Ten Reasons Why I Think the V6 Z24's are Just Waiting to be Discovered

I have been closely following the collector car market for several decades. I tend to keep my vehicles an especially long time. At the end of The Seventies, I thought the time was right to locate an affordable 1968-72 big-block Corvette. I found an ad in the local listings for a 1969 hydraulic lifter 427 Convertible for $2500. The car was white with a black interior and top, one of my favorite color combinations. It did not have power steering or air conditioning, likely the two variables most responsible for its incredibly low asking price. I called within hours of its initial listing and the car had already been sold. The time was obviously ripe to move to the next step.

Next I found an all-black 1969 Coupe with the same drive train for $6500. This car was distinguished by its genuine chrome wire wheels, a true rarity on a Corvette and of course, not original equipment. This car was gone within days of the time I examined it. In hindsight I should have made an offer on the spot, but I tend to be a cautious sort of person.

About six months later I found the car I would not let get away. It was sitting on a used car lot in Garland, TX. It was a 1970 Coupe with the same drive train and its price was $5000. I bought it for about $200 less. It had been repainted a non-stock color for 1970 in black enamel instead of its original green color in the correct paint type. Its rear brakes were worthless; its tires were cheap and bald; its carpet was rotted; and there was a big tear in the driver's seat back. Most obviously it had suffered some sort of parking incident because a small hole had been bashed into the fiberglass just above its front chrome bumper. I purchased this forlorn orphan for approximately two-thirds of its original sticker ten years earlier. The coming necessary repairs brought the total up to about $12,500, nearly double its original price. I kept this baby for eighteen years and even wrote a book about it entitled Plastic Ozone Daydream.

Now we have the Z24 V6, born in 1986 and eventually produced in four body types and in two completely different body styles. Some models had analog gauge clusters and some had digital. The early models were of the creased paper school of design and the later ones of the Coke-bottle style. The 1988-94 Coupes were of the same unusual iteration as the original Mustang 2+2, a fastback style with a separate trunk and fold-down rear seat.

Here is a breakdown of ten historical reasons why the Z24 V6 should be a lot more collectible than it seems to be at this moment in time, just like its older brothers:
(1) It is a Chevrolet with a special sport package, as are all its highly collectible older, larger brothers.
(2) The age bracket of the buyers for this vintage is near its zenith.
(3) Although a zillion common, four-cylinder Cavaliers were built, only a small percentage of the total production were Z24 V6's.
(4) Considering the Z24's original market demographic, nearly all of them have long ago been wrecked or otherwise trashed by their young, overly zealous owners.
(5) Look around: nice original Z24's are exceptionally rare in the nationwide market of today.
(6) The cars are fun to drive, economical and practical, and their tuned exhaust systems sound wonderful! They even suck air through a real cold-air hood and efficient fuel injection.
(7) Parts and service are available and affordable for these models built in Ohio by Chevrolet.
(8) Speaking of Ohio, real, totally American models built in the USA are becoming quite rare.
(9) All but the 1994 models already qualify for Antique status in most states.
(10) Unlike so many other classic collectibles, the asking prices for high-quality Z24's today are still less than half their original sticker prices of decades ago!