WHERE DID ALL THE MUSTANGS GO?

WHERE DID ALL THE MUSTANGS GO?
This is from http://www.cars-on-line.com/ Newsletter

On Tuesday morning when we opened the Cars On Line office there were four inspection orders that had come in overnight. They were all for buyers from Australia. Three of the four orders were requests for us to look at classic Mustangs for sale here in the United States. That's the way the market has been going lately. Australian buyers are putting down cash money for first generation Mustangs, Mach 1's and Boss Mustangs. And here's the kicker. They're buying up all the Mustang hardtops (coupes) they can find.

Now you and I know that only the early Mustang convertibles are of any value here in the U.S. But the word is that in Australia the resale on American Mustang coupes is $40,000 to $50,000! Look out! Right now in California, Arizona and Nevada, Australian front men are buying up as many solid, dry Western coupes as they can find and shipping them back to Australia to sell to collectors there. The average value on the early Mustang coupes had been around $6,500 in the U.S. up until now. But in California they are getting $10,000 to $12,000 for rust free high No. 3 condition coupes.

I'm worried that ten years down the road there won't be any '65 and '66 Mustangs left here in the U.S.," a California Mustang collector told us this week. "At the Pomona Swap Meet last month Australian brokers bought all the decent cars during the setup day on Saturday. When the show opened on Sunday they were standing at the gate buying all the rust free Mustangs as they came in." This collector told us that, out of the last ten cars he has sold, all ten went to Australia. He delivered one to a dock in Long Beach where he said there were hundreds of cars standing outside in the yard waiting to be loaded on boats to go back to Australia. He said that he was told there was a backlog of five hundred cars waiting to be loaded and shipped. They didn't have enough boats!

Classic car dealers across the country are telling us the same thing. Some say half the cars they sell are going overseas. We may see that scenario increase. And its not just Mustangs that are being shipped overseas.

We've noticed that collectors in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the U.K. have been buying American classic cars in greater numbers this year since the U.S. dollar has weakened against the world economies. Now foreign collectors can buy American classic cars for one-fourth of what they used to pay, not to mention that prices have dropped in our own market. The only thing that will correct this trend is for the U.S. Fed to stop printing money (and start raising interest rates again.) The Fed is so worried about bailing out "house flippers" and real estate speculators that they succeeded in pushing gas prices over $4.00 a gallon this week. To add insult to injury, now we have to watch while our collector cars are being bought up because our currency gets about as much respect as the Mexican peso.

Food for thought: Isn't it amazing how the rest of the world appreciates our "old cars?" Now consider this: is that a good thing?

(This is from their newsletter, which is worth subscribing to. Normally I would just link this article to it, but it is a good article and there seems to be no way to link to it!)