While much has been said about the demise of the muscle car owing to the generational shift of power from baby boomers to millennials, these concerns may be overblown. I say this because of the very narrow lens I have into the selling of old American cars and trucks due to my connection to a property in Tennessee where I help to connect the seller with buyers from around the globe.
A '66 Mustang to Australia. Fairlane 500 to Florida. Chevy Novas to multiple locations. Chevy C10s that go...everywhere. And as of today, an extremely rotten '69 Pontiac Firebird convertible that sold locally for $7,000. I've had this car listed for a few months, and had seen steady interest - but not actual buyers. Of course, it was very clear it was rotten as hell. Floorboards were gone, struts poking through the wheel arches in the trunk, the top and frame destroyed, and of course, an obliterated interior.
Still, today a guy with the same name as yours truly showed up and negotiated down from $7,500 to buy it for an even $7,000. I'm mildly shocked. This was one of those cars my friend Steve put a price tag on that I felt would leave it rotting into the ground for the next 25 years. But that's the pull of old muscle cars - the standard rules don't apply, and that's a good thing. Why? Because it absolves the rest of us to go out and buy that total heap that's been keeping us up at night.