10 Beat - an idea
I've had a driver's license for over 35 years now. I've driven plenty of different vehicles, from a Honda Civic I bought for $600 to a $500,000 motorcoach. Stick shift, auto, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 cylinders, front-wheel, rear-wheel, four-wheel drive, two wheels, four, six, eight and ten wheels; two, three, four, five, six, ten and twelve gears. I haven't (yet) driven a semi-truck (and might never do so), but with the exception of a race car, I've driven just about every type of vehicle I'm interested in.
Except...
Except, all of my own cars, while serviceable and fun for me, haven't really been fun. They haven't been what a car guy would drive. I've driven plenty fast and had a instances when I've had a huge grin on my face while driving my own vehicles, but my choices have been mostly about what fit best for my life at the time and not really about what I'd most enjoy driving. I've always wanted to get some fun cars, but I've stymied myself in different ways - buying what I thought I needed, not wanting to be irresponsible by wasting a ton of money in depreciation, most of the cars I wanted to drive were way out of my price range, sooooo many cars I wanted to try. Plus I've bought a couple of project cars that I never had the time, money or dedication to finish. But I've dreamed of driving something fun - but what? Which of the hundreds of fun cars would I choose that I'd be willing to stick with long enough for the investment to make sense?
So, a couple of weeks ago, my wife sends me a link to a car for sale to share with my friend Joe, a Corvette enthusiast who's owned something like 15 different Corvettes over the years. In the 20 years I've known him, he's owned at least six by my own count, maybe more. Anyway, the link is to an ad for a 1985 Corvette (as long as the link lasts) at a consignment dealer in Bend, Oregon. I click the link and here's this really clean early C4 Corvette - under 55,000 miles, red, automatic, the pinnacle of American automotive performance in the mid-80's - and it's for sale for $6,995. This was a car that started at $25,000 in 1985 going for under $7,000 33 years later (don't do the math - remember, 1985 is the model year - the car came out in 1984.) And if you account for inflation, the base price was over $58,000 in 2017 money. That's a depreciation of about 85% in constant dollars for a clean example of something with serious performance cred when it was new.
And that's when it hit me. The trick to driving some of these fun cars wasn't to drive them when they came out and take the financial hit as depreciation drove their value lower and lower. It was to take advantage of depreciation and make it work for me. It was to buy a decent depreciated used example of performance icons, enjoy it for awhile and then sell it on. If I lost a little money - no big deal. If I made some - even better. And in the meantime - I could own and drive all these fantastic cars I've been reading about for most of the last 40 years.
But what to choose from? That became a little easier. In December, 1980, my parents gave me this magazine:
and a 1 year subscription. I was an avid reader - a fan of the editorial combination of thoroughness, excellent writing and irreverence. Road & Track was too stuffy, Motor Trend too pedestrian. I renewed my subscription for the next 16 years (and kept most of the back issues until my then-new (now ex-) wife complained about the mess.) After my divorce, I started picking it up off the newsstand and then restarted my subscription in 2015. Now they stack up in my closet, but it's issues I haven't read yet. Thanks, Facebook.
In January, 1983, this was the cover:
At the time, I think it was a way for the magazine to get into the "best" business by also besting their rivals. MT had their Car of the Year award and I suspect Editor David E. Davis, Jr ( by all accounts, an unforgettable character) decided that his magazine was going to show all those other pretenders how to do a "Best" issue. Hence - not just 10 Best Cars - but Road, Movers & Shakers, Racing Drivers, etc - 10 categories of 10Best things automotive. You can read the introduction to the issue here.
It's December 2017 when I'm writing this. Two weeks ago, I received the 2018 10Best issue in the mail. 37 years of testing all manner of cars and deciding which deserve the 10Best crown. MT still does their Car (and Truck) of the Year award and R&T is less stuffy and finally came out with a Performance Car of the Year award, but the 10Best award is the one that makes it into the advertising copy. To help me choose a wide variety of interesting rides over a long time span, 10Best seemed like a good place to start.
The ethos behind C/D's 10Best Awards isn't solely about which car is the most fun, though that certainly plays a part. In the January, 2005 issue, they boiled their deliberations down to three primary parameters:
"In the end, three things were important. First, how well did each car perform its intended function, as we perceived it? Second, did it offer good value? And finally, was it able to put a smile on our collective face when we climbed behind the wheel?"
Now, there are some limits to which cars are eligible for 10Best Awards. First, it's only open to vehicles costing no more than 2.5 times the average sale price of all new vehicles sold the previous years. The reason is that the editors felt that vehicles costing more than the cap should be excellent. So, no Porsche 911s or Ferraris. Since 2010, it's been a flat cap of $80,000, but taking inflation into account, the cap has averaged $80,000 over all the years, with a low value of $64,000 in 1991 (cap set to $35k) and high value of $92,000 in 2002 (cap set to $66k.) (For the purposes of normalizing all dollar amounts into constant dollars, I've used the consumer price index inflation calculator provided by the US Department of Labor and used September, 2017 as my base date because that was the latest data they had available when I first started laying out my project.)
Second, while at the beginning it was opened to all vehicles, it's now only open to cars. No trucks, not SUVs, CUVs or vans. For the first 18 years, a few vans and one SUV made the list. In 2001, they came up with a 5Best Trucks (actually 1 truck, three SUVs and a van) list that lasted until 2007. After that, the larger vehicles - which may offer good function and value, but have never offered the driving dynamics of low center-of-gravity cars - dropped off the list. But they do have online Editors Choice suggestions, so if I'm looking for practicality, I can choose from there. Oh, and station wagons have always been welcome, because they often offer the dynamic abilities of the sedans they're based on. Which is good, because I like wagons.
Last, when they do their testing, they limit it to past winners (if the model is still on sale) and new or substantially updated models that the manufacturers allow them to test by the late-summer deadline and that will be on sale by January of the model year. So, sometimes, a vehicle that makes it onto the list one year drops off the following year solely because the manufacturer fails to deliver a model for testing (see Tesla, 10Best 2017) But once a model fails to make the list, it's no longer eligible until it's next major redesign. For example, the fourth generation "CB" Honda Accord (1990-1993), fell off the list in 1992, which allowed the Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 to sneak onto the list in 1993. The Accord was eligible again with it's redesign in 1994, but fell off again for the 1996-97 model years (losing to the original Dodge Stratus!). Since 1998, the Accord has made the list every year. More on the Accord when I buy one.
So there's the germ of the 10Beat idea. Buy depreciated 10Best winners - now beaters - and drive them for awhile, research them, see if I can figure out what made them special, photograph and write about them, fix them up a little and then sell them on. Take the proceeds from the sale, maybe add a little from my bank account and move on to the next one. One advantage - I'm not limited to buying cars from the year the car made the list, but can choose any example from that generation. For example, while the C/D editors in 1992 may have felt that the "V20" Toyota Camry V6 was a better mix of function, value and fun-to-drive than a CB Accord, I know that there's very little difference between the 1992 model and the 1990 and 1991 models - so a 1992 or 1993 can stand in for a 1990. Still a CB platform.
Also - hey, I'm 53 years old now. And I hate car payments. So, if I never get to newer stuff (as long as they keep handing out this award), I might never get to the latest and greatest. Further - I'm not going to bother with cars I think are going to boring unless I want to. If I never drive a 1983 Renault Alliance or 1985 Dodge Caravan, I don't think I'll regret it. But that doesn't mean I won't give them a try, just to see what it was the editors of 1983 found special about the Renault.
Because I'm a math and numbers geek, I've put together spreadsheets that will show the values of these cars when new (including, when possible, the actual vehicle I buy), what I paid for it, what I put into it and what I sell it for. Follow along if you want.
So - on with the show! First up - the two cars I own now: a 1987 Honda Civic DX hatchback (standing in for the 1985 Honda Civic/CRX) and, from the 5Best Trucks list, a 2003 Ford Escape (2001's best small SUV.) What do you know - I do own fun cars!
P.S. I've been a Porsche fan as long as I can remember. Don't be surprised if a 911 or other nice Porsche that wasn't 10Best eligible sneaks into this blog. Or cars from years prior to 1983. In the end, 10Beat is to give me direction - but it's never been a limit.
Except...
Except, all of my own cars, while serviceable and fun for me, haven't really been fun. They haven't been what a car guy would drive. I've driven plenty fast and had a instances when I've had a huge grin on my face while driving my own vehicles, but my choices have been mostly about what fit best for my life at the time and not really about what I'd most enjoy driving. I've always wanted to get some fun cars, but I've stymied myself in different ways - buying what I thought I needed, not wanting to be irresponsible by wasting a ton of money in depreciation, most of the cars I wanted to drive were way out of my price range, sooooo many cars I wanted to try. Plus I've bought a couple of project cars that I never had the time, money or dedication to finish. But I've dreamed of driving something fun - but what? Which of the hundreds of fun cars would I choose that I'd be willing to stick with long enough for the investment to make sense?
So, a couple of weeks ago, my wife sends me a link to a car for sale to share with my friend Joe, a Corvette enthusiast who's owned something like 15 different Corvettes over the years. In the 20 years I've known him, he's owned at least six by my own count, maybe more. Anyway, the link is to an ad for a 1985 Corvette (as long as the link lasts) at a consignment dealer in Bend, Oregon. I click the link and here's this really clean early C4 Corvette - under 55,000 miles, red, automatic, the pinnacle of American automotive performance in the mid-80's - and it's for sale for $6,995. This was a car that started at $25,000 in 1985 going for under $7,000 33 years later (don't do the math - remember, 1985 is the model year - the car came out in 1984.) And if you account for inflation, the base price was over $58,000 in 2017 money. That's a depreciation of about 85% in constant dollars for a clean example of something with serious performance cred when it was new.
And that's when it hit me. The trick to driving some of these fun cars wasn't to drive them when they came out and take the financial hit as depreciation drove their value lower and lower. It was to take advantage of depreciation and make it work for me. It was to buy a decent depreciated used example of performance icons, enjoy it for awhile and then sell it on. If I lost a little money - no big deal. If I made some - even better. And in the meantime - I could own and drive all these fantastic cars I've been reading about for most of the last 40 years.
But what to choose from? That became a little easier. In December, 1980, my parents gave me this magazine:
In January, 1983, this was the cover:
At the time, I think it was a way for the magazine to get into the "best" business by also besting their rivals. MT had their Car of the Year award and I suspect Editor David E. Davis, Jr ( by all accounts, an unforgettable character) decided that his magazine was going to show all those other pretenders how to do a "Best" issue. Hence - not just 10 Best Cars - but Road, Movers & Shakers, Racing Drivers, etc - 10 categories of 10Best things automotive. You can read the introduction to the issue here.
It's December 2017 when I'm writing this. Two weeks ago, I received the 2018 10Best issue in the mail. 37 years of testing all manner of cars and deciding which deserve the 10Best crown. MT still does their Car (and Truck) of the Year award and R&T is less stuffy and finally came out with a Performance Car of the Year award, but the 10Best award is the one that makes it into the advertising copy. To help me choose a wide variety of interesting rides over a long time span, 10Best seemed like a good place to start.
The ethos behind C/D's 10Best Awards isn't solely about which car is the most fun, though that certainly plays a part. In the January, 2005 issue, they boiled their deliberations down to three primary parameters:
"In the end, three things were important. First, how well did each car perform its intended function, as we perceived it? Second, did it offer good value? And finally, was it able to put a smile on our collective face when we climbed behind the wheel?"
Now, there are some limits to which cars are eligible for 10Best Awards. First, it's only open to vehicles costing no more than 2.5 times the average sale price of all new vehicles sold the previous years. The reason is that the editors felt that vehicles costing more than the cap should be excellent. So, no Porsche 911s or Ferraris. Since 2010, it's been a flat cap of $80,000, but taking inflation into account, the cap has averaged $80,000 over all the years, with a low value of $64,000 in 1991 (cap set to $35k) and high value of $92,000 in 2002 (cap set to $66k.) (For the purposes of normalizing all dollar amounts into constant dollars, I've used the consumer price index inflation calculator provided by the US Department of Labor and used September, 2017 as my base date because that was the latest data they had available when I first started laying out my project.)
Second, while at the beginning it was opened to all vehicles, it's now only open to cars. No trucks, not SUVs, CUVs or vans. For the first 18 years, a few vans and one SUV made the list. In 2001, they came up with a 5Best Trucks (actually 1 truck, three SUVs and a van) list that lasted until 2007. After that, the larger vehicles - which may offer good function and value, but have never offered the driving dynamics of low center-of-gravity cars - dropped off the list. But they do have online Editors Choice suggestions, so if I'm looking for practicality, I can choose from there. Oh, and station wagons have always been welcome, because they often offer the dynamic abilities of the sedans they're based on. Which is good, because I like wagons.
Last, when they do their testing, they limit it to past winners (if the model is still on sale) and new or substantially updated models that the manufacturers allow them to test by the late-summer deadline and that will be on sale by January of the model year. So, sometimes, a vehicle that makes it onto the list one year drops off the following year solely because the manufacturer fails to deliver a model for testing (see Tesla, 10Best 2017) But once a model fails to make the list, it's no longer eligible until it's next major redesign. For example, the fourth generation "CB" Honda Accord (1990-1993), fell off the list in 1992, which allowed the Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 to sneak onto the list in 1993. The Accord was eligible again with it's redesign in 1994, but fell off again for the 1996-97 model years (losing to the original Dodge Stratus!). Since 1998, the Accord has made the list every year. More on the Accord when I buy one.
So there's the germ of the 10Beat idea. Buy depreciated 10Best winners - now beaters - and drive them for awhile, research them, see if I can figure out what made them special, photograph and write about them, fix them up a little and then sell them on. Take the proceeds from the sale, maybe add a little from my bank account and move on to the next one. One advantage - I'm not limited to buying cars from the year the car made the list, but can choose any example from that generation. For example, while the C/D editors in 1992 may have felt that the "V20" Toyota Camry V6 was a better mix of function, value and fun-to-drive than a CB Accord, I know that there's very little difference between the 1992 model and the 1990 and 1991 models - so a 1992 or 1993 can stand in for a 1990. Still a CB platform.
Also - hey, I'm 53 years old now. And I hate car payments. So, if I never get to newer stuff (as long as they keep handing out this award), I might never get to the latest and greatest. Further - I'm not going to bother with cars I think are going to boring unless I want to. If I never drive a 1983 Renault Alliance or 1985 Dodge Caravan, I don't think I'll regret it. But that doesn't mean I won't give them a try, just to see what it was the editors of 1983 found special about the Renault.
Because I'm a math and numbers geek, I've put together spreadsheets that will show the values of these cars when new (including, when possible, the actual vehicle I buy), what I paid for it, what I put into it and what I sell it for. Follow along if you want.
So - on with the show! First up - the two cars I own now: a 1987 Honda Civic DX hatchback (standing in for the 1985 Honda Civic/CRX) and, from the 5Best Trucks list, a 2003 Ford Escape (2001's best small SUV.) What do you know - I do own fun cars!
P.S. I've been a Porsche fan as long as I can remember. Don't be surprised if a 911 or other nice Porsche that wasn't 10Best eligible sneaks into this blog. Or cars from years prior to 1983. In the end, 10Beat is to give me direction - but it's never been a limit.
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