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Worked quite well for that, too, I might add! I remember those tail fins....
In a similar sort of way, I'm half-owner of a 1958-59 Edsel station wagon and an early 50's Buick! Back around 1979-80, my grandparents bought 10 acres of mountainside down in a little town called Holly Brook, VA. My uncle lived down that way at the time, and I think they were planning on building a cabin down there and moving down once Grandmom retired. Granddad had retired in 1971. I only saw the property once, when they first bought it, but I remember it had a dirt road going trough it that ran along the crest of a mountain, and along that road, on the property, were the Edsel and the Buick. Even back then, they looked like they had been there for eons.
Grandmom signed that property over to my uncle and I a few years back, to simplify her estate when the final moment comes. I haven't been down there since I was a little kid, though. Heck, I wouldn't even know how to get to it! I've tried to talk my uncle into going on a trip down there sometime, to check out the place and see old friends and such, but he hasn't had the time.
Oh, the property taxes on the place are a whopping $41.40 per year! I remember paying $41.40 for a power window switch for my truck!
I remember him telling my grandmother that he got it up to 90 mph just to see what it would do -- she wasn't happy to hear that. It may have only had the 6-cylinder.
It's a strange-looking car IMO, with the quad headlights set too far inboard. And the rear end is where it really gets weird, copying (sort of) the bat-winged '59 Chevy. I thought the toned-down '61 Ford was much better looking, with the signature round taillights and the small canted fins.
That's a .20 cent a mile car in gas consumption.
Then again, maybe the guy was grandfathered in under older rules, considering he's had the property since 1971.
Now around town my Catalina gets around 10-11, and I have been able to break into single digits on occasion. But with my short commute I've also been able to get much smaller engines down into single digit territory!
I never really cared for those '69 Fords...just seemed kinda bland to me. But when they did those models with the "poke through" center grille section, which I think was '70-72, I liked 'em. And the '69 Mercurys with the covered headlights were cool, but the cheaper models with the exposed lights just seemed, again, bland to me.
the russian cosmonaut rescue boat was definitely different!
There seemed to be a couple of guys that were buying almost everything that went across the block. Must be nice.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
not every old car is a classic
a 10,000 word essay followed by that one awesome picture
can't believe he's buying a new one after the depreciation on this one
Oh yeah, and he included a picture of the dash with teh check engine light prominantly glowing!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
(pic taken from 'Avocado Memories', one of the more endearing corners of the web)
I will say that old beast has a lot more dignity to it than any Ford today...probably more than any F-M-L today too.
It's also wearing the caps I had on my Galaxie.
I'd run from a high mileage old 7er and anyone who uses so many keywords. NY metro area certainly has the shadiest CL.
Unfortunately odds are fairly good that a car like that will grind you right into the dirt. Once you break 100K on these cars, they are a very very hard sell and a risky buy. You blow the trans, for instance (not unheard of on a BMW at 135K....ahem...) and you've almost bought the car twice. At least with a 740 SOME indie shops will work on them, but an indie won't touch a 750. That means if something breaks you have to go back to....."them"....
My rule for BMW 7 series is this: "If you couldn't afford to buy it new, you can't afford to drive it used".
for anyone who didn't see it, i'm referring to one of the saturday night BJ absurdities.
oh, on that supersnake, I was thinking $3.5mill. Guess I was just a tad shy. But, after all, there were only 2 built, and considering what shelby cobras fetch ...
what really shocks me is when you start thinking about the fees on that sale.
Now here is another question ... what's the deal with sales tax on something like that? Do you go register that car in your home state and pay sales tax to the DMV, just like any other car??
OH, and yet another question ... what's the deal with these charity auctions? I think, for instance, that hummer seller was contributing $250k to charity. So how does that work for the buyer? Is $250k a tax writeoff?? even though you got a car in exchange?? I mean, its definitely a writeoff for the seller, so I'm not sure the buyer could write it off since that would be double tax advantage on the same money AND, as I said, you are receiving goods.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
And so this silliness goes on for a while until the music stops and someone is left without a chair and owning a $1 million dollar Hummer that suddenly is worth $100,000.
It has happened before and it will happen again.
All this is, is a speculative bubble. These aren't "investments" because the VALUE of the car doesn't change...only the price changes...which is therefore just a concept in people's heads.
If a car of significant historical interest is restored, THEN value is added, but if it is just flipped every few months for a quick buck, the whole thing is gonna blow up, you watch, just like 1990, when million dollar cars plunged to $80,000 in 6 months.
That Shelby will be worth $$$ as long as anyone cares about Carroll Shelby. Once a new generation adopts or rejects this mythology, then things will change.
Howard Hughes' cars still get top dollar, but silent screen star Dora Deleish's car (I just made that name up, but you know what I mean) doesn't.
Your sales tax question is a good one. Somebody should just call up B-J and ask them. I'm not sure how they handle that.
i hope so.
there has been NOTHING at BJ that I've seen this year that I would consider purchasing or could afford at the final price. (meaning, anything I'd want was way out of the realm of affordability by any stretch of the imagination.)
oh, so i just watched an XKE go across. 6-cylinder 4-speed convertible. Really, by BJ standards, in wretched condition. Passenger door didn't fit right. Overspray galore. Engine basically looked untouched. Hit $35k!
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
They used to DRILL HOLES in the sides of the cars and install those strips that did nothing except ruin the looks of the cars!
AND, they paid 300.00 for a bidder's pass just for the privilege of bidding. That is probably a good idea to weed out the strokes.
Yeah, and on a car like that Galaxie/LTD pictured, it looks like the creases in the upper body actually extend out beyond the aftermarket strip!
My '89 Gran Fury had these aftermarket strips that ran along the side of it, but I think they were just glued on. As I recall they faded to kind of a flesh-tone color that really clashed with the silver paint.
What kind of booze do you get for free with that $300 bidding pass?
That tacked on molding really does look silly, considering it's just inches below the body creases.
All in all, I'd rather take the Riviera and the Bug in the background!
I spent way too much time watching, but I am an addict. Some of the numbers just seemed way odd, but I honestly have no idea what the market is for rare Hemis that have been restored to better than new condition. And some of these were pretty unique, so if you want it bad enough, and it is the only one (or best one) in existence, than you pay the price.
But today, when a decently restored, nice enough '65 MG-B went for 26.5K (~30K with the premium), something must be wrong.
A few early ones seemed OK. '65 Mustang (6 cyl AT) for 6K on day one (nice clean shiny red) was at least justifiable if it was rot free. I also liked a '70 Camaro Z-28 clone (nicely done, I think t 18K) and a '73 Vette 4 speed for 17K. Maybe a little bit overmarket, but they did look super clean and solid.
The '72 Yellow 454 4 speed survivor Vette today for 38K actually seemed cheap compared to what some of them brought!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
I don't have very good memories of that car because it was easily the worst car I've personally experienced. It was plagued with mechanical maladies. One night my Dad wanted to take Mom out to dinner and the car wouldn't start. My Dad is outside in his good suit with the car's hood-up and fumbling with his set of S. K. Wayne tools trying to get this beast to respond. Finally, he gives up, swallows his pride, and borrows my Grandpop's ultra-reliable 1974 Chevrolet Impala.
I remember Dad's '72 Ford puking coolant on the way to church one Sunday morning accompanied by the unmistakable whirr of a failing water pump. Another time it blew a soft plug. Another time, the electrically powered rear window failed to raise after unloading groceries from Mom's Friday night trip to the grocery store. Dad is out there at 10 PM taking the inner panel off the tailgate door trying to prop up the window before taking it to the Ford dealer down the street the following Monday.
It rusted with a fiendish vengeance. I remember my brother and I being pressed into being non-paid auto body technicians one summer day in 1979. We were out walking and spotted my Dad working on the car in my Uncle Daniel's garage. We foolishly asked him what he was doing and he responded in language that would make Tony Soprano blush and promptly put our lazy butts to work. We spent at least 9 hours enduring Bondo and primer fumes along with a lot of foul language.
One Northeast winter undid all our hard work. By 1981 the car looked like mice ran through the body. The car was vomiting coolant like a chronic alcoholic on a Midori bender. The bottoms of the doors were so rotten that there was nothing left for the rubber moldings to attach. They would limply hang outside the rocker panels when the doors were closed. Heck, there were actually bits of rusted metal lying in the gutter with flecks of dak green metallic paint on them. My Dad still wouldn't give up on the beast. He went to an auto body technician who told him in no uncertain terms the car was beyond repair. By August he broke down and bought a new 1981 Thunderbird.
Thank God, my GM cars were not like Dad's '72 Ford. I guarantee you I'd be driving a Honda or Toyota today if they were.
It was so bad that his mother traded the thing on a '77 Volare wagon. That one didn't have enough time to fall apart, because it got totaled by a delivery truck carrying a load of toilets! I guess that was appropriate somehow! I think she ended up getting Granada coupe after that.
Ha!! One of the best lines I've read in a loooong time!!!
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Limited Velvet Red over Wicker Beige
2024 Audi Q5 Premium Plus Daytona Gray over Beige
2017 BMW X1 Jet Black over Mocha
Toward the end, the left rear bumper mount gave way, and he used a rope or wire to hold up the left side of the rear bumper. It was drooping however at an obvious angle.
I haven't seen the car in about a year or so now, so it must have finally croaked. Or maybe his wife said, "it's either me or the car that's leaving!"
That reminds me of an experience I had with a '77 Granada that belonged to a girl I knew back when I was in college. I remember pointing to a spot on the rear quarter panel of her Granada, and, right in front of her father, whom I'd just met for the first time that day, accidentally poked my finger through the sheetmetal! I imagine that didn't make a very good first impression!
In its defense though, this was around 1992 or 1993, so the car was pretty old. And it had to endure the comparatively harsh Pennsylvania winters.
Speaking of those rusty Fords...were earlier ones better? The 60 Ford wagon my dad rescued ca. 1991 had been sitting out in the northwest rain for about 15 years. The panels were virtually rust free, but the front floors were shot. The rear floors and cargo area were fine.
My 66 Galaxie, bought in 1993, was a local car from new (still wearing a plate frame from a Ford dealer that vanished in the 70s), and had almost no rust, just a small bubble where the rear wheel arches and rocker panel met. I sanded it off and painted it, it looked fine.
My dad also bought a 68 Fairlane in the mid 90s, admittedly a garaged local car, it was completely rust free.
My fintail moved from CA to the northwest around 1976...it has a very small bubble (maybe 1cm) on the drivers side fender that has not grown in the time I have owned the car. There was some bubbling on the rear drivers fender/wheelarch area that I sanded off, then found more rust, which I filled in with bondo and crappily repainted...this was about 10 years ago. The bondo is looking like hell now. Other than some surface rust in the trunk, there is nothing...and fintails can rust really hard if you let them.
One of my cousins had a '65 Galaxie 2-door hardtop back in the early 90's, and it was in pretty solid shape as I recall. And the '64 Ford Galaxie we had as a kid was pretty solid, although I think the paint was faded down to the primer in some spots.
I think about the worst ruster a family member of mine had was my uncle's old Valiant. He actually had two of them, a '65 and a '66. I can't remember which one had this "feature", but the floor was rusted clean through. He and his buddies used to dispose of their empty beer cans this way! :surprise: The really sad thing is, by around 1971 my uncle was driving a '67 GTO, so it only took 5 or 6 years for a hole that big to get rusted through!
IIRC, my Granddad gave the white Valiant to his brother in law, who worked at a transmission shop and also drove a tow truck. They'd use the Valiant to push non-running cars around at the shop, but eventually I guess it died.
I vaguely remember the blue one sitting out in my grandparents' back yard, kind of tucked in between the woods and one of Granddad's gardens, partially dismantled. I couldn't have been much more than 3 or 4 years old at the time. I wouldn't be surprised though, if I dug deep enough, if I found some old parts to those Valiants out in the garage. Granddad had a habit of hanging onto stuff that he thought might be useful at some later date.
After many years in the tool business I have to tell you on SK tools, the "Wayne" part went away in the 50's.
that's good. :shades:
Really? I'll have to haul out my old socket set (1969/70 or so) and check how it's labeled. SK Wayne sounded perfectly familiar to me
james
edit: I just went out to my truck and grabbed my toolbox (doesn't everyone carry a toolbox?) The steel case that the socket set came in has a label riveted on the inside that says: "S-K tools, Chicago, Illinois 60632"
However, the ratchet handle and each individual socket say: S-K Wayne, except for the 15mm (which must have been a later replacement) and the 6" extensions, which strangely say "Craftsman" :P
james