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January 22, 2004 9:05 a.m. EST

AUTOS
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Gremlin's Revenge

Collectors Are Paying More
For Kitschy Cars of the 1970s;
'Rich Corinthian Leather'

By JONATHAN WELSH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Terry Fitzpatrick's mid-1970s Ford is chunky and not too fast, with plastic panels and peeling faux-chrome trim inside. Three years ago, he figured the car was worth buying for $5,000, because it reminded him of a TV show he watched as a kid. Now, he's getting offers from people who also kind of like it -- and are willing to buy it for $20,000 or more.

"I never thought it would take off like this," says Mr. Fitzpatrick, a 39-year-old insurance underwriter in Wooster, Ohio. His 1976 Gran Torino is red and white like the one from "Starsky & Hutch." "It's really just a paint job," he says.

That '70s nostalgia has taken an unusual turn. Cars from that decade -- widely viewed as the low point of U.S. auto industry -- are showing up on the antique-auto circuit and starting to fetch classic-car prices. Chrysler Cordobas and Plymouth Volares often go for double or more the values listed in used-car guidebooks. A boxy 1977 Cadillac Fleetwood fetched $11,600 on the eBay Motors Internet auction site this month. A 1976 Chevrolet El Camino -- an early cross between a car and a pickup -- recently sold for $13,000 at Auburn, Ind., auction company Kruse International.

The term "classic," of course, is in the eye of the beholder and some classics are in greater demand than others. Even the rarest 1970s production cars are still selling for just a fraction of what collectible cars from previous decades fetch. Top-condition 1957 Chevrolet Bel Airs, for example, can bring in $50,000 to $100,000, as can Pontiac GTOs, Shelby Mustangs and big-engine Corvettes of the 1960s.

The giant 1976 Cadillac Eldorado, one of the era's last highway barges, stayed big even as other cars got small. The convertible might fetch $20,000 or more, almost triple what the hard-top might get.

Still, '70s cars today are selling for more than they did even a few years ago -- all part of the revival in '70s style that brought back peasant blouses and bell bottoms. Disco-era cars have also been turning 25, the age at which most collectors and insurance companies consider cars to be classics or antiques. Insurance-industry figures show the number of 1970s cars insured under classic-car policies -- which offer lower rates with mileage limitations -- rose by as much as 46% over the past two years.

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Also boosting their value is the fact that '70s cars are already relatively rare, because so few have managed to stay on the road. Critics say the cars, with thin metal, light parts and brittle plastic interiors, were poorly built in the first place. But many experts say the cars have disappeared because, until now, hardly anyone really wanted to preserve them.

Auto makers in the 1970s had shifted their focus away from the fast, stylish cars of the previous decade. Responding to tighter emissions regulations, rising fuel costs and mounting insurance prices, they turned out cars that were smaller and more efficient; consumers viewed them more as appliances than keepsakes. "When things are seen as strictly utilitarian, they tend to get used up," says Peter Liebhold, a historian with the Smithsonian Institution.

Price guides value a basic 1976 Gran Torino at less than $4,000. But with a loud paint job and racy wheels, ala 'Starsky & Hutch,' it might fetch $10,000 to $20,000.

But now, there's nostalgia for the decade's automotive oddballs. Models such as American Motors Corp.'s Gremlin and Ford Motor Co.'s Pinto are seen as kitschy survivors. "Campiness is coming back and to some degree, that's driving prices upward," says Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association, which tracks old-car prices. The question, he says, is whether the cars have enough durability and appeal to keep prices climbing.

At least for now, '70s cars are turning up in increasing numbers in collector-car haunts. The number of 1970s cars selling on eBay Motors increased 49% in 2003 from 2002. More mid-'70s models have been showing up at events held by the Mustang Club of America, says the club's president, Bill Johnson. These cars were based on the same chassis as Ford's low-end Pinto, and they were smaller and less powerful than the Mustang muscle-cars of the '60s. "The 1974 to '78 Mustangs were laughed at," Mr. Johnson says. "In the last four or five years, that has changed a bit."

Small design differences can have a big impact on price. The huge 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, the decade's last mass-produced U.S. drop-top, can fetch $20,000 today, about three times as much as the same year's hardtop version, according to the National Automobile Dealers' Association. Oftentimes, gaudier is better: A mint-condition 1979 Pontiac Firebird, like the one TV private-eye Jim Rockford drove, goes for about $5,000. A 10th Anniversary Edition Firebird Trans-Am, with a garish paint job and giant flaming-bird decal on the hood, commands $24,000.

The bubble-shaped AMC Pacer got a boost a decade ago from 'Wayne's World' and again more recently, as quirky 1970s artifacts gained favor. But with spare parts scarce, many critics doubt prices will keep rising.

Indeed, more than a few of these cars have a connection to 1970s television. The 1976 "Starsky & Hutch" Ford Torino that Mr. Fitzpatrick owns is one of only about 200 known to be on the road today. With a "Starsky" movie set to come out in March, prices are expected to rise well beyond the $5,000 to $10,000 the cars have fetched over the past few years, says John Quirk, who tracks prices for the car for his Web site, Starskytorino.com.

Remember Ricardo Montalban (of "Fantasy Island" fame) touting the "rich Corinthian leather" of the Chrysler Cordoba? The commercial may have been mocked, says Doug Herbst, who bought his 1979 Cordoba for $1,700 in the mid-1990s. But the brown two-door has been turning heads on the street, and he has even taken it to a few car shows. "People say 'Hey, nice old car,' and then they want to hear all about it," says the 42-year-old from Wausau, Wis. (Cordobas in similar condition have been selling for as much as $7,000, though Mr. Herbst says his isn't for sale.)

Not every wacky '70s-mobile is a good bet. Consider the bubble-shaped AMC Pacer, the car driven by the suburban characters of "Wayne's World." A 1976 model (two-tone brown paint, eight-track tape deck) sold at Kruse auctioneers last fall for $8,200. But Larry Mitchell, president of the AMC World Clubs, an organization for owners of American Motors cars, says he doubts his own two late-'70s Pacers will appreciate in value. Why? Collectors know spare parts are virtually impossible to find. As a result, he says the group has lost nearly half of its members over the past three years, declining to about 800 from about 1,500. "People are just giving up," he says.

Finding parts is one of biggest challenges of collecting. After Chrysler Corp. bought AMC in 1987, for example, it saved parts for years but eventually liquidated the inventory because it cost a lot to maintain and demand was low, the company says. As a result, many collectors scour junkyards for parts that can be reused or rebuilt, or even make their own. By contrast, fans of many other collectibles can count on a network of reproduction companies that make original-style parts. Catalogs such as Vintage Again Reproductions and Mustang Parts House offer enough parts to rebuild an entire car.

In the end, many classic-car experts say they expect few '70s cars to end up as more than curiosities. Craig Jackson's Scottsdale, Ariz., auction company, Barrett-Jackson, has seen classic Jaguars and tail-finned Chevrolets fetch $100,000. He doesn't expect to see many mid-'70s autos do the same. "Some cars from that era have almost become novelties, but mostly they are orphans no one wants to adopt," he says. Even as they age, their future as collectibles is dim, he adds. "My crystal ball says ... 'No.' "

Write to Jonathan Welsh at [email-masked]

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Updated January 22, 2004 9:05 a.m.

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