Everybody knows that used plane prices are going up! the reason for this is no mystery to economists or non-economists who are paying attention. The supply of used planes is low, and the supply of good used planes is even lower, since the average age of light planes continues to rise as the glory days of aircraft production fade into the past.
But how much is too much? Well, that’s a question that real estate buyers have been asking themselves for the past couple of years now. The answer is, “too much” depends on whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay.
Which leads us to this ad in Trade-a-Plane for a 1977 Cessna Cardinal RG (retractable gear) with just under 3,000 hours total time, a very low-time remanufactured engine and a panel that’s full of pretty glass and other avionics. The asking price: $324,900. We guess that $325,000 seemed like too much. While you’re looking at a Canadian “N”-number, the list price is indeed in U.S. dollars.
Is it worth it? Our position is, it’s only worth it if somebody will lay down the cash for it. Think it will happen? We don’t, but we never expected to see the day of $100,000 1970s-era Skyhawks either.
