The Firebird and Camaro of the early 1980’s have long sat at the bottom of the price scale, largely for being a bit of a black eye in the history of a celebrated American muscle car. Low on power and somewhat shoddily built, these were not heirloom vehicles. This 1984 Trans Am here on craigslist is needy and doesn’t possess any rare features, but it might be the cheapest way into a stock, unmolested car – especially if the market ever reverses after realizing these big coupes have been cheap for many, many years. The car is a claimed barn find that runs and drives but will need both tires and interior work. Although the seller states that it has Ram Air, I suspect he is referring to the factory cowl induction system used on this generation of Trans Ams, which is a neat period piece. For $1,800, I might still bargain down a bit – but the day could be coming when this looks like a steal.
Blah. (or Bah, take your pick.)
Ready for conversion into KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand)
The production numbers for the third generation Firebird tell you all you need to know about collectability. There were a total of 781,691 made. These cars will never see a significant increase in value, as there are simply too many of them out there. While they may be ‘collectible’, their value will always be limited by their pervasiveness. Value is a combination of collectability and scarcity. The production numbers for the Gen 3 Firebirds are below.
Year .. Base .. Esprit …Formula .. Trans Am … Total
1982 .. 41683 .. N/A … 21719 …… 52960 ……….116362
1983 .. 32020 .. N/A … 10934 …… 31930 ……….. 74884
1984 .. 62621 .. N/A … 10309 …… 55374 ……… 128304
1985 .. 46644 .. N/A …. 5208 …… 44028 ……….. 95880
1986 .. 59334 .. N/A ….. 2259 …… 48870 ……….110436
Year .. Base … S/E ….. Formula . Trans Am . Total
1987 .. 42558 . 13164 .. 11102 …. 21788 …… 88612
1988 .. 28973 . 13475 .. 11214 …… 8793 …… 62455
1989 .. 32376 . 16670 … 9631 ……. 5727 …… 64404
1990 .. 13212 .. 4834 …. 1447 ……. 1060 …… 20553
1991 .. 37762 .. 5544 …. 2915 ……. 4013 …… 50234
1992 .. 24364 .. 1052 ….. 508 …….. 1643 …… 27567