u can probably sell it for a similar price then what u purchased.... (thats not including money u may have spent on mods etc). I think i got my fto on the road for 16 g from importing and i realistically think i could easily get that back 2 years down the track.

I always think u should try and sell your car when your not desperate to. I put my last lancer in the paper just to see what i could get for it and got offered the same price as what i had paid 12 months prior. Then decided to get an fto.

I bought this White Commodore VP before my FTO, purchased it for $2K from a dealer. I think he just wanted to get rid of the car. Later during the year, I spent about a $1k for a new radiator and new front suspention.
And just after bought the FTO, I sold the VP for $4k without RWC. I could even make more money on it, as the market value of the VPs were about $7k by then, however, I was in love with the FTO, and it was too painful to wait for.
Now I feel great about the FTO, as I hated that metal junk VP/commodore.
The moral of the story is anyone can make money from a car, however, I dont think that the value of the FTOs will increase in near future under any circumstances, unless 50 years down the road people love it as a classic car.

I doubt that the value of the FTO will go up due to demand as there are alternatives to FTO's such as N/A Supra, N/A 300zx, Teggy Type R, R33 GTS etc etc,
By the way I used to own a VP commodore before my FTO!

I dont think the new legistations will have much impact on the price of ftos, because you are signalling out too little people, those who just got their P's, who live in NSW, Would prefer, an fto, as well as knows about it. your looking at a very small part of the population. you could narrow it down either more, but im sure you get the point.
Im not completly sure of the ruling of the new legistation either, I know that in Victoria they have a Ruling which states that P Platers can not drive a car with a certain kw to weight ratio. I remember working it out, and only a GS fto would fit in to that category.
If they also go with a similar legistation too, you can count on ftos beeing rules out too.
The fact that they are no longer importable or at lease compilible (this will proberbly change mid next year) should keep the fto at a good value.

from my perspective the more people who buy FTO's the better for the club

if anyone knows an importer that would be interested in some sort of arrangement with the club in relation to moving FTO's i'd love to talk to them!

smorison wrote:from my perspective the more people who buy FTO's the better for the club

if anyone knows an importer that would be interested in some sort of arrangement with the club in relation to moving FTO's i'd love to talk to them!

"then we dont have original cars anymore, thats half the fun of owning an FTO - people want to know what it is

Yeah i agree, & there are still a lot of FTO owner can't be bother join the club either.

There might be 1600+ member, but i doubt there are even 100 active members. Lots of people would join & then leave within a very short time, which is very normal for lots of forum.

FTO338 wrote:Well my opinion on this is that the value of the FTO will go down instead, because if the leglisation passed, & FTO turn out to be a great alternative as you point out.

Every single importer will bring them in, & Australia will be flooded by FTO, just look at the S13 Silvia, their price had drop so badly due to the popularity, now for every taxi on the road there's a S13 Silvia next to it hehehhee.

The s13 has kept its value quite well over the past 5 years. Actually the value of an FTO has dropped much more than an s13.

i dont think fto's will go up in value. I expect them to stay at their current prices now, that being that they are already so damn cheap.