RARE ONE- HAS ANYONE SEEN ONE?

ks55

MY FIRST CAR-owned from 3/73-9/73 bought for $750.. a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 300 2 door station wagon. It looked like the 55,56 and 57 Chevrolet Nomad , I have only seen 2 since 73 even though I always look and it wasnt until the internet that I found out how rare they were....even more so than the Nomad . Only 4,378 were made in 64 & 65 ...combined.(Honda makes about 350k Accords per year). Restored today they are worth up to 40k and they show up in California with the hot rodders. It had a floor mounted 4spd shifter ,dual exhausts and a V8. I hand sanded and primered the entire car over summer of 73 and I repainted it white for $60. Dad forced me to sell by 9/73 since it was problematic.After adding 15k miles and restoring her I sold it for $850 and she was quite nice by the time I saw her drive away.A guy from an auto supply store up past Williston Park,LI,NY bought it . I would imagine it may still be around in some form even today since it was too nice and too rare to let go to waste. Google 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 300 2 door Wagon to see one.

uplanderguy

Last year on eBay was a restored, but bone-stock navy blue '64 Chevelle 300 2-door wagon, 4-barrel 283 and factory 4-speed and perfect and authentic everyplace you looked. I got into a discussion here with someone who doubted its rarity and interest, but it had been decades since I'd seen one, too. I'm thinking it was bid to around $20K but did not meet reserve.

A friend of my folks had a 6-cyl. 3-speed '64 Chevelle 300 2-door wagon, light metallic blue, and a Colonial Red '60 Lark VIII 4-door at the same time. I remember kidding the Dad about the Lark and he said, "That Lark will run rings around the Chevy", but I'm sure that's because we were talking about a V8 Lark versus a 6-cylinder Chevy station wagon.

I don't believe I've ever seen a '65 Chevelle 2-door wagon in person, although I know that was the last year. I like some of the details of the '65 better than the '64.

omarman

Here's a link to an old Hemmings classic car feature which looks a lot like the ebay Chevelle wagon you described. Fun facts about this car include the tilt wheel option but carpeting was "unavailable." :shades:

Mr_Shiftright

$20K was a pretty accurate bid for that car..for more than that, it would have to be a rotisserie restoration. Auctions show an average price of $16,000.

If you had a VIN #, that might help you trace one down. Problem is, it was considered somewhat of an odd duck, so probably not many were saved.

They're fairly collectible....not worth the money of an L79 coupe, but worth as much or more than a run of the mill 327 '65 2D hardtop. So it's no slouch among '65 Chevelles.

10 auctions on eBay show "excellent" ones selling at an average of $20, 500. There was a real beauty that sold in 2010 for $15,300 but it used to be a 6 cylinder car, as many of them no doubt were.

This car is kind of a classic case of where real rarity doesn't translate into big bucks---but for those who "know", and who want them, you can find 'em if you search hard enough.

Here's a CUSTOM SHOW CAR for sale---this is what happens to most of them, in my experience.

uplanderguy

That is indeed the car I was talking about omarman, thanks for posting.

Frankly, I love it.

In '64, there was very little trim difference outside between a 300 and a Malibu..the difference was inside (and in '64 a Malibu wasn't all that plush inside, either, but it did have carpeting). In '65 they pushed the '300' down even further, adding a '300 Deluxe' in the middle (more like the previous year's '300').

Of course, there were no Malibu two-door wagons.

I'm pleased to say I remember riding in one of those two-door wagons, although it was a somewhat messy, not real sharp, family-with-three-boys-mobile when I rode in it.

It had been bought new by a man named Corll and was traded in on a new red '66 Chevelle 300 Deluxe station wagon, six with stick. The family I knew who had the '64 bought it at that time. The original owner was a mutual friend of that family's and ours.

uplanderguy

I don't know what anyone could even base a 'good' price on, for that dark blue wagon. I have not seen even one like it (stock and authentic) since, and hadn't for decades prior...even online. I have never seen a single stock '65 two-door wagon for sale. Seems like the ones one does see are 'rodded out'.

Mr_Shiftright

You base it on years of prior sales---buyers determine prices, not appraisers or historians or sellers. Like that car on eBay that didn't meet reserve---what people bid is what it is worth. It's worth what YOU would pay for it right now :P

uplanderguy

Obviously, it's only worth what a bidder will pay now, but how do the price guides price it? And you know, and I know, and everybody knows, there have not been 'years' of prior sales of pristine, stock Chevelle 2-door wagons. Plain and simple. How could there be? Same with '63 supercharged Hawks--each one is a new ball game when it's up for sale. With under 300 built fifty years ago, they haven't come up for sale as collectible cars very often, although probably more than even stock Chevelle two-door wagons.

In Studebaker circles, we laugh that the price guide (the 'big one' best known) lists a 4-door Cruiser as worth more than a 2-door Daytona, which is not 'real world' in the slightest. I know they need to sell magazines, but does the data really change that much to put a new issue out six times a year?

I think mainstream cars of which there were a ton of production (any year Impala, Mustang, Chevelle SS, etc.), the price guides probably do serve a function. But for off-the-wall stuff, I think way less so.

Mr_Shiftright

Well price guides vary, that's certainly true. Some are much better than others so you have to consult any number of them. But if you subscribe to enough databases, value predictions are pretty darn accurate.

I think you have to get the idea of rarity out of your head as being a constant factor in value.

Prices are driven by supply and demand. If everyone who really wants a 2dr Chevelle wagon already has one, then the price remains steady.

For instance the Super Hawk you mentioned when they come up for sale, and if they are a high quality piece, maintain a predictable value----mid $40Ks seems to be it.

Speaking of rarity, I know a man who has the last surviving ONE of a certain car. Is it worth a fortune? Nope. Why? Because no one wants it so badly that they'll pay more for it than they would for most other 1925 cars.

Now, if there is lots of buyer pressure, with buyers scouring the countryside looking for a particular rare car, then sure, the next time one is for sale, the price is going up. Certain Ferraris are like that.

But just because club members "think" a car is worth X dollars, that doesn't matter until a few of them start writing checks.

Even if you can't predict the exact price that a rare car will sell for, you can predict trends based on the past. Cars, even rare ones don't jump 300% in a year...they trend, like houses or anything else.

You know, it works both ways---if a Chevelle 300 2D wagon sells for $10,000 in one sale, that's not necessarily the market---and if one sells for $40,000 that's not necessarily the market. The "market" represents a kind of consistency of value.

Now for people who aren't buying and selling all the time, the idea of the "market" may not be important---but for dealers or collectors it's really good to know what to pay.

Many a man has looked at one sale, and then paid the equivalent for a similar car, only to find that that one sale was a fluke and that he's holding onto something that's worth 3/4 or 1/2 of what he thought it was.

As for the supercharged Hawks, the values won't change very much year to year, because there is not strong buyer pressure. They will gradually go up in value but there's no "engine" driving prices very forcefully.

Ditto these interesting Chevelle 2D wagons.