TMCP #631: Ask Rick – The Year In Reivew and the Year to Come: Restoration Parts Prices, Online Auctions, and Great Cars for Investment!

The muscle car place, online podcast, episode number 631.

This week, Rick Schmidt is here for a look at the year that was 2025 and the year of 2026 that's

coming soon.

Plus, we'll take a look at the cars you hope that Santa will bring down the chimney for

you.

And Rick will help you ask for the one that'll put a little coin in your pocket, maybe in

about five years.

Now, when it comes to 2025, we covered a lot of ground and sometimes a lot of the

same ground.

And often the question of tariffs and EVs came up.

So for 2025, the question about tariffs was, what are they going to do with the prices

of everything?

Well, now we're at the end of the year.

And here's Rick's take, but the reason for it might be 20 years in the making.

If I were really to go back 20 years and do all the math, we've had a correction

and now we're kind of back where we were, we're caught up with the rest of the

world and now we just march forward from here.

And then we will take a look about his future predictions on EVs.

For our crowd, we're going to take a look at the deep dive you really want.

Box body, Mustangs versus third gen Camaros and Firebirds.

The best looking car I've ever owned and maybe the worst quality car.

The only one Radley Package, what it was not was fast.

This is the Muscle Car Place Online Podcast, brought to you by National

Parts Depot.

This is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love American

muscle cars.

If you're buying, selling, restoring, even racing them, this is the place for you.

Now here's your host, Rob Kibbey.

Yes, indeed I am Rob Kibbey and welcome to the Muscle Car Place

Podcast.

Well, here we are, December now.

The lights are up here in the Midwest.

The snow is on the ground and force.

The cars are put away snug until April.

And Rick is here to kick things off for Christmas.

I love doing these shows at the end of the year with Rick because we tackle

his stuff from the year, kind of in the rear view mirror.

It does help to put a perspective on everything.

This will be a really good look for all of us.

And I got an education here at what the tariffs did to our restoration world in

relation to the economy as a whole.

That's what I said.

When you look at the economy as a whole, which Rick is a fairly large business

owner has to do, it does start to put things in perspective.

And he went back and reviewed his experience over the last 20 years and pointed

out that some of the corrections we're having now may have been overdue the whole time.

It's hard to understand just in a single statement, you'll hear what he means in

the interview.

So that's coming up.

Overall, prices are up a little bit.

There's certainly not up to 20% of tariffs or whatever they might be.

The reason that they're up a little bit might just be because they should have

been a while ago.

You'll hear.

Now, on a different topic, and this only applies if you get this the day this

show releases, December 5th, 2025.

Today is our last day of the 2025 Toys for Tots campaign that we're doing on

the Kibbe and Friends show.

We're doing that on Patreon.

If you're not a Patreon member over there, if you don't even know what

that show is, just go to our website, themusclecarplace.com.

There's another show over there called the Kibbe and Friends show.

We are trying to raise $3,000 for Toys for Tots by the end of today, December

5th.

If you're not a member of Patreon, go to patreon.com.kfshow, patreon.com.kfshow,

and just sign up.

Just sign up for this month.

If you are a member over there, would you please increase your donation, even

if just for this month?

We're trying to get a total of $3,000 above and beyond what we

normally do here and send it to the kids.

We're almost there.

As of this recording here, we're just a few hundred dollars short.

You can also go to themusclecarplace.com and buy yourself a shirt.

All the profits from the shirts through today, December 5th, go to the Toys

for Tots campaign.

So please, if you would, I know it's the end of the year and you got your own

priorities, but if you would, could you do this?

Whatever we have in the bank at the end of the day is what I'm going to send.

Again, this only applies if you're getting this today, December 5th,

2025.

If you get this in the future and I know so many of you do, would you

just go do one privately?

That would be a great thing to do.

Don't tell me that you did it either.

Just go do it on your own.

You'll never get more joy than giving some away.

It's the greatest.

Okay.

So I don't have a ton of new info here for you.

The big thing going on here in Kibbeland in December is the nutcracker.

Do you know what the nutcracker is?

Ouch!

Nice try, Byrne.

It's not that.

The nutcracker, the ballet, I'm talking about the ballet performance, the

classical Christmas ballet performance of the nutcracker.

My daughter's in it, and she's in our local performance here.

What racing is to my son Dallas is what dance is to my daughter Noel.

We don't talk about a lot here on this show, but everything we're doing with Dallas

with the racing is what we're doing with her with dance.

She's all chips in, man.

She loves it.

This is what she wants to do.

Anyway, the nutcracker is next week.

She has been rehearsing for this since August.

That's the big thing.

That's coming up next weekend as I record this.

Our oldest daughter, Emily, she has a couple of Christmas concerts at Iowa State.

She made the top ensembles at Iowa State.

She plays the French horn when she transferred there from Drake University.

She probably had some trepidation about making those top ones, but she did.

I'm going to hear her concerts, and I'm really looking forward to that.

And then, of course, the big thing in Kibbeland as well this weekend on December 7th is Dallas's

birthday.

He'll turn 17.

More on that in a second.

So Midwest snow, as mentioned that earlier, we did get a ton of snow this week.

Earlier than in many years past, far more akin to like when I was a kid.

I don't think we had snow on Thanksgiving Day, but we had it on the next day.

So our cars are all put away, everything.

The generals put away, the geos put away, the Chevelle's put away, and Dallas's 944 put away.

On his car, though, I pulled the gauges out and I pulled the radio out

because they both need refurb.

The radio has kind of been goofy since we got the car.

It does not have an AM band.

And like it worked twice and then the AM band died.

And then all the push buttons on the front kind of died.

The tape deck does work.

The way that he's been using it is he puts it on FM and then he has like one of

those little FM broadcasters that plugs into a cigarette lighter.

And he blew two to his phone to that.

That's basically how he's been making the radio part work.

But he would like it refurbished.

Retro sound does make a nice radio for 944s, but it's the earlier

interior style 944.

His is the later style.

He wants the original one back if we can get it.

So I popped it out.

It kind of remind me of high school days.

It's a DIN radio, you know, you just pull the little

cubby tray out underneath it.

And if you don't have the factory removal tools, you just push it really hard

from the back and it pops right out, disconnected everything.

I can already see that it's a reverb radio at some point in its life.

It was refurbished.

So I'll see if I can find somebody that can do that for the speedo and

tack, the tack was dead when we bought it.

So I bought a backup gauge set and I swapped that in.

But the backup set, while the tack itself swept, the little shift

light internally didn't work.

Well, the original one that we had, the shift light did work.

And the tack didn't sweep.

Well, now the speedo, the original speedo stopped sweeping.

I tested it with our backup set.

I verified it was indeed the speedo.

So I found this place called Atlanta Speedometer.

No sponsorship plug here.

I just thought you might like to know.

I'd never even heard of it till I was Googling for it.

I assume they do all sorts of stuff, but they do Porsche stuff.

So I packed up the gauge set and I sent it to him.

And my hope here is that in springtime when I started to pull

the car out, I've got two brand new pieces to just pop right back in.

And by the way, he can go enjoy it.

We really got that car up nice this year.

Got a water pump, timing belt, shock struts, brakes.

The only thing we haven't done yet is just new tires.

That's about the last thing that it needs from having sat for 20

years before we bought it.

So looking forward to that.

And for the other cars, for the Chevelle and the General Legia.

Well, I'm always dreaming, as you know.

And the truth is some of those dreams get offset by the Dalski

be racing budget, which they'll fill even on here for next year.

But for the Chevelle and the Gia and the General, I want the same

things now that I probably wanted a year ago.

However, for the Carmen Gia, I don't have the option to keep dreaming there.

Halfway through the year, something let go.

It has a massive oil leak.

The engine on that car has never been rebuilt ever while the body

was restored, the wiring harness and the engine are original 1973

original and that engine is coated in all sorts of goo and grossness.

And it's air cooled.

I can't entirely see where it's coming from.

But I'm pretty sure, you know, those push tubes that are on air

cooled engines that run from the block over the head, the tubes that hold

the push rods, I think the seals on the block side of one or many

of those tubes has let go when the engine is running, when the oil pumps

pumping, it's pumping oil out, I mean, at a steady clip.

So it's time for a rebuild there.

It's long overdue and that'll need to happen here over the winter.

I've looked at MP MP sells just total replacement stock engines for that.

Maybe I could go that route.

I don't think there's any value in a numbers match and VW air cooled

engine, but it's cool to me that we still haven't used that.

So I'd probably rather rebuild what we got, but that all

needed to happen over the winter for the General Le Chevelle.

Well, what I want to do with those is what I've always wanted to do.

But the truth is they are secondary to the Dallas Gibby racing budget.

That's just the truth.

Both of those cars run.

They're both finished products.

They're both awesome.

So everything I want to do is want not a need, but wants are fun.

For the Chevelle, I've always wanted a chassis and there's a lot of ways

to solve what that car is weak at without doing a full chassis.

But I don't want to do that.

But we already did that.

I want to do a full chassis for it.

There are several companies out there that I would love to have a chassis

from they all bring great features to the table that I like and appreciate.

And after 10 plus years of driving that car, there's also some changes

that are kind of more invasive that I want to make.

The biggest one is changing up the firewall.

When we did that car the first time, there was a lot of rust in there.

And when Jeff Alson had cut out the firewall, part of the lower windshield

tray got cut out to zip, put that all back together.

The end result, though, is when Jeff had the windshield tray out

when he remounted the dash and everything like that, it's about an

inch lower than it would be.

And it's great for driving position for racing.

But it's not that great for just daily driving.

The end result is the steering column is also about an inch lower.

So you kind of have the steering wheel sitting in your lap.

It has tilt column, so I just run the tilt up a little bit.

It works. Everything works fine.

Most people would never know the difference.

But after 10 plus years of driving it, there are some changes

that I'd like to make there.

And that would probably mean modifying the firewall and moving the dash up.

That's a pretty big change.

If you know those cars, the dash from the factory isn't removable.

So ours is removable and that was all done for all sorts of custom reasons.

But it is removable, but it now needs to be removed up.

So there's that for the general.

You know what it really needs? Seat cushions.

I don't know why because it's all new.

But the foam in those seats just isn't foamy enough.

When you get in, you still sink down about an inch and a half.

It is the weirdest thing.

The rest of the car, though, it drives great.

It needs more motor and it needs a five speed.

But those are the two things that would really make it great and a drift break.

Basically, I want to do the things to those two cars that I've always wanted to do.

You know, when you use something for so long, you get pretty confident

in why you want to make those changes.

So finally, let's do the Dallas Kibbey racing update.

Burn, cue the intro, please.

The Raryons lose cars fast, loses fast and on the edge, you're out of control.

So 2026 planning for Dallas's racing career has begun.

But really, this Sunday, December 7th is his 17th birthday.

And this is where it's going to start for next year.

I cannot tell you what it is because he might hear this before then.

But we have invested in something that he has wanted for a very long time

that is part of his racing career.

I will tell you what it is next week.

I will also tell you it will take me about a day to build it.

You may have figured this out already.

And if he's listening, he probably has.

But I will tell you all the details next week.

It's a pretty big project, but I'm proud of it for his racing career, though.

I'm planning to head to the PRI show next week in Indianapolis,

probably just for a day.

There's a couple of race teams there that I want to talk to.

There's a couple of sponsors there that I want to meet and mingle with.

The PRI show is an outstanding show.

Think of it like SEMA, but really concentrated and just for racing.

It's a very efficient, very effective show.

Very fun right there at the Indianapolis Convention.

So is it Lucas?

I can't remember, but it's a great show.

So that's really how I'm kicking off his next year season.

We do have some races planned starting in February.

Back up in Legends Guards.

Probably do more than just Legends next year.

But what's most important right now is that Dallas, you have a happy birthday.

I hope you hear this and we love you.

And that concludes the Dallas Kidby Racing Update.

OK, let's go ahead and get to the feature interview with Mr.

Rick Schmidt from NPD.

This is a look at the year that was 2025, the year that is to come.

Plus a look at what you'll really want to ask Santa for this year.

Take it away.

The Muscle Car Place weekly podcast interview is brought to you by our

good friends at National Parts Depot.

See them through the link at themusclecarplace.com.

Up next on the National Parts Depot hotline is Mr.

Rick Schmidt from NPD.

Rick, Merry Christmas.

Yes, Merry Christmas.

Yeah, I mean, just like that, we just started in January, but it's over.

The year is nearly over.

Lights are up.

People are getting cozy for the next three months.

And maybe in Florida, that means they put on shorts.

I don't know.

I'll confess, I'm in shorts.

Yeah.

Now, we are recording this just before Thanksgiving.

I'm guessing something I would like to find out.

Before Thanksgiving, do you have your Christmas lights up at your house?

Never. Never. I knew it.

Never, ever.

It's just a point of principle for me at this point.

It's just like all the neighbors have their stuff up pre Thanksgiving.

But I do one holiday at a time and I don't skip over holidays.

I just feel like it's a huge slight.

Insult of Thanksgiving.

You know me, though. I mean, my guns are blazing.

You could land a plane by my house right now.

It is going.

Yeah, I just had a new roof put on my house last year.

So I haven't even thought about usually do icicle lights around the house,

which any more just about kills me, putting all that stuff up.

It's a tall Eve.

And I have to redo all of my little stick on fastener clips this year

if when I do the lights.

Oh, yeah.

I ended up meeting a guy from our church who is a farmer.

And in the off season, he does Christmas lights

and he charges very little to do it.

I was just calling him to buy lights.

He can just sell you the supplies to do like pro lights.

So you just cut the string off where you want it and put your clip on.

And you can make one big string of lights out of LEDs and one plug

and had no core, just nice and clean.

I said, well, what would you do in charge?

You install it and told me and like, I'll take it.

Where do I find it?

Yeah, that sounds good.

So and before the question, any Christmas traditions for the Schmidt House?

And I can tell you, we have one here that I didn't have as a kid, a Christmas dinner.

I don't remember doing that as a kid, but we do as a family.

What do you guys do as a tradition?

And I mean Christmas Day or Christmas Eve specific tradition.

Well, we used to always have a Christmas Eve tradition

to spend Christmas Eve with our extended family,

kids, grandparents and all of that.

We always like to get that out of the way on Christmas Eve so that on Christmas Day,

we weren't in that from sunup till late at night doing Christmas.

Unwrapping all the packages, getting everything cleaned up, packing

all of everybody into the car and then driving cross country to go over

to this grandmother's house or that and making disappearance in that

appearance. We very, very quickly, when our family was young, decided

that why are we ruining our Christmas doing all this?

So our tradition is to do all of the get in the family together,

hopefully in one spot, Christmas Eve and doing the family thing.

So the Christmas Day is just relaxing.

And yeah, obviously have some good munchies and hors d'oeuvres and meal.

And it doesn't have to be a fancy meal either.

Quite honestly, I think a lot of Christmas is all the girls

and me wanted was just a big pot of chili to go grab a bowl of as

needed, when needed, whenever during the day.

But just kick back, relax.

The girls used to play with the stuff they got.

Now everybody's older, similar, just be hanging around, watching

movies, probably just relaxing.

I do love for Christmas to be a day of like jammies.

Yeah, I can avoid putting on clothes all day.

I'm all for it, whatever that takes.

Right. If you still got other people to visit, if Christmas is on

hypothetically a Wednesday, we'll come see you on Saturday then.

We'll do late Christmas.

Yeah, we'll do early Christmas.

Christmas Day, though, the actual 25th, not leaving the house.

I love it. I totally agree.

OK, well, I thought here on our last show of 2025, we'd take a little

look back at the year that was and maybe make some 2026 predictions.

So there's so many things we could do for 2025.

But if I had to boil it all down for stuff that we've hit here on car

stuff, EVs and tariffs, that kind of came up all year,

whether we wanted to or liked it or not.

Right.

Tariffs looking back on the tariffs.

And here we are in November of 25.

And I think we're starting to see some results here.

But I'm not yet sure.

You know, I'll tell you, Mike Spagnola, the president CEO of SEMA,

he assumed there would be an inevitable bump in inflation.

It didn't know where, when, how, but he kind of said, I assume

that's coming. He said, I also think it'll all work out for the best.

What did you see?

I mean, here at the end of 25 on restoration parts, our prices trickling

up in a way that you expected.

What is going on?

Well, when I'm talking about inflation, usually I'm talking

about the entire consumer price index, everything.

And somehow, some way that has managed to increase only 3 percent

between this time last year and this time this year.

You can say, well, that's inflationary.

That's rather normal.

Anything two to three percent within that bracket year to year

is just normal.

You could even argue if you were a fancy healthy inflation,

because as we all know from the 1950s forward, things don't get

cheaper and the value of a dollar bill goes down a little bit

every single year.

That's part of the reality of a constantly growing population.

So this year, the CPI is normal.

However, I would say in the world of restoration parts,

we've seen some inflation.

And in fact, we had to make some kind of hard proactive

decisions with an awful lot of the container goods, the stuff

that we ordered directly from Taiwan that got walloped with

about 20 to 25 percent, depending on the category in August.

And now all of a sudden we get all these tariff updates

almost on a weekly basis from our broker, and it's enough

to make your head spin.

So don't ask me any specific questions because my head's

just spinning on the whole thing.

We are starting to see surgical changes and reliefs.

And OK, now China is down to this and now Taiwan is back

to a 20 percent reciprocal.

And it's all kind of settling out and it will all be the new normal.

But I haven't run the math yet, but I would say that our prices

across the board have increased.

And when I was talking about the numbers, I'll get to that

because our prices have increased more than that 3 percent

of the CPI this year.

I guarantee you that they had to because our costs went up.

You know, somebody does have to pay the tariffs and guess who

that is. So they did go up.

But in retrospect, if I really, really think about things

and look back over the last 15 to 20 years about our cost

basis on all these parts from overseas, and I'm most

tuned in with Taiwan, not so much with China.

I've always tried to stay loyal with our Democratic friends

there in Taiwan, who I strongly feel have a better

handle on quality control for an absolute fact.

If I really look back 15 or 20 years, prices rarely changed.

Man, those factories, you would negotiate a price for a

hundred pair of this or 50 pieces of that.

And here's what the price is.

And you'd lock that price in and five years later,

you'd look at the part where it's still charging the

same price. All these countries overseas are not so much

like U.S. distributors where almost every year,

sometime in January, back in the day when everything was

on paper, but now it's all in the Excel spreadsheet

files, distributors, manufacturers, what not.

Every year you get a new price sheet and damn,

if a lot of stuff didn't tweak up a little bit,

pretty much at the rate of inflation at the time.

Percent, 3%, 5% if it was a terribly inflationary period.

The prices were always thoughtically creeping up with

a lot of this imported stuff that's the group known as

restoration parts.

Not so much if I'm paying $70 for a front bumper back

in 2010, I was probably paying $75 for the same bumper

in 2022.

Follow me?

They never went up.

So where I'm getting at, if I were able to actually go

back and just run the numbers on what my costs were for a

whole range of different products 20 years ago and

then looked at what my costs were today, including

the tariffs.

And then I plotted that against the inflation that

has happened in our economy since then.

I would probably draw the conclusion that none of

it is any more expensive now than it was then.

If anything, parts were getting cheaper and

cheaper and cheaper for the hobby over the last 10

years or so, because none of the prices ever went up.

While everything else in life is getting more

expensive and wages are going up, then trades

people who were charging by the hour for their

electrician or their AC repair or for their

construction business, everybody's rates are

going up and they're getting more revenue in

because of that, because of inflation, but then

the prices of the parts were over being in the

same and rarely going up or rarely moving.

Now, over the last two or three years, the

restoration parts market has responded.

It's like a rubber band that finally snaps and

now everything's more expensive, but it's kind

of like a correction.

If I were really to go back 20 years and do

all the math, we've had a correction and now

we're kind of back where we were, we're

caught up with the rest of the world and now

we just march forward from here.

I didn't know that really, if you had that

decade plus look over our industry

specifically, that our costs really weren't

yet. That I didn't realize.

Yeah, manufacturers would announce that they're

raising prices a little bit, but it would be

like every four or five years and it would

because the steel market had a blip and the

price of steel had gone up considerably.

And then when the price of steel would go

back down again, they'd say, okay, never

mind because of the competitive forces

over there. So they would keep prices as

low as they can.

So it's such a broad selection of

stuff like, you know, we've got over 1,300

different suppliers we're dealing with.

It's hard for me to cite any real accurate

examples for you.

Let's look at 2026 here.

Two questions.

The first is on OEM EVs and the second

is on online auctions.

So on EVs, just take your best guess for

2026. The last quarter of 25 EV sales

kind of died.

They tanked because the subsidy tanked.

I think we're of the same opinion that

hybrids are probably where people will land.

But in general, what do you think is going

to happen in 2026?

I mean, I just bring in Hemmys to everything.

Gas gas and more gas.

You know, upon the performance side, Chevy

has a car entered in NASCAR in 2026

that looks like a Camaro, sounds like a

Camaro, but just doesn't say Camaro.

Ford's EVF 150, it may just

entirely go away.

It's hard to say there.

Yeah.

What do you think is going to happen in 2026

for OEM sales?

Just in general, I don't see

going bigger, but I have no idea.

I thought the electric pickup trucks

in bare bones style as cheap as you

could get them would be popular along

all the pool cleaning services

people and parts delivery people

and stuff like that stuff where you're

just staying in the city and you can

make it from the beginning of the day

to the end of the day on one charge

and then just plug it in back at the shop.

I thought that those would be more

popular with businesses

as service trucks, but

I have not seen any electric service

trucks rolling through my neighborhood

or up to my house.

So apparently the numbers don't work

on that.

As far as EVs in general, I think

the bottom's already kind of dropped

out of that, but it's settled

at a floor that is probably

sustainable and will remain

going in and through 2026.

In other words, whoever's

building a good EV

and is able to do it at a worthwhile

profit will continue to sell them.

So I think Tesla is OK.

I think Ford is OK with their Maki.

I've seen more and more of those out.

I think those are actually I haven't

even looked at what the sales are for

them. I've just seen more of them

for two literally just trying to

give them away because to use up

production capacity.

I don't know what's going on there.

And then I know the Japanese makers

in the cream of the each have

their little tiny EVs and electric

versions of stuff.

I think we're already at what we're

going to see in 2026.

But what has gone away is

Ford and GM and a lot of the other

major manufacturers saying

by 2030, our entire

product line is going to be electric.

They said that, but they were all

moving at warp speed towards

all electric and none of them

are now. I think they're just going

to squat right where they're at

with the products that they've got.

They'll continue to offer them for

people who still want to buy them.

They'll make those same damn cars for

the next 10 years if they have to

just to finally get across

the finish line in the black instead

of in the red.

I wholeheartedly agree in OEMs.

What you hear on the news about

car sales has nothing to do with

what the OEMs are actually doing.

They're working on stuff for what

they're making today and for the

next five years and the next 10

years.

Those companies are battleships,

not fighter jets.

What we as consumers get is years

from when it was created.

Because the standards are set so

high these days for reliability,

durability, and then the government

standards are so thick.

There's so many things that they

have to abide by

and test in all sorts of different

circumstances that it does take

four or five years to bring

a theoretical product to market

and that's moving fast.

So, yeah, all of the manufacturers

are always five, 10 years out ahead

of what's sitting on the lot right

now. And then they're very

secretive about what

they're working on for competitive

reasons. So, none of them are

really blabbing about what's

coming up in the next five or 10

years now. They were when they

are all going forward with all

electrics, but now it's back to

being secretive and very close to

the best.

I have a feeling that Ford's

little Maverick pickup when that

EV is available, I think that

will probably do well.

Yeah, that's in its lane.

The lightning being the full size

of the EV is just too big

and too expensive.

Final 2026 prediction

and this is when we use all the

time online auctions.

Everybody, Rick, is copy and bring

a trailer. Everybody.

All right. So Hemmings

converted an option, but

Hemmings has always been a

leader. Haggerty has an online

marketplace. Doug DeMiro has the

cars and bid thing.

They're all kind of a nice

version of eBay.

What do you think will online

car auctions peak out in 2026

or only get more saturated?

I don't know. I would just be

throwing a dart at the wall with

a blindfold on if I answered

that.

You're saying next year.

Yeah, a year from now. I'm going

to say years from now.

I don't think there will be six,

seven, eight, a plethora

of different auction companies.

I think it will be down to

two or three that have

the best mousetrap and

the best reputation, whether

it's an online auction company or

it's a live auction company

reputation for standards and

ethics and doing fair business

and when something rotten

went across the auction block,

standing behind the buyer instead

of shielding the rotten and

crooked seller is important

with an auction company.

I don't have a familiarity with

all these different upstart

online auction companies.

I just don't know how they're

all operating or what their

reputations are.

I know that bring a trailer seems

to be very, very hot right now.

But maybe there's opportunity

because with all these online

auction companies, there are

fees involved and there's hoops

to jump through.

And it's all about the money.

So there's room for an online

auction company that, say, has a

reputation for always bringing

top dollar, but you pay the

Cadillac fees.

Then there'll be room for another

auction company that's much more

every man set up to where

it's not just high end cars and

rare low mile collectibles.

It's everything that's

collectible, but with really

low attractive fees to where it

makes it a less prohibitive

marketplace where you don't see

10 or 15 percent of the

purchase price of the vehicle

go in either direction.

I don't know enough about

them. I've never bought.

I think I did put in a bid

once or twice on bring a

trailer.

I've never won an online

auction.

I think I've also purchased a

vehicle or two and I can't remember

what it was on eBay, but that was

a long, long ago.

And eBay was pretty much the only

auction online.

I have no idea myself.

I can tell you there are a few

different businesses that

I get nothing but saturated with

now. Business market styles,

like online giveaway cars,

which is something I'm

interested in.

But they're not really giveaways.

They're sweepstakes and online

auction companies are everywhere.

And I'm kicking myself because I

had one 15 years ago

and it wasn't working.

So I switched to podcasts.

I was going to ask you one more

question.

How about this in 2026?

Right now, there are a couple of

80s cars that are coming on really

strong.

And that's the later generation

Fox body Mustangs and third gen

Camaros.

What do you think? Which one's

going to go extra white hot in

2026?

Third gen Camaros or Fox

body Mustang.

And I mean the later Fox

bodies like 86 and newer.

Yes, they already kind of

did the white hot thing a couple

of years ago.

And now that they're there and I

would even say just with

everything else, the post covid

economy has had a little bit of

correction for everything.

Even the auction companies are

seeing lower prices

and lower sell-throughs

post covid as things are kind of

settling down and correcting.

I wouldn't say we're in a

recession.

We're in a correction.

So that's kind of corrected up,

but the Fox bodies are already

there.

The third generation F

body Camaros and Firebirds

have been late to the party, but

I'm seeing signs of them to get

there where you get a really low

mile, like a one L.E.

Camaro or a W.S.

Six.

Did they have the W.S. Six on the

third generation? No, I don't think

so. I like it.

Yeah.

I thought so.

I don't know.

They have the W.S.A.

It was a chassis package.

They have the Ram-Aaron kind of

stuff.

It was still just the handling

package.

Anyhow, they're coming.

This is going to be controversial

for all the GM and Chevrolet

faithful.

Because he can make any car fast,

OK?

But back in those days

in the mid to late 80s and early

90s, I'm 58 now.

I was right in the heart of

that whole entire competition

between Fox body Mustangs and

F-Body Marathon Firebirds.

I owned an 85 Iraq.

It was the best looking car.

Maybe I've ever owned and maybe

the worst quality car.

The oldest one that one.

The Radley package.

What it was not was fast.

And then I moved to an 88 Mustang

GT convertible and all of a

sudden now that was a run in car

and not only whether to run in

car, the availability

for modifications was just

other work, you know.

And let's take your choice.

You've exhaust cylinder heads

and takes.

It was all easy to do.

Easy to deal with the engine

management and fuel control.

Just easy, easy, cheap.

It was like Ford took pages

straight from the GM book with

the small block Chevrolet and how

those were so cheap and easy to

make really fast.

And now all of a sudden for a

new car, drive it off a lot and

do day two modifications.

It was those Fox bodies that

were easy to quickly

get into the thirteenth series and

the twelfth at the drag strip.

It was not so easy and not so

quick to get those F bodies

doing that at the drag strip.

As such, I grew up

in Gainesville, Florida.

Just to the north of me was

Gainesville Raceway, a very

high quality NHRA track.

Me and my buddies were there almost

every Saturday night.

So I watched that rivalry

between the Fox bodies and the

F bodies from 1988

to the mid to late 90s

because then I moved on to a

93 LP one Corvette six speed

and that's what I drag race

out there.

And then I was starting to torque

some of the Fox body friends.

But we're talking about third gen

F bodies, third gen

F bodies, even though

they are rising in value.

A lot of people love them.

A lot of people are nostalgic

about them. They're paying big

money for them now.

But oh my gosh, did they get

whipped up on in reality?

At the racetracks

by the Mustangs.

I think the Mustangs are always

going to kind of have more

of a wave.

There's more young people

back then that looked at the

Mustangs as being the

the want.

If you want to go fast, of

course, there's the Grand

Nationals, but Grand Nationals

were for the richer older guys

back then.

We always had some Grand

Nationals kicking our butts

out of the drag strip, but

they are always gray haired old

men who could afford one.

We were stuck with our Mustangs.

And I had a lot of friends

with Mustangs that could tear up

the Grand Nationals, too.

They just, you know, super

charging or throw big nicer skips

on them with big exhaust and big

heads and cam and the way

we went. But I think the

Fox bodies, they're more

plentiful because I don't think

as many of the F bodies

they didn't sell as well.

And I don't think as many have

survived to present day as

the Fox bodies have been kind

of drug out of fields and

actually rebuild, but they're

more plentiful.

So there's more on the market.

I think the Mustangs are

going to continue to be a little

bit more valuable.

Just walking around SEMA for

the first time, I saw full

chassis options for both cars.

Yeah. And usually to me, that

means like somebody thinks

there's value in both.

And I mean, some of the good

guys think that. So I don't

know. Yeah.

Once the fourth generation of

both cars came out, the SN

95s and the F bodies, then

the whole thing flipped and the

F bodies were tearing up on the

Mustangs left and right.

The LT 1350s just

completely changed.

And then the LS ones, those

completely flipped the whole

entire dynamic.

But you asked me about third

generation boxes

and F bodies.

Yeah. The Fox was the bad

daddy and F bodies.

If you wanted to build a fast

one, you almost had to kind of

start from the crank and build

up.

Let's take a look at our car

pick segment.

So this is where we ask Rick

to take his crystal ball and

answer a hypothetical question

and pick one of three cars.

And this is the holiday

edition, Rick.

So you have in your inbox

three cars and Rick Santa

he digs red.

He always picks red.

And in his magic bag of toys,

he has three driver quality

muscle cars, not concourse

cars, just cars, fun cars.

He's got a Dodge, a Chevy and a

fourth. Which one would

bring the most joy to one

lucky recipient on Christmas

morning and have the most

potential ROI value for

them to. So meaning they get

it, they improve it and they

can sell it before next Christmas.

And even though they didn't buy a

car, they'd see a big jump in

value. Know what I mean?

OK.

You're a good sport.

I had a meeting with my CPA last

week and I think I thought, oh,

God forbid you get a car as a

gift with zero cost basis

and then you sell it for a huge

amount of money because now the

government is going to go after

you for the entire game.

OK, well, I'm not Santa.

So I can't tell you how his

finance is worth.

Somebody gives it to you, but

any how let's see here.

Maybe on the books you say you

pay for it, but we all know Santa

really did.

Well, you don't see these at

every cruise in the first one

is a 64 Dodge Dart

GT convertible

273 four speed.

Yeah. Driver quality car, but

it looks clean and

presentable.

Got a bit of a boopy long

exhaust on it.

For those that don't know these

cars, they don't look like a

late 60s Dodge in any way, shape

or form.

The early Dodgers are kind of

homely looking cars that some

people really, really dig just

for the quirkiness of them.

They're kind of quirky.

They're kind of cool.

They're not sexy like a Mustang

Camaro or GTA or Chevelle.

There's no way you're going to

call this dart a sexy

design.

It's rare.

It's unique.

There's an awful lot of value

though a lot of people in

having something that's off the

beaten path, especially the

Mopar enthusiasts.

It's a really deep car, but what

we got one day left.

It's only bid 8600.

If somebody got this as a gift,

it's unique.

It's rare.

I see a few things on it that

you can only have a nice

the styling is too polarizing

and just kind of too

weird for it to

have some sort of all of a

sudden via skyrocketing

collectibles that's going to

gain a lot of value.

Big return.

OK, let's put a pin on that one.

I chose it because well, it's

red.

Well, not me.

Santa chose it because it's

red. I assume he would like

that.

When you see this car, it has

two round headlights and they

look like they are two

X, a standard

vehicle round headlight of the

day. They look huge.

Well, you know what I

guarantee it was inspired by

was the Chrysler turbine

cars.

Yes, there you go.

I could not figure that out a

year before that.

Yeah, the very Chrysler turbine

car type of front end on it.

Super cool. It's not like it's

cool to me because I'm kind of

a geek for weird stuff.

Let's be honest.

These are kind of weird little

cars.

What do we have for car number

two? Now, this is not weird at

all. This is his mainstream

muscle.

Right down center of Main

Street, USA.

Sixty seven Chevelle SS

three ninety six coupe

four speed.

It's not a pillar car.

It's a two door coupe red

with black vinyl top.

These are just a really handsome

great looking car.

You know that I love sixty six

and sixty seven a bodies

just for that gorgeous roof line

with the sea pillars that are

sails.

And the inset rear window.

This is a timeless car with

timeless design will always

be in demand.

They'll always be worth what

they're kind of worth.

They could increase in value.

I mean, shoot, this is just a

driver car here and it's

already up to forty five thousand

dollars. That's plenty of money

for a car that's cool

for cruisans and cars and coffees,

but you can, you know, enter into

an ACA show and expect

to go up through the ranks.

Rick, I have no idea if this is

a numbers matching car.

I don't know. I don't care.

It's red and it's cool.

It's got the console with the

tack in it. They're showing the

engine stamping corresponding

with the Vintag.

Is it?

OK, given the benefit of the

doubt, let's say it's a

numbers matching car.

I don't think it'd be a forty

five.

And it looks like they're

doing full disclosure here on the

listing.

But it's got all this aftermarket

custom chrome stuff under the hood.

None of the details are right.

It is not a show car.

It is a driver car.

Yeah. End of story.

So this is a lot of money for a

driver car.

You're never going to lose

money on a sixty seven Chevelle

SS.

OK, as long as you don't over

pay ridiculously for it.

If you pay market for it,

you'll always be able to find

another mother for it.

What do we have for car

number three?

Another driver quality red car.

This is a seventy one Mock

one Mustang three fifty one

four speed.

It's a four barrel.

So it's an M code attractive

car.

Nice stance.

Red with black stripe interior

to go with the match the

outside was just pretty cool.

I like that even though whoever

upholstered the seats should

have taken it to a professional

trim shop.

Looks like they tried to put

the newest seat upholstery

over old rotten

collapsed phone.

I like these cars.

Everybody's going to accuse me

on Rick's just a Ford guy.

I've just always liked these

cars.

It's just a really attractive

car. Cool looking.

Yeah.

Chin spoiler wing on the back.

I would fix some things on it

straighten some things up.

But this is the one that I

would personally want Santa to

drop off from my driveway.

Because I like this car in red.

I'm not so much in love

with the Chevelle in red with

the black roof.

OK.

If that makes any sense whatsoever.

I like the one that are in red.

I think it's just because of the

graphics and everything that go

with the whole entire look.

Forget about me.

And let's just talk about which

one are you going to get for a

gift in a year or two.

You're going to get the best

ROI on.

Yeah.

The Dodge is going to sell for

10 grand at the best.

The Mustang again.

This is all Santa's buck so it

doesn't care.

With three hours to go the Mach

one is at 18 to 50

and the Chevelle's be close to

45.

Yeah.

The Chevelle whoever it is the

folks who are bidding on that

really want that car.

I think they're already sailing

past what I would think it's

worth.

The Mach one I think is right

now still a very good and

fair buy.

It might go up another five

grand when it comes down to the

last minute and everybody

really starts jabbing back and

forth with bids.

The 71 through 73 Mustangs

especially the Mach ones have

always been kind of the red

headed stepchild of the first

generation Mustangs because

all the traditionals think that

they're too big.

They're too fat for this or that

but I've owned one and there's

a lot of attributes that are

nice about them.

They're roomier inside for a

person who's you know I'm six

foot one who's six foot tall

or taller.

They handle and steer

very well.

They go down the road about

as good or better than many of

their predecessors

and that three fifty one four

barrel Cleveland is a hell of

a power plant.

I think they're dynamite

looking cars and as years

go on more and more people

are starting to appreciate these

cars. So I think the

prospects of the 71 through

three Mach ones becoming

more valuable than they already

are is there

whereas the sixty seven Chevelle

has been in demand for 30

frigging years now as far as a

collectible vehicle even

more.

The Mach one is just now

finally getting out from under

the shadow of its younger

brothers or older brothers

rather if that makes sense.

I'm going for the Mach one.

The Dodge is cool and it's rare

and where do you even find a GT

convertible four speed

and yet nobody's stepping up to

pay big money for this car and I

don't see that happening

within the next year or two

either.

Of these three I can't argue

with your logic and looking at

the Mustang is cool looking

cool looking always sells.

It just does.

Yes for funsies

without a lot of analysis

Santa does have another bag of

toys back there for those with

expensive taste and it doesn't

have to be read.

So let's just say Santa says

you can have any one of these

three but pick the one

that you think is going to be a

home run in five years to get

rid of and again they don't

have to be read.

So what do we have for Santa's

first.

Actually you can look at them

all at the same time now that

I think about it.

What do we have for car number

one.

I've always thought these cars

were cool just because my dad

was actually toying around with

many a times you know back in

the day we would leave

an afternoon movie as a family

and then drive by the

Datsun dealership and dad would

kind of stare in the windows at

these two forty V's.

They intrigued him.

He never bought one.

They are expensive and I like

the early ones the early ones

with the smaller front bumpers

and all that good stuff and no

emissions.

This is a nineteen seventy two

two forty Z four speed but it

is one of the vintage restoration

program cars meeting that

it is one of thirty seven cars

that were built out of parts

by Nissan North America in the

nineteen nineties.

So it's kind of like a

those continuation.

Cobra.

Yeah it's the same thing only

it's a two forty Z.

The trajectory of value

for these cars does not

follow the same curve I think

as a beautiful

ultra low mile or a beautifully

properly restored original

would be the originals of the

originals the recreations

of the recreations.

I don't think they like to call

these recreations because they

were built with all original

parts.

But I don't know where to

land on this car until I see

the other two that you've

picked out.

This sucker is already sixty

thousand five hundred dollars.

Got almost three hours left

to go five or six years from

now.

These are hard. These are tough

especially since they only built

thirty seven.

How about the next one.

Now the next one should be easy

to understand.

Yep. Sixty seven shall be

fifty five hundred.

Fastback.

Red car.

They're asking three hundred

and fifty thousand dollars at

the pile of money even for a

sixty seven GT five hundred.

They're really trying to bring

the bell here.

It's pretty.

And it looks to be very

documented. Beautiful.

Don't know what to tell you

here.

But the Shelby's are already

expensive. Well they get even

more expensive than five or six

years.

Well I really don't know.

I'm really lost at this point.

Let's look at the third one.

What do we have for car number

three.

Oh I like this one.

Sixty nine charger.

B five blue with a white top.

An RT B five blue with a white

top. Have a white interior blue

interior.

It is a great color combo.

I don't know if it's the

original engine that somebody has

put a six pack on it.

Which was a four forty six pack

in it.

Yeah. And the six pack wasn't a

thing in sixty nine on this car.

I don't think it was.

But it is a great looking car.

I think you could get a six

pack in these but I don't know

you might be a more expert than

I am upgraded to six pack.

OK.

You're right.

I know you could on other mo

parts. I just didn't think it

was a charger thing.

But this is a market I know

well. I have no idea where

it's going to land.

But they're asking a hundred

and eighteen thousand dollars

for this car.

That's that's plenty.

It's right down here in Bradenton

close to me.

Oh how convenient.

Yeah. I would love to have this

car as Santa was delivering

either the dots in the Shelby

or the charger to me.

I would ask for him to deliver

this charger to me and I would

leave the six pack on it and

I would drive it and enjoy it.

And you think in five years

that's the one that will give

you the in five years.

It's going to be between the

Shelby and the charger.

Shelby's are already so lofty

in value.

Maybe there's more room for the

charger to kind of fill in that

vacuum that's below the Shelby

but above what they're valued

at right now.

Let's forget this hundred and

eighteen thousand price tag they

have on it. Say that maybe this

is a seventy or eighty thousand

other car.

And I think there's five or

six years from now.

There's plenty of room for that.

Nice chargers.

If you've noticed but you don't

see too many available

that often.

Truly nice ones.

Even ones that I look at and I

was like well I'd have to start

all over on that because nothing's

done well at all.

Those types of cars the hastily

done auction cars.

Even those you don't see that

often.

There's a weird thing with these

cars now that I've got one I

drive one for fun.

I parked this next to my

Chevelle all the time my next

to my Chevelle.

It's a bigger car in every

dimension except the interior.

It's smaller.

When you get in this car it's

more like a Camaro inside.

I measured the interior with

yeah door panel to door panel

then I compared it against my

Chevelle.

I think my Chevelle's got a total

of three inches more side to

side.

And I've always wondered why do I

feel roomier in the Chevelle than

the Charger Charger is much

bigger.

They are a weird dichotomy.

It's a huge car that

you feel like you're in a

sports car.

When you really study the

styling of the car the

narrowness of the roof rails

and the sea pillars.

It's all tucked in there.

That's what creates that

coke bottle effect

and makes the rear hips of the

car look so dynamic and

sexy.

And that's a huge styling

aspect of the car.

And I love that because there's

so many cars that I can point

you out in my collection where

the packaging of the car is

completely absurd.

You've got this enormous car

with this enormous trunk and

not a whole lot of room in the

back seats.

You know.

But it was all about styling

back then to hell with the

family or the passengers in

general. It was all about the

styling. And that's what I love

about 68 and 69 in specific

chargers. I've always wanted one

because I think they're just one

of the best looking cars

in the collectible sphere.

So I'm going to pick this one

just because I like it so much.

OK. There's no wrong answer.

And if I like it this much

other people must like it this

much in five years from now

even more of us will like it

that much.

Santa doesn't bring crap in his

bag of toys.

I think that's the truth.

Well Rick from me to you and our

whole audience thank you again

for another year together.

It has been a treat to do the

ask Rick segments.

I look forward to next year.

This is one of our more popular

segments. And thank you overall.

These are fun to do. And I

appreciate it. My honor to do it.

So I appreciate it.

Thank you Rob.

All right. Rick Merry Christmas

and I'll see you in 2026.

Merry Christmas buddy.

Thank you Rick. Excellent as

always. OK.

That is it for this week.

I am headed to the PRI show next

week but I'm sure I'll record

next week's show before I leave.

So I'll give you a little more

update about that.

We'll have Riley Hodson on next

week from Hodson Motors to talk

about how the sweepstakes in

giveaway world works.

That's really fascinating.

Super interesting.

You probably get hit up by

those ads on Facebook and

Instagram all the time. So do

I. And the week after that

we're going to have the big

man on the head honcho.

The big cheese.

You know his name and you

know what he says all the

time.

That's right.

OK. All done here.

I'm done for this week.

Find me on Facebook and

Instagram anytime.

Be sure to sign up for our

weekly email newsletter.

You can do all that on the

homepage of the muscle car

place dot com website.

And as always don't forget to

keep chasing your dreams like

you have let me chase mine.

Thanks for listening everybody.

Bye bye.

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TMCP #631: Ask Rick – The Year In Reivew and the Year to Come: Restoration Parts Prices, Online Auctions, and Great Cars for Investment!

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