My answer to today’s Ask is I wouldn’t, as I can’t see a reason to buy something I can’t drive and enjoy, and I certainly don’t have the room to display a whole-ass car as a work of art. Even if I were bucks-up, I don’t think I would enjoy owning museum cars that I see primarily as investments, just wasting away in some climate-controlled hangar. Better they just stay in the museum while I invest my cash in something guaranteed to pay off, perhaps a comprehensive NeeDoh collection.
Then again, not every museum car is that precious. The Lane Motor Museum has a bunch of cars I could see myself enjoying, and with many microcars on site, maybe I could actually display one in my living room.
Likewise, Honda’s museum in New Zealand (which prompted today’s AA) has a number of wonderful options up for auction that I would be happy to own, including a 260,000-mile Civic. Surely a few more miles won’t hurt it. I’ll let Antti explain, as he generously did in Slack:
Honda is closing a museum in New Zealand that has collected some of the most memorable Hondas built in NZ, up until 1998. Those are now being auctioned on the Trade Me platform, and all 19 cars have already met their reserve with several days left in the auction. All proceeds will go to local charities in the Nelson area.
Thing is, I love it when museums sell off stuff. They’re usually really interesting cars and quite often – but not always! – well kept. Factory museums usually should have access to parts, too. However, if you buy a car from a museum floor, like in this case, there’s this implied idea, at least in my mind, that you’re supposed to continue keeping it in the same shape. Otherwise, you’re ruining a museum piece.
Now, with a Civic which has 418,000km on the clock, you’re continuing the story. It’s different than with a factory-fresh-looking car that has maybe a few thousand on the clock: can you use it? But if you take a regular car that has museum history but isn’t The Only One Of Its Kind In The World, you don’t have to have museum facilities yourself to do the car a service (both literally and conceptually). The car is still really nice, but you can continue doing your own thing rather than worry about it, as long as it doesn’t rust into pieces like an old Honda is eager to do. And nobody better steal it.
Your turn:
What Car Would You Buy From A Museum?
1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Cabriolet at the Henry Ford Museum
1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic at the Peterson Museum
I did, in fact, buy my 1972 Velorex 435 from the Lane Motor Museum so the evidence strongly suggests that my answer is a 1972 Velorex 435.
Audi B5 RS4 Avant, BMW E46 CSL, Porsche 959, and a 1995 500E Limited
There probably aren’t any examples of this in a museum (yet) but I’d like to buy a new 2019/2020 Toyota Yaris iA hatchback, which of course is actually a Mazda 2 (of the generation that was never sold in America). I’d take any trim/color, but an XLE in blue would be ideal. 🙂
*enjoys the fantasy for a moment before returning to reality*
Cars need to move to be healthy, and this is generally (but not always) frowned upon by museum staff.
It is like people, if you don’t move, you rot. Oil need to be pumped and circulated, much like our blood (with different effects, of course, don’t look too closely at my analogy!)
And yet, conversely, I think this means that I can say I’m a museum piece during summer, when I try to stay inside AC environments as often as possible.
Love all the dream cars mentioned, but I’ll be the wet blanket. A restoration shop I’ve used took in a 1960’s muscle car bought from a museum. Looked stunning on the outside. Everything needed rebuilding. Even the tires looked perfect, but we’re rotted, and split when filled with air properly. I know the Lane does run their cars, but many museums do not run their cars often enough to protect seals and gaskets. They are intended to look pretty and sit still. The shop owner got it running and made sure the brakes worked, but said that the car would soon be leaking from everywhere as the owner actually started using it.
One of the many I like 🙂
Untouched 1987 Fiero GT
1976 Porsche 924 with no cracks in the dashboard
1973 308GT4 Euro spec.
-I’m used to getting old stuff going again, so not afraid of “barn finds”.
Pretty much any W123 M-B in museum condition. It would be driven, but garaged when it wasn’t.
Especially the S123: either 280 TE or 300 TD TURBODIESEL (the latter in US model as it’s often high-specced and nicer than the European model).
The Ilinga. A mid-70s wedge-shaped 4 seater coupe fitted with the 4.4 litre alloy V8 from a Leyland P76, and with pop-down headlights (actually fixed headlights, but with drop-down panels in the sloping wedge front to reveal the lights. Only 2 were built before money problems and the end of Leyland P76 production stopped things, and one was donated to the Melbourne Museum.
Either the Rolls-Royce Round Door or the Keaton-eta Batmobile at the Petersen Museum. Or I guess literally anything at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum.
Keaton-era Batmobile would be choices 1-7 of my top 10. If I couldn’t get that, I’m sure I’d get something uncommon-but-not-quite-unobtainium like a 1963 split window Corvette, a ’69 ZL1 Camaro, or a 71 Hemi Cuda.
A Detroit Electric. If I remember correctly, Egeskov Castle has Mamie Eisenhower’s.
I clicked on this headline IMMEDIATELY to say that the Lane Museum DOES, in fact, sometimes sell its cast-offs and boy howdy, I need a cheap Tatra like nobody’s business. A cheap Tatra would fix me. My birthday was last month, but it’s never too late to buy me a cheap Tatra.
Cheap.
Project.
Tatra.
When the Imperial in Vegas was selling it’s collection of cars prior to the closure/renovation/rebranding – there was a lovely LHD Bentley S3 Continental Mulliner/Park Ward Drophead coupe – Grey over Red Leather interior – which was so stunning, I could not take my eyes off it.
It may well have been this one:
https://rmsothebys.com/auctions/mc22/lots/r0054-1963-bentley-s3-continental-drophead-coupe-by-mulliner-park-ward/
I’d have bought that.
Corvette or Ferrari since those are all in personal museums.
GM EV1 or the Subaru STX concept
I’ve produced a list
https://landcruiserhm.com/museum-collection/vehicle-collection
but I’ve actually gotten close to this one https://landcruiserhm.com/museum-collection/vehicle-collection/111-1997-fzj80
More accurately, they had 2 and this was the nicer of the two and they sold the other one. The other one was also museum grade.
“What Car Would You Buy From A Museum?”
It’s too general of a question to answer.
But I will say that of the vehicles being sold off by that Honda museum, I would buy the:
-1982 Accord hatch
-1995 Accord sedan
-1982 Civic hatch
-1988 City
-1984 Accord sedan with those aero headlights
-1987 Accord Aerodeck
-1987 Civic GTi – that engine is a late E-series/early D-series with fuel injection. It’s not a ZC, but it’s definitely a premium engine for the time.
-2000 Civic Type R… That thing has this engine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_B_engine#B16B_(Type_R)
182hp at 8200rpm… with an 8400rpm redline.
VTEC (YO!!!) will kick in at 6100rpm and the thing also has a limited slip diff.
Definitely a fun car… though I’m not sure if it’s worth NZD$30,000 (about CAD$25,000) to me. But as long as it’s kept in mint condition, it will likely retain its value.
And all the Honda’s I picked would be manual ones. And my #1 pick would likely be that 1987 Civic GTi as it’s fairly cheap and likely to be almost as fun as that Civic type R.
Good choices. The ’82 Accord Hatch would be at the top of my list as well.
I’m not really into Hondas, but the 87 Civic GTI sitting at $5100 and the 87 Accord Aerodeck sitting at $7200 are both pretty intriguing. And since both have over 100,000 km on the odo, driving them wouldn’t be a sin.
But LHD?
They have a Prius Gen 1 at the Henry Ford Museum, very few left in those pristine conditions. If someone had a Insight Gen 1 with no miles, I would pay sticker price for it.
Gen 1 Insight with a manual in that citrus yellow.
In Plano, Texas is where Toyota’s US HQ is, and in their main building they have a Toyota Experience Center which is a museum of sorts that house a history of a large majority of the cars Toyota has made before. I had the privilege of visiting it because an acquaintance of mine works there last year (only Toyota employees and their family/friends are allowed to visit it, it apparently used to be open to the public years ago but Toyota stopped doing that). That day that I went they had a Toyopet Crown on display, as well as a 2000GT and the Marshmellow Tundra.
But what caught my eye (and has been on my want list for ages) was a 2014 Lexus ISF in Ultrasonic Blue. I even joked with the employee there that if Toyota ever decides to sell it, to PLEASE let me know (Toyota frequently will rotate cars in and out of the museum to some storage warehouse here in the states). I’ve daily-ed a 2006 IS350 for over 10 years, and on my bucket list is to own a car that is powered by that 2UR V8.
I’m sorry, Peter, but your question is very broad and very vague. I’d buy any car that was interesting to me and came at a fair price, regardless of who was selling it.
Anything I find interesting that I can afford. And I would drive it like any of my other cars.
90’s Buick Roadmaster Wagon
Most museums I’ve been in there is a lot of neat stuff that I look at and think what would you do with it if you had it. I think the museum I thought the most of cars that need to be driven is the Newport car museum. Alot of the Porsches especially.
None, because <Indiana Jones voice> “They belong in a museum!”