Do early gen1s have any 'cachet'?

They've a following . But these kinda folks generally in decent standing with wants needs and desires. So generally they won't become collectibles like old American Iron is somewhat.so there's always that.

 

They seem to be going the way of classic helicopters.

Neat curiosities of engineering, to be sure... But nobody really wants to trust putting their families in them anymore.

Citation: Toyota unceremoniously gets rid of a special Prius to make room in their own museum
(yes it's a newer model, but it's got some undeniably special history. If that isn't worth a museum slot, what is?)

 

Getting rid of a Cressida and a Prius for crushing purposes how stupid can they be maybe they're non-runners they're just frames and skins who knows I had a 2000 GT for quite a while was a really cool car

 

no, they're even less desirable than gen 3

 

I'm keeping my '02 until I can't get parts. ( In PA, you can get "classic" license plate at 25 yrs.)

 

it's a great car for knowledgeable owners

 

Who knows? The downside to collectability is not knowing how long you'll be able to find replacement HV batteries. Otherwise, i don't get it - great cars, innovative tech, early owners took great care of some cars - you can still find beautiful cherries with low miles that run great. Why not value them?

IDK whether all of mine will be collectors, but IDK why they can't sell for the base value of any car in good shape with low miles and +40mpg. That's all I shoot for. Why is a Prius with <100k miles not worth $5000? I see people paying a lot more for newer Prii with twice the mileage or more. Seems crazy to me.

I just have so little money in each car that I can recycle the cat and crush the rest to break even. I just keep driving them and get my ROI that way.

How many miles on yours, OP?

 

certainly, everyone's museum should have one

 

I think a pristine gen2 with advanced safety features may be worth something in 20 years. Gen1 and 3, nope.

 

how many people collect early examples of transportation technology?

 

I think they will look at gen1s like the 70's vacuum control emissions controls on Detroit iron. It took fifteen to twenty years in both cases to build them right.

Most people in the general public would not know a gen1 Prius if they were standing next to it.

 

My point is why are they crushing them because it's we don't want anybody to have them mentality I guess these would bring millions of dollars to something somebody they were in Toyota's personal collection in whatever stupid town that is who cares some car nut would care and they would get bought up and be put in that hippie garage or whatever online or wherever they would go to an even more disastrous life where they will never be seeing a road ever again I'm pretty sad that's not really a piece of history both of the cars are pieces of histories but they need to be driven taken to shows something I mean they've just been sitting all these years not like these are cars with 300,000 miles at somebody has owned oh no these are like brand new that have been to car shows and ran a race one time to set some kind of a record before it was and what have you and now they're crushing but that's the mentality in Japan China they just destroy things that's what they do with all vehicles and stuff it gets to be a certain year mileage whatever it's destroyed and the parts are sent to America to unsuspecting whoevers exactly

 

The Dream!

 

Yeah, agreed. You do get a break on insurance, but there are restrictions on drive time (like, I mean, how would they know? Who checks up on these things?), and that won’t cut it for me since the car is my daily driver. Maybe I’m too honest.