From: J Brennan (brenrock@optonline.net)
Date: Sun Aug 24 2003 - 19:39:26 PDT
Well . . . I lucked out and got mine early in the "fad" (a few months
after the initial auction) for a good price. Even though I have fond
memories of the MUTT (being passed on the highways by every other
vehicle on the road, watching for the officers vehicles to make sure I
saluted to the right ones while in convoy, and most of all bouncing
around in the woods) the HMMWV well was just "cool" as it was introduced
as I was off to a new part of my life. It had a powerful look back then
and still does today. I have enjoyed mine now for over three years and
I have been offered a bunch of money for it several times over the years
but I didn't get it to sell it. I got it because I enjoy the MV hobby
and I love working on vehicles. Crap, you can't work on anything new
produced these days unless you have a notebook computer! I pulled my
eldest son into this and restored a '74 British MV Land Rover Series III
Mod 109 (his love) with him over the past 2 years. Now I'm working with
my next son on a '69 Vette (his love - OK, not an MV but he sees it as
the car that the Apollo Astronauts drove so perhaps some historic
connection). Nonetheless it is a new generation learning "how things
work" and how to work on them (we will lose something as a country if we
do not pass this onto our kids). They learn - I learn - we spend time
together! So after all this rambling I don't care if the price of mine
goes down. I didn't get it to sell it (I have visions of it being
passed down generation by generation). I got it to work on it (and damn
it is relaxing!), take it to MV shows to display a piece of recent
military history to both young and old, and there is nothing cooler then
taking the kids out for ice cream in an MV (at the kids request)! Three
plus years later there isn't a day that I drive down my driveway seeing
the face of that bad boy looking at me that I don't think "damn, that is
Soooo awesome!"
John
'93 M1038 HMMWV
PS - Been pondering on adding a MUTT to the mix and freaking out the
neighbors even more. ;-)
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org] On
Behalf Of Employee@MilVeh.com
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2003 1:16 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: Re: [MV] Falling HUMMWV prices???
Has anyone noticed that HMMWV's seem to be getting
cheaper? The last couple on eBay went in the teens
and not a lot of people bidding on them. They seemed
pretty decent too.
All things are subject to trend, even HMMWV's and the
civy Hummer very craze is slowing. They've both been
in the publics hands for quite awhile and the newness
is wearing off. At the same time the reality is also
setting in that the military HUMMER versions are a
highly specialized, not like your family jeep and that
fairly "limited use" is probably giving pause to
average 4X4 buyer.
Outside the small numbers of hardcore military
enthusiasts, like myself, there's not a lot of folks
who are eager to plunk down $30k for a used vehicle
that only goes 55 mph, has a rather unsexy 3 speed
automatic hooked to meek dielsel. Don't misunderstand
me, I have nothing against HMMWVS despite the obvious
drawbacks. I like em for all the same reasons I like
the deuce, Mutt, M38A1, etc. I'm just calling it as I
see it and time will tell if I was right.
Again, its just a guess on my part, but after a few
more of these big government auctions the retail price
will heading down into the 14-19k range. Seems like
the average decent HMMWV now is around 21-25k.
This is good and bad. Good for our hobby, more
affordable collectable vehicles for people like you
and me who would like to buy one some day, bad for
those of you who own them already, but heck, at least
you were the first on your block to have one and you
have that satisfaction. People paid a premium to have
the first color tv's and microwaves too.
One thing that may get in the way of future sales and
in turn impact the future pricing, is that all these
vehicles as far as I know anyway, were sold as "off
road only" and they were all licensed for the road at
the first opportunity. So, if I noticed that little
discrepancy, I'm sure the government noticed it too.
Question is, do they really care?
The bigger question might be, if they do care, what
are they going to do about it? Personally, I think
its more of a CYA game between the gov., AM-General
and those tens of thousands of lawyers looking for
people to sue.
Still, it's a (minor) threat to all present and future
HMMWV owners, just like it was for uncut MUTT owners,
but they all survived without consquences, so I bet
HMMWV owners will too.
See you at Oroville in Sept. (Surplus City event).
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