These 8 rare 'collectible' cars are almost worthless (2024)

In the world of vintage cars, rare and desirable and valuable so often go together — but they don’t always. There are, in fact, a lot of rarely-seen models of vehicle out there that very few people are rushing to put in their garage. That depressed demand means the enthusiasts that do want that likely won’t have to pay a lot to do it. We’ve rounded up eight examples, and while we certainly could have found a lot more, we think there are some interesting stories behind those on our list.

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Our “guesstimate” values are just that — but of course any vehicle is worth what the next person will pay, nothing more and nothing less. Some of these may have gone for bigger dollars in showroom-perfect condition, or during auction dust-ups, but overall, none of these models will be close to what you’d pay to get a popular vintage car. While our list could have been much longer, we chose these for the stories behind them.

1971 to 1980 Ford Pinto ($5,000 to $10,000)

Ralph Nader famously savaged the Chevrolet Corvair, but his American Museum of Tort Law in Connecticut contains a Pinto. Lee Iacocca, chief of Ford at the time, mandated that the Pinto couldn’t weigh more than 2,000 lbs (907 kg) nor cost more than $2,000 (it started at $1,919).

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According to lawsuits, weight and cost were apparently the reasons why the fuel tank wasn’t protected by a baffle, and in a rear-end crash, it could rupture against the differential bolts, with any spark igniting the gasoline. Ford later modified the design, and retrofitted the cars it had already sold.

The Pinto was also rebadged as the Mercury Bobcat, which isn’t making huge value waves today either. About three million Pintos were built, but most succumbed to rust, or, as often happens with inexpensive models, to owners replacing rather than fixing an aging one. The Pinto you want, if you can find one, is the factory-custom 1977 Cruising Wagon, with its bubble-window portholes and cool graphics.

1971 to 1977 Chevrolet Vega ($2,500 to $10,000)

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This little Chevy had considerable issues with the tinworm, and some dealers reported their Vegas were rusting right on the showroom floor. It was designed to compete with tiny-footprint, lower-priced competitors like the Beetle. The Vega started at $2,090 and featured a weight-saving four-cylinder aluminum engine and rear-wheel-drive.

In addition to rust – a new six-stage rustproofing system didn’t work as well as expected – the Vega’s new engine had problems with overheating and oil consumption. The throttle could stick open, and the rear axle shafts could loosen. Most of those problems were fixed in the first couple of years, and GM went on to sell some two million copies.

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Body styles included a Kammback-style station wagon that tends to be a bit more popular with collectors. Note that our “not worth that much” does not include the 1975 to 1976 Cosworth Vega, a lightweight version with a 110-horsepower engine. Just over 3,500 were made, and the original US$5,900 price tag can hit ten times that today.

In addition to the U.S. plants, GM built the Vega at its factory in Ste-Therese, Quebec. Starting in 1973, Canada also got a Pontiac-badged version called the Astre, including a delivery-truck wagon trim with panel sides. American buyers finally got an Astre of their own for 1975.

1981 to 1989 Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries ($500 to $5,000)

There’s not a lot of collector love for these twins that essentially saved Chrysler, although the station wagons and related Dodge 400 convertible tend to do just a bit better. The automaker was in serious trouble when Lee Iacocca, freshly fired from Ford, arrived in 1978 to head it up, and he negotiated a very controversial US$1.5-billion loan guarantee from the U.S. government to prevent it from closing down.

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The new “K-Car” platform under the 1981 Reliant and Aries was front-wheel-drive; offered room enough for up to six people; and was driven by a Chrysler-built 2.2L four-cylinder, or optional 2.6L sourced from Mitsubishi, with prices starting just under $6,000. The new models made up some 36 per cent of Chrysler’s total sales that first year, and almost half in 1982.

The K-Car platform could also be stretched and adapted to new models, including the Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 600 and the 1984 Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans – also rare and pocket-change-priced these days – that started a new family-hauler segment. Chrysler paid back the loan seven years early on the strength of the K-Cars, but they’ve all but disappeared since then.

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1982 to 1988 Cadillac Cimarron ($1,200 to $2,000)

Cadillac made its name with big, luxurious models, but buyers were looking at smaller, sportier models from Audi and BMW, and General Motors figured downsizing would do the trick. The problem was that “develop a new model” actually boiled down to “rebadge a Chevy Cavalier.”

It was the brand’s first four-cylinder since 1914, initially sharing the Cavalier’s 1.8L engine. For 1983, it came with a 2.0L, and later, a V6. In addition to the Cimarron and Cavalier, the “J-platform” under them also spawned the Buick Skyhawk, Pontiac J2000, and Oldsmobile Firenza. It was branded the “Cimarron by Cadillac,” and advertised as “a new kind of Cadillac for a new kind of Cadillac owner.”

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It cost $12,181 – the Olds was the next-step-down at $7,413 – but surprisingly, almost 26,000 people bought the Cimarron that year, and annual sales hovered around 20,000 copies until its final two years. We’re not sure how many are left, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one.

1997 to 2001 Cadillac Catera ($1,200 to $2,800)

If the Cimarron was the Cadillac that shouldn’t have been, the Catera was the one that, at least in theory, should have done better. This blandly-styled sedan was basically badge-engineered, but it was based on the rear-wheel-drive Opel Omega, built in Germany and exported here. Its British-built 200-hp V6 ultimately proved troublesome, but its Euro-style steering and handling were very taut and satisfying for a domestic car of that era.

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It didn’t help that Cadillac’s advertising agency came up with one of the most bizarre campaigns ever seen. One of the birds on Cadillac’s historic crest morphed into a weird cartoon duck named Ziggy, and the ads – which included supermodel Cindy Crawford – went on about “The Caddy That Zigs,” which made an impression on pretty much no one. About 95,000 cars were built over the Catera’s short lifespan.

1978 to 1983 AMC Concord ($1,500 to $7,000)

AMC – American Motors Corporation – made some quirky cars in the 1970s, including the Gremlin and Pacer, that are gradually increasing in value thanks to attention from oddball-car fans. But there still isn’t a lot of love for the Concord, which replaced the Hornet in the Wisconsin-based automaker’s lineup. The two were similar, but the Concord was more upscale. It came as a sedan with two or four doors, a hatchback, and as a wagon, and a V8 was offered. It started at $3,750 and its first year was its best, at 121,000 sold. It was also briefly built at AMC’s Canadian plant in Brampton, Ontario.

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AMC also owned Jeep, and the Concord’s main claim to fame was that for 1980, the automaker used that knowledge to slip a 4WD system under it to create the Eagle, introducing what’s generally considered the “first crossover.” AMC then focused on the Eagle, along with new models built through its partnership with Renault, and that was the end of the Concord. Chrysler bought AMC in 1987, and got the Brampton plant that built the Concord – and some Jeep models, too – which eventually became the exclusive home of the Dodge Charger and Challenger, and Chrysler 300.

1976 to 1987 Chevrolet Chevette ($500 to $2,000)

People who remember the Chevette do so with either a smile or a shudder. Mine’s a smile, having been given a salvaged one back in the day. It couldn’t be licenced, and so I hooned that bulletproof little thing in my rural back field for years. Chevy intended it as an import-fighter, and in 1980, its best year, it sold almost 450,000 copies.

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The regular 1976 version was $3,098, but if you really wanted to save some cash, you got the $2,899 Scooter, which was so stripped-down that it didn’t have a back seat. One was added a year later, but you could still delete it.

The Chevette soon offered four doors as well as two, and in 1982, you could get a diesel engine. In Canada, the Chevette also came with different badges, and could be bought as the Pontiac Acadian. Neither is a hotshot on the collector market, but Canadians tend to go for an Acadian over a Chevette if there’s a choice.

1984 to 1987 Hyundai Pony ($500 to $2,000)

While you’ll sometimes see high prices for time-capsule-perfect examples, you can still get into a Pony for considerably less than the $5,900 it cost when new. It was the first car in Canada from a Korean automaker, and that’s as far as it got. Hyundai didn’t want the expense of adapting the Pony for the stricter U.S. emissions regulations at the time, and so it never went south.

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Its Mitsubishi-supplied 70-horsepower engine was slower than pokey, driving the rear wheels. It still had a manual choke, and air conditioning was an option. But its ultra-low price made it an instant hit, and in 1985, it was the best-selling car in Canada. Read that again: A car no one had heard of a year before was now the best-selling car in Canada.

The Pony’s price was impressive, but its reaction to winter salt-laden Canadian roads was not, and rust was a huge issue. Hyundai added the larger and better-equipped Stellar to the Canadian market in 1985, and then the Excel a year later — and that one finally went to the U.S. as well, the vital foothold the automaker needed. Like everything else mentioned here, those Hyundai models are rare but, at least by most classic-car standards, relatively worthless. Still, we’ll always stop and check ’em out if we ever happen to see one today.