Early-'90s Shadow ES/Plymouth Duster with the 3.0 V6/5-speed drivetrain. A hoot to drive, cheap to buy and maintain, and the vast majority of them were automatics. Get a coupe!
Any year Probe GT. While I thought the first generation hideous to view, the turbo engine was a blast. The 2nd-gen cars were miuch prettier, and achieved similar fun-to-drive levels without boost.
Chevy Citation X/11. Amazing what a body kit, a V6, and a five-speed could do for the downtrodden X-body.
'80-'83 J-body Mopars (Mirada, LS, Cordoba) as well as the '81-'83 Imperial. Perhaps I'm a little impartial, but they were the last rear-drive coupes the "real" Chrysler Corporation ever produced. In particular, T-top or moonroof cars, or even better the '80-only E58 360-4v models. Any Imperial with functioing EFI is rare as hell (mine's been swapped to a carb). You may laugh at this one, but a few years ago I would have laughed if you told me people would pay over $75K for a late second-gen F-body GM. I saw an '80 Turbo Trans Am go for something like $78K, and a '79 Trans Am SE (403/auto) break the $80K mark at Barrett-Jackson in the last few years.
Factory 305 V8 Chevrolet Monzas. When I worked at the local country club, there was an older gentleman with a factory black/red-gut 305 Monza with a 4-speed manual. It was absolutely immaculate with the quad-rectangle headlamps, front spoiler, wheel spats and ducktail spoiler, summer driven only. He'd bought the car new, and told me that it was not available with a 4-barrel, so he'd had the local Chevrolet dealership order a complete induction setup from a same-year Z/28 and had it installed before he picked up the car. I don't know that I've ever seen another 305 Monza, but I've driven 267 V8 Monzas, and those were pretty impressive considering how sluggish the 267 was in larger models.
1969 Dodge Charger Daytona and 1970 Plymouth Superbird. Despite their strange looks, they might really be worth something someday due to rarity... we'll see.
Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupes of any year, though the '83-'85 model to my eye is by far the prettiest. The Super Coupes were fun, too, but didn't deliver nearly the excitement of the Turbo cars. Those turbo 2.3Ls made a pretty impressive amount of power, and passing the 3K mark on the tach with your foot in the water pump was like getting smacked in the brain stem with a 9-iron.
Any turbo Merkur, be it the XR4Ti or the Scorpio. They were never common and kinda goofy-lookin' but they were fast, good-handling cars with a lot of luxury. These were actually common European Fords, but they were rare in the US under the short-lived Merkur nameplate. As has long been the case, European Fords were far superior to the US offerings at the time.
'84-'86 Ford Mustang SVO. Simply the fastest Mustang you could buy at the time, and pretty rare as well. Rare features, too, such as 5-lug wheels which would not appear on another Fox-plat Mustang until '94; SVO-only suspension geometry with factory Koni adjustable dampers at all four corners, SVO-only pedals to aid in heel-and-toe driving, 16" wheels and 4-wheel disc brakes well before the GT got them, and a healthy 175-205HP depending on year from the intercooled 2.3L 4-banger. Add to that disticntive, if not attractive front=end styling and the biplane rear spoiler and its inherent rarity, and it's a sure bet for the future.
Shelby GLH (regardless of turbo), GLH-S, and GLH-S II (Charger body), as well as the fairly-rare Shelby Lancer and other actual Shelby skunkworks Mopars. The Shelby name got thrown around a lot, but the Shelby Lancer was a lot better package than the Lancer Shelby. If it has a Shelby Automobiles numbered plaque on it, it's going to be worth something someday. Standard Dodge Shelby models, not so much. There's a dealer here in town who's had an '83 Shelby Charger (non-turbo that year) with a price tag of $3K on it since shortly after I graduated high school. The Shelby wheels are gone, the steering wheel is a cheesy chrome 3-spoke foam-grip deal, and the car's sat since at least 1990. It's in decent shape body-wise but needs help nearly everywhere else. It doesn't have the panache of a Turbo or a Shelby-produced car, and I expect it will sit even longer. He recently put it out by the road to get some attention for it, but I don't expect that will help the poor carbed-2.2L car sell.
1978 Dodge Magnums with the 400-4v engine. The last big-block Dodge coupe ever built, and reasonably attractive as well. Bonus points for moonroof/T-top cars, even higher bonus points for GTs (which used Super Coupe-style wheels). You can always explain to people that the Dodge Aries-lookin' grille came 3 years before the K-car, too! That grille style always kept me from falling completely in love with the aforementioned Miradas, by the way. I thought the Chrysler LS (slightly glorified '80-'82 Cordoba-based coupe with 300-style marknigs) a far-better-looking machine.
Any E58 360 F-body coupe. I know where there's a clean '79 four-door sitting, rare because it's not a K-code police car. Someone ordered a sedan with the 360-4v! Rare, yes. Desirable? Not likely.
I think the list posted is interesting, but I see a long time before people really start seeking out a lot of those cars. If you've got the cash, the space, and the patience I think many of those cars would be worth grabbing. If you're looking for sub-$20K cars that will bring a better return on investment in a shorter term I think my list has better options. As people of my generation age and get more settled with wealth, they'll look to the cars of their youth. Yes, I almost bought a Spirit R/T when I was married and I loved that car, but if the money were the same I'd enjoy something I remember as a kid, marvelling at it on the lot or as a nearly-new car. Also, the R/T's Turbo III engine is expensive to maintain... call Vato Zone and price up plug wires sometime. R/T enthusiasts know the drawbacks.
I also got a chuckle on the RX-7 Turbo... at least, the generation they pictured. That's the least-desirable of the RX-7s, as they became overweight luxury-laden pigs in the second generation. If you want a collectible RX-7, you either go early-1st gen (the '79 with the Mikuni 4-barrel is a scream) or 3rd gen. The 3g cars are great, but if you manage to find the rare R1 or even-more-rare R2, wear a kidney belt unless you're on perfect pavement. Fast as hell, but the R1/R2 models will hammer your kidneys out through your shoulders, the R2 being far worse than the R1, which only gets tiring on longer drives if you're used to old Mopars.
That's my list. Discuss amongst yourselves. I am verklempt.
