The Great Grape Ape
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2017
- Threads
- 9
- Messages
- 2,840
- Reaction score
- 4,122
- Location
- Canadian Rockies
- Vehicle(s)
- 2015 JKU AspenX 5spd , 2015 JK Sport 6spd
Not really, you still need the demand for it, afterwards and even the Chinese market it was intended for had little to no interest, if it were a G-wagon or LandRover, ok maybe, but this was mainly sold to wannabes and pavement princesses, to which..The closest thing I'd consider to a unique, collectible JK would be the Dragon Edition in so much as how awful it was.
Quite often in fact, mainly because they were primarily sold to people who didn't off-road and didn't do bling, they to people who liked stock bling, which is why you can still find a bunch of Dragon Edition in un-moded and 'never off-roaded' condition, even now there are a nunch for sale on Auto traders online.Think for a moment when you last saw an untouched Dragon Edition, if ever?
The Red Rock on the other hand was even more limited, and most went on trails, finding those that are in good shape would be a lot harder than finding a mall-crawling Dragon.
No, it's not really rare as they made 2.5 years and tens of thousands of them, not dozens. Your use of 3 words to try to express the same thing doesn't make it so. Also this isn't even theory, one need only look at the marketplace again, it's been over a decade, and they do not command significantly higher rates of return than their TJ counterparts in similar condition. They initially even cost more than the first JKUs (which were better equipped, which makes it similar to this JK/JL scenario), but they haven't appreciated much at all for that premium.Seriously, though. In the grand scheme of the JK, there isn't a single model that stands out as unique, special, or rare. The LJ, on the other hand, is all three of those things.
However all of this speaks to the main point, despite the things people might think make a Wrangler collectible, even then they will struggle to see any appreciable advantage over other models, and usually you'll get better return on investment from a Sport S and putting your money in an institutional investment. Even a super limited edition which one could show number invite and all the provenance to make it super rare, would still struggle to earn payback even vs vehicles like Miatas or BRZs, let alone Vipers or Alfa 4Cs as collectible darlings in the FCA stables.
If you're talking true collectibility, then take a look at the auctions, and you'll see how even the pristine variants just don't pull in 'collectible' dollars even if they are truly "rare, unique and special" like an FC or Jeepster in great condition, the market just isn't for collecting that. The true fans would rather a beaten-up one and rebuild it into something of their own, because the mantra of Jeep are Built not Bought extends there also, hurting collectible status.
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