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I spotted an (insert obscure car name here) classic car today! (Archived)
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However, I lived in Dearborn for a couple of years and you get to see some even more bizarre stuff ... if you get up early on Saturdays and Sundays. I couldn't go to church without seeing something unusual on Michigan Ave. or Ford Rd. And it wasn't just Ford test products.
Test vehicles
Certain cars in development, covered in canvas
Odd cars (Lada, Skoda) that were marketed only in Canada'
All kinds of exotics
For the tasteless, an Audi S8 with a gold package...and a very poorly done one, at that. I think I could have done a better job on the grille with a can of spray paint; in fact, that might have been what it was. Ugh.
The "baddest" Jaguar I've ever seen was a black on black XK120 roadster with fender skirts. The paint was six feet deep and the chrome looked REAL.
Back then the British cars had the best chrome quality by far. Triple plated I think.
The XK120 was another world class knock-out like the E-type. Took the auto world by storm in 1948. There was simply nothing like it for the money. the first 120s were aluminum alloy and are quite valuable today. Many a too-quick buyer thinks he bought an alloy 120 because the steel cars used aluminum doors and hood and trunk for a while in early production. They should have put the magnet on the WHOLE car. A costly mistake, since the alloy cars are easily worth double the money.
What a fantastic sight. I can see how it must've rocked the car world of the 50s the same way the E-Type did in '61.
2001 BMW 330ci/E46, 2008 BMW 335i conv/E93
Of course with those fender skirts heating up those rear drum brakes---zowie! Not sure you wanted to go that fast!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item- - =2465651520
Surprising the reserve's not been met yet.....
;-)
-juice
Sort of a shrine in memory of the British Motor industry (though Morgan fills that role as a living memorial).
Given where it sits, this is a perfect opportunity to plow it under.
I'd just backup a dumptruck full of salt over it and let nature finish reclaiming it.
You bid the $1 which is the reserve price. Then, he sues you for breach of contract if you refuse to drag it out of his front yard.
This was in the classifieds at the back of the magazine (there is one outfit called the stable ltd. that has most of the listings). Some other interesting stuff too, but I have no idea if the prices are grounded in reality.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
-juice
Mine is a bit of an oddball, so pricing it is a little more difficult. From what I can tell, it is one of less than 100 3.4 motored Mk II's (the rest of the Mk II's sent to the U.S. were 3.8's) imported to the States. Was one of the last batch brought over by special order from two California dealers. This was right before the switch over to the 240/340 models.
The one I had was orginally an automatic (which devalues it). At some point it had a "Moss box" manual dropped in it. Fun because it's so old and clunky. They have a conversion kit that you can drop in a Borg-Warner T-5 5-speed manual in that sounds pretty tempting. (Hey, it's already not orginal in the tranny, so I can do that!)
3.4 motor is nice and the number match. Not worth a ton of money, but a nice fun car for me.
MkIIs pricing in America generally break down into two types. Those that are 3.8s with wires and overdrive and those that aren't, and the price difference is usually a lot. But all types of MkII are only going to go up, so that's good for you. The "star" MkIIs pull up the others.
Really what makes it hard to price is the 3.4 motor. Since there are so few of them in the states (3.4 Mk II's that is) they are often left out of pricing guides. Basically as quick as the 3.8, handles just slightly better because of the roughly 60lbs less weight up front, but doesn't have quite the top speed of the 3.8.
At any rate, I picked up a pretty good, rust free one for a good price. Love the thing and glad I can finally get one. Pretty good shape all in all. Replacing the head gasket in a week or two when I get the time. Also, need to replace the brake seals on one corner, but will do all 4 when I go to do it.
They should offer a turbocharged version and call it the Passat No Wait. A light aluminum version and call that the Passat Weight Watcher.
<ba dum bah>
Or BMW 75 Oil. Is that the weight of the gear oil you're supposed to use in the tranny? :-)
I've got a Subaru Outback. I've also got a Subaru Out Front.
OK I'll go take my meds now...
-juice
Did it have the chrome package, or was it an earlier gray market import?
-juice
There was a LeSabre coupe of that vintage, and that color, for sale not too far from my neighborhood earlier last year. Looked to be in real good shape too. Sometimes I regret not stopping off to give it a look!
The car I saw had a normal chrome grille and no blackout trim, btw
It's ebay time again...
First off I am going to start with some Mercedes 126 series S class cars, to show some odd differences I noticed.
This is a bottom of the line car, nothing like this was sold here. Manual transmission, plain cloth interior, manual seats, no rear headrests
This car has the more deluxe velour interior, a pattern MB seems to have used for about 30 years. This car also looks gorgeous and has a decent load of options, but too bad about the period colors!
Alcantara interior, very uncommon. I think it is like suede. Probably the least common style, save for the 4 place seating, which gave the car rear buckets and a console. I think it was an option on late 560SELs sold here...but I have never seen one
1982 model car with airbag and ABS, fairly early to have those options. This car is fairly loaded, but no leather. Maybe leather just wasn't so popular then
And now on to normal odd cars...US ebay "finds" are last in the list.
Neat Alfa hatch
Strange just-prewar German Ford. Body is the same used on many Euro and UK Fords from 1935-1939, but this has a weirdo front end that looks like a stopgap measure to keep an old design looking new. It has a droopy and unhappy look.
This has some elegance to it, you can see the French influence
This would be a nice cruiser for Shifty
This is strange, appears to be a Polish built GAZ Pobeda. Strange something so old looking was built so late. Looks like what happens when a Volvo 444 and a 46-48 Ford or Chevy have a kid
I don't know how much "Touring" I would want to do in this
Interesting MGB
I've never seen one of these before
Nice project car? Some lemon oil and steel wool and you're in business!
Why oh why would anyone do this?
These are lovely cars, but seems a bit steep for a project
Decent DeSoto
This baby's got some miles on 'er (according to seller)
At the current price, this is an absolute bargain. I wonder what it will sell for. Extremely cool
Gogomobile--I actually have a magazine some where that shows them being raced. The commentator noted in a dry British wit:" It might be best for the driver to bring along a magazine while on the track".
Delage--probably betting rid of the body because it's pretty ugly for a Delage. He might have a nicer body is my guess, and the one on there isn't the best choice for a resto.
Facel-Vega -- they can bring $40K or so as #2s, so this one is marginal for fixing up. There is definitely a cult of people who will step up and sign a check for one---a small cult....a cult-let.
Citroen Avant -- problem is his opening bid is too high. Car might be worth $5K as is if it ran out really well. Not a car you want to buy blind. I'd like one thank you. Never push start an Avant or you will hear a "snap" and it's transmission time.
MGB -- doh, 25,000 English pounds, yeah, right. What's he got here? A one-off, not real MGB, no photos and a starting bid that is preposterous. A classic case of rare not equaling valuable. I'd say $15,000-$18,000 American dollars until the cows came home, and then what do you do with it. It's still an MGB underneath. Drive it? What if you dent it? Save it? For what? Show it? MGB folks probably won't think it's real (and they're right). No go on one-offs if they aren't factory-commissioned.
VW Saloon-- a big yawn. Why bother to restore this car. Looks like an Audi 100LS doesn't it?
Edsel Wagon --- quite a find. That car is going to be bid up. I'm guessing $12K-$18K, fintail let me know.
Town and Country -- Hyman is a reputable dealer, and he's right, these cars can pull $100,000 if they are beautifully restored. Problem is, you'd need to do a lot of the work yourself for this to pay off. Very active T&C fans, this car will sell.
Honda N600--I actually owned one of these and I loved it. It could really scoot for its size. It had a 600 cc Honda twin motorcycle engine with (of course) a chain driven progressive transmission. We had a plan to install a 750 cc Honda 4 in it but then we kept drinking beers and thankfully fell asleep. I could do about 80 mph in it. I think the tires were 10".
You just wonder how many more T&C's he is storing at the bottom of the Mississippi River??
As for the Gogomobile, I have a friend who has restored several of them. Do you really expect much performance from a 3-wheeler with a motorcycle engine?? Are they still legal vehicles in the UK??
I guess with a yellow/white car, the best interior colors would be white, yellow, brown, or black? (or a tasteful combination thereof?)
My '57 has the quad headlights. It came from PA, so I guess it's a safe guess that PA legalized quad lights that year!
I have seen a '57 Dodge with quad headlights, although I don't know if that was offered from the factory. The turn signals were moved down into the grille, little round lights tucked into the gap between the upper and lower horizontal bars of the bumper/grille.
Most DeSoto's I've seen from '57 have blackout trim surrounding the headlights, where it's chrome (or probably aluminum) on the Chryslers. It's rare that I see a '58, but it seems to be just the opposite with those, blackout for Chryslers and silver/aluminum for DeSotos.
I was very tempted to bid on that Edsel, but I know it won't go for anywhere near 4 grand. It's gained $500 since I posted the link, and it has 6 days to go. Very neat car. I'd like to have the 1960 Ford Country Sedan my dad rescued in 1991. I know it's worth a bit more now than when he sold it.
That Honda looks like it wants to be a Japanese mini. Somehow it just looks extremely tinny.
I am surprised at the DeSoto bidding too. It must be a decent car...or two wackos want it.
With cars built by outside coachbuilders, the value is not in the originality, but in the body style. Since an owner could have specified any number of bodies by any number of builders, as long as the body on there could have been there when the car was new, the collector market doesn't care if it's been switched per se.
By putting a nice body or open body on the car, he could quadruple the value easily.
With custom built coachwork, the watchword is "survival of the prettiest".
Sooner or later my dad could very likely buy another 60 Ford wagon. He really liked the one he had...a red and white 6 pass model with red and white interior...352, not many options aside from that. It was a cool car, gun sight ornaments on the fenders, nice flat fins, and a decent amount of chrome. It got looks and comments all the time. He still talks about it. He'll end up with something like that, or one of the other old jalopies he likes...has his eye on a 54 Chevy, 52 Dodge, mid 50s Studebaker pickup. His tastes are cheap, if anything.
The Edsel is at $7700, it was at $4000 when I posted it yesterday.
It's like with muscle cars...you take a Dodge sedan and it's got a Hemi in it, it's worth a gazillion dollars. Take that engine out and put in a slant 6, it's worth very little. Same car otherwise. And I don't think that's only about money. People want history, mythology, bragging rights, performance, rarity, and sure, good looks too if they can get it. There are many collectors who would never sell their cars no matter how much money you offered them.
I think if you and I studied Delages more closely, we'd have a better idea of why that body isn't the best thing out there. Part of collecting ANYTHING is discrimination.
I saw a new CL500 today. Not really obscure, but pretty unusual, and man did it stick out from the mundane normal cars on the road.
40wt.
This is a lovely lowline W111 fintail. I am not sure about the color, but I think it is DB335 "Mercedes Blue" (my car is DB334 "Light Blue, a turquoise/sky blue shade). This car looks to be immaculate, and could likely go back to Europe, with the weak dollar and all. It's unusual in that it is a 220, a single carb car with less chrome trim, single rear bumper, and a single carb, as opposed to a 220S with more chrome and dual carbs, or a 220SE with FI and the most deluxe 220 series fittings.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&cate- - gory=6329&item=2467412439