[BonzoHansen]

They will never reach the same levels as older muscle cars. So that is not the question to answer.

The viable question is will they at some point appreciate in value and be considered collectible. To that I will say yes, to some degree, they will. But it will only be the ‘good ones’. SS cars, etc., like WBT said. The past few years have seen the 3rd gens continue to rise in value, but it has to be a good one, of course. A Z28 is always worth more than a 6cyl car, be it a 1967 or a 2002. The lower the mileage, the better. Modifications very often decrease value (even with used cars). Ones that can be undone easily are better. But there are always exceptions to the modification rule and ‘acceptable’ mods go in & out of style. See pro-street. There is a reason you are seeing pro-street cars get new wheels and then marketed as pro-touring. PT is hot now, PS is not. I think a lot of guys are buying cars they can drive. PS cars are not good drivers. A well built PT car is great to drive. The dumb buyer will see 18” wheels and disc brakes and think they have a PT car, but what they really have is a poor street drive train, a craptastic street suspension and poorly sorted drag brakes. Right now a well built PT 69 Camaro will bring 2-3x the value of the same car if it is a clean, OE restored base car. But it won’t bring a real 69 Z28 that much higher, if at all. In 5 years? Who knows.

4th gens will continue their current slide down used car prices and then at some point you’ll see the cream of the crop start to go up again. That is just how it works with this kind of car. Yes the 5th gens will hurt resale value now. But the resurgence of the Camaro name will help in the long run.

What I do wonder is will the level of collectability/demand will be inverse to level of technology. The more complicated (computers, etc) cars become, does the hurt future interest? Part availability, increased repair/restore difficulty, etc.

I wonder how the demise of Pontiac impacts long term Firebird values.