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Probably 5 to 8 million and climbing. Depends on whether it was a short or long wheelbase car. Short wheelbase worth more. And if it were an alloy bodied SWB, easily well over 10 million.
Any of the Ferraris with 250GT in their name are worth many millions now but as the saying goes " they just don't make 'em like that any more." GTOs are going for $30-40 million so Californias probably run around $20-$25 mil but if I had one no amount of money would make me give it up.
Money isn't everything.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Yesterday I drove down to southern Md to visit my Mom and Stepdad, and on the way drove past the house of the guy who bought Granddad's '53 DeSoto back in 1986. And yep, sure enough it's still there! I was starting to think that it had finally been towed away, because it no longer shows up in the Google Map or Bing Map aerial shots. However, the last time around, both of those shots were taken with leaves still on the trees, so they were simply hiding it.
In some ways, I think it's kinda cool that the car is still around, as opposed to being sent off to the crusher. But at the same time, it's not doing any good, sitting in the woods rusting away and most likely sinking into the ground.
Fintail, thanks for posting. That's a '62 Lark Regal Skytop, lower-priced of the two Lark hardtops (the Daytona being the higher model). I do remember the Addisons, older neighbors of the Posts, driving an Avanti. One would have thought they'd have been seen in a Cruiser or Gran Turismo Hawk.
Saw a pretty light metallic blue 65 (I think) Mustang today, parked at the building a few blocks from me that used to be the Studebaker dealer. Car was obviously restored at least cosmetically at some time, out in the rain, trunk open, nobody around. Kind of odd.
My BIL used to own a 67 Mustang convertible in that color. It was a 6 banger. He worked his way through college restoring Mustangs. In his opinion, if you are looking at it as an investment get a V8, but if you want a good around town car get the 6 - you'll save a bundle and it's a pretty reliable engine.
As for that open trunk, probably didn't latch right. But back in that era some cars were easy to break into the trunk by punching around it's lock. Although I think that was primarily a GM thing, but not sure.
well, I know that VW had an issue with the door locks like that. My friend had an '85 Golf, and had to switch to a removable head unit stereo after it got broken into a few times. Thief just punched a hole with a screwdriver just below the door handle, and could easily pull up on the release lever. he never did fix that hole (probably figured, why bother?) but did always take the faceplate with him after that!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
"Thief just punched a hole with a screwdriver just below the door handle, and could easily pull up on the release lever. he never did fix that hole (probably figured, why bother?) but did always take the faceplate with him after that!"
I seem to remember little armor plates you could install around the door handle on Rabbits/GTIs/Golfs/Jettas to try and prevent that. I never did, luckily never got broken into.
In the dark drizzle this evening, spotted a 59 Caddy 4 door flat top - kind of shocking.
I liked that 4dr flat top look on the 59 Impala. But I think the larger cars like Caddy and Electra didn't pull it off too well. They were too long and looked better as 6 windows to me. But I think you spotted yourself a somewhat rare one tonight!
Rarer than a 6 window no doubt. This car was definitely unrestored, white with some kind of pastel red-ish top, but moving along fine.
When I was a kid, my dad had a friend with a 60 Caddy flat top, it was kind of a dark magenta, pretty cool car to my young eyes, very ostentatious.
A lot of people liked the somewhat toned down 60 better, but I'll still take that in your face 59
Here's an oddity...my old car book lists a 6 window and a 9 window for 1959 in the Series 62 lineup. I have a feeling that's a typo though, and should be a 4 window. For the DeVille, they do list a 6W and 4W.
As for production, the Series 62 sold 23,461 6W models and 14,138 of the 4W("9W"). In the DeVille range, it was 19,158 6Ws and 12,308 4Ws.
The 4 and 9 typo thing made me think of something that happened back in high school a couple of times. I tend to make my 4's and 9's look similar when I write them, because don't curl the bottom of the 9 and don't always completely close the top. One year I took a "construction tech" class (shop, essentially), and we all sat around two big worktables. So needless to say, in taking tests it was hard to keep your eyes on your own paper. Well, one of the answers had a "9" in it. Apparently, one of my classmates copied my answer, and several others copied his, but they wrote that "9" down as a "4". When our tests came back, mine had the answer to that question circled with the note "did you start this?" written on it! I was confused at first, but then the teacher 'Splained it to me (Sorry, I Love Lucy is on in the other room!)
To each his own, but I think a '59 Caddy looks like exaggerated cars one sees in cartoons (like 'The Simpsons'). I like the '60 better, but only a shade. I find the Eldorado Seville interesting, just because I don't believe I've ever seen a real one. It took 'til around '80 I think for Caddy to re-introduce a two-door, non-convertible Fleetwood (excluding the Eldorado of course, which was really a totally different car although considered part of the Fleetwood line).
A friend's parents had several new Cadillacs--'56, '60, '65, '67, '70, '73, and two first-generation Sevilles before switching to Lincoln. His mom was a tiny lady but he said she always said she liked their '60 flat-top because of the visibility.
At the time, the '60 Caddy was probably better regarded, because it was more tastefully done. However, looking through modern eyes, I think people prefer the '59 simply because it IS so over the top! It became symbolic with the excesses of the late 50's, and that's what a lot of people go for today.
There's a car show I go to every August near Allentown, PA, and almost every single time, there's a '59 Catalina 4W hardtop parked right next to a '59 Cadillac 4W hardtop. The proportions on the Catalina look really good, in my opinion, but so overblown on the Caddy. Another thing that's a bit odd, is the roof structure, windows and everything, seems the same size on both cars, although I didn't take a tape measure to them to be positive. I would think though, that the Caddy, being on the C-body platform with the Electra/Ninety-Eight, would have a slightly longer passenger cabin than the Catalina, which was on the B-body Chevy/Pontiac/LeSabre/88 platform?
I know in later years, you could always see the extra length in the C-body versus the B- in the rear doors, which were a bit longer and had slightly longer windows. Usually the C-pillar and rear window area were a bit different as well. But I swear, on those two '59's, they look identical.
A 9 window? That would look pretty weird. Funny typo.
Saw another odd one in the dark - 80s Eldo cabrio, I think it might have been a real convertible. Feels like a Caddy convention is in town.
That typo was in one of those big auto encyclopedias that Consumer Guide puts out every year. I think I have three or four of those books, so I'm kind of curious to look back through one of the old ones and see if that typo is still there. I've noticed in the past that they carried some typos over from one edition to the next.
On the subject of typos, one mystery that's always eluded me is just how many 1955 Plymouths were built. A lot of sources, including Consumer Guide, put the number around 401,000, which I believe was actually worse than the 1954 total. And considering what a great year 1955 was for just about all of the Big Three brands, I find that hard to believe.
Caught another obscure tv show that I'd never seen before..."Bachelor Father". In the opening sequence, you see John Forsythe come out of his house and hop in a 1961 Chrysler convertible parked out in front. And, as is always the case in TVLand (or MeTV in this case!) the top is down, and the decorative boot is snapped in place. Must be a nice, dry neighborhood if you can leave the car out overnight like that.
Oh, and in this morning's episode of Donna Reed, again they were using a '62 Mercury 4-door hardtop for all exterior shots, but the interior was of a '60! I wonder though, if the reason they did that was because they probably had to take a car apart and modify it for interior shooting, probably removing the dashboard, windshield, whole front end to get the camera shot? And it's probably not cheap, to do that to a car! So they probably did it first a couple years back, with the '60, but figured it wasn't worth it to modify a '62 just for continuity. I'm sure they never figured that 50 years later, people would still be watching these old shows over and over again, and have the ability to pause, rewind, etc, to catch every little inconsistency.
My sources say '55 Plymouth production was 647,352
I've enjoyed those Consumer Guide books in the past, and own one, but I found that they are pretty regularly error-prone. IMHO, the best information sources about production are usually from the marque clubs. They don't have to try and be experts on all makes. Info on engines and options and color availability, I always go to the "Old Car Manual Project" website and look at the sales brochure.
Anything over 6 window would have to be one of those 59/60 GM or an early 60's Valiant station wagon!
Well-done (for the most part) VW commercial about the "1949 Auto Show". I definitely remember this commercial from when it ran. Note a pre-MASH McLean Stevenson, and Wink Martindale announces. The Studebaker is a '50 model--more widely-known--not sure about the others:
Someone on the Studebaker forum wrote, "Yeah, because the USA rebuilt your factories after the war...and don't forget it!". I had to chuckle. It is a creative commercial though IMHO, as many VW ads were then.
Thanks Shifty. I always wondered about that 4XX,XXX number that I've seen thrown about, especially since I've always heard that Chrysler corporation as a whole gained market share for 1955.
Funny, the VW sure doesn't look like a 49 model either, they definitely had different trim, and most of the "rebuilding" (which wasn't exactly done for altruistic reasons) wasn't finished in 49 anyway. That excuse always amuses me.
I have one Consumer Guide book, a big thing that covers ~1930-82. Picked it up on sale for like $10 brand new, couldn't resist. Now and then I'll look something up in it. With so much data, mistakes are bound to happen.
Note that the guy is standing in front of where one would see the size of the rear window(s). I think there's no way that's a '49 VW. Andre, is that a '49 DeSoto? I always remember hearing/reading that only two new VW's were sold in the U.S. in '49.
Here's a '50, what do you think?
How's this for a double header? Saw a Fisker AND a Tesla on the same day. The Fisker Karma looks better in "real life"--it's a very handsome car. The Tesla is also very nice, but rather ordinary just parked there among the Benzi and Lexi. The Fisker is unmistakable, like when we were kids and we KNEW a car when we saw it from 50 yards away!
Well, that might be a '49 VW then. I'm surprised to see brightwork on a VW that's that early, but I don't really know anything about them.
What caught my eye is that the car in the ad appears to have fender mounted signals (either that or a weirdly coincidental reflection) - those didn't come around until several years after 49, I think. Also, the man blocks the semaphore area and prevents a view of the rear window. I was also thinking the other windows looked larger than on a 49, but your pic makes me think again. I might be wrong, I am not a VW expert. But I don't know if any of the actual handful of cars exported to the US in 49-50 still exist today.
Regarding brightwork, "export" models received more than the base model at home.
Yeah, that's a 1949 DeSoto. The 1950 looked similar, although its grille had vertical bars that were all the same thickness, whereas on the 1949 every third bar was thick and the others were thinner. The 1950 also had a body-color piece down the middle that split the grille in a subtle way.
And yeah, I've always heard that VW only sold two units in 1949 as well. I don't think it was until 1957, when the market began to backlash a bit against bigger cars (it would do so in a major way in 1958-59) that anybody took VW seriously.
This youtube link says VW commercial was from 1974.
Don't think any of it is old footage.
Didn't realized that Martindale was in Memphis; couple of decades before my time there. Must have heard him on WHBQ (home of Rick Dees of Disco Duck fame and George Klein, Elvis's friend).
Hard to believe that McLean Stevenson would be in a commercial while doing MAS*H.
Maybe the youtube link was wrong and he did it earlier. Here's one from 1971. (dailymotion.com)
Was just out for a little drive, and saw what I am pretty sure was a Cord L-29. It was that or a similar era Auburn (which look similar), but I seem to remember the car not having a hood ornament, and it was a large car. Moving along with traffic just fine. Looked pretty much like this:
Also saw a decent looking 70-72 Monte.
The favorite car of Frank Lloyd Wright (the Cord not the Monte).
I could see him in a coffin-nosed Cord...the car kind of resembles his Guggenheim building.
Speak of the devil, and he shall arise! That episode of the Donna Reed Show where Jeff wins the Ferrari is on! And dangit, I have to get ready for work...I'm DVR'ing at least. It was kinda cute hearing Jeff go on about all the features...FM radio (must have been a big deal circa 1962), and, not to stir up an old hornet's nest, but he started carrying on about how overhead cams are better than pushrods!
I recall seeing an episode of "Father Knows Best" where they won a new 1959 Lincoln Mark IV. The dialog only referred to it as a "$6,000 car."
I wonder how much that Ferrari would have cost when it was brand-new? Needless to say, I ended up watching most of the episode and was late for work. At one point, when they went to get it insured, the agent quoted them $180 for full coverage. I know 1962 was a long time ago, but $180 sounds awfully cheap for insurance on a car like that, with a teenager listed as the primary driver!
Just for kicks I ran that number through an inflation calculator. In 2013 dollars it comes to $1389. I still remember the first year I had to pay for insurance in 1987...$1361. Adjusting for inflation, that comes out to $2792! And that was liability-only, for a 1980 Malibu.
In the early 60s, a higher line Ferrari was probably something like 10-15K, brand new. Jeff should have kept it, stored it in a barn, and sold it in 2014 when people love dust and patina. He'd be a fairly wealthy man for it.
you're close. A 250 GTO cost $18,000 new, IF Enzo would even sell you one (he had to approve the buyer). So about...what....$140K-150K in today's dollars? Harumpf. You can't buy a new Ferrari for that anymore.
Would a California cost as much as a GTO? Maybe an alloy body or something. Also price that vs average wages, and be depressed. Looks like one investment could have easily beat southern CA real estate.
To use a rough equivalent of a mere "mortal" car from that era, my Granddad bought a '61 Galaxie 500 hardtop sedan, followed by a '63 Monterrey hardtop sedan. Each one was about $3500. Decently equipped, but no air conditioning.
I'm sure a comparable Fury or Impala would have been around the same. So, it looks like that Ferrari would have cost about the equivalent of ~5.1 of these "average" cars.
$18,000 would have also gotten you a pretty nice house around these parts back in the early 1960's.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v502/TrafficJam28/Belair at Bowie/BelairColonial.jpg
And the house has AC!
About that same time, my grandparents bought a 3br/2ba/2 car garage rambler on a quarter acre in a nice middle class suburban Seattle neighborhood, for 17K.
Average nicely equipped mainstream car today is probably 25-30K. 5 of those is 150K tops - still can't get a new Ferrari for that, or a decent house in most areas.
I remember the "bread and butter" Ferrari 250GT 2+2 stickered for $12,000 around 1962, that would make a 250GT Spider California around 18-20grand, perhaps a little more (the cost of a 3 brm house in a nice suburb).
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
$3500 in '61 seems like a lot of money to me...surprised the Galaxie cost that much.
Me too... My mother's '67 Bonneville Coupe... loaded... was only $4400, I think.
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Keep in mind that the Galaxy hardtop sedan was pretty far up Ford's food chain. I spec'ed one out from the relevant Standard Catalog and came up with $3190 for one with the smallest V-8, Cruise-o-matic, heater (yes, it was optional), power steering and brakes, and nothing else. There are about 100 other options you might want (larger engine, radio, power seat, etc) that could easily make up the difference.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
Mint 86-89 Chrysler Fifth Ave, 84 Town Car, and while out taking the dog for a walk several body parts to a late 60s El Camino. They were propped up against someone's garage. I guess a project is starting.
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve