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Comments
No, the car in the pictures is not worth much at all. A complete Lotus 7 from Caterham is worth $60K
$35,500!!!!!!!!
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
Goes to prove---don't store that 2009 "classic" and hope to make money on it.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/1372983037.html
Exhibit #1: The Fakey-Doo Dashboard
Exhibit #2 The Real Thing
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
Just don't ask where...
http://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/1384549809.html
Actually, I don't think he's wildly off base with the price... the car does look great, and might be worth around $5 if it's all there.
But I love how "these run forever" seems to be in no conflict with rebuilt "everything" over the past decade... grandfather's axe is still going strong, i guess.
-Mathias
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
I wonder how much some of those repair costs would be nowadays? At first I thought the rebuilt engine ($3698) and tranny ($1530) seemed awfully cheap. Until I read the receipts a bit more closely and saw that the engine was done way back in 1996 and the tranny in early 1997.
also, he makes it seem like the owner spent dizzying amounts on it. Well, over 10 years, that works out to just over $200 on average, and started with an 11 YO car.
so, gotta figure that it was not that expensive to buy at 10 years/100K+, so not too much extra in depreciation.
add it all together, and for the price of leasing an Accord every 3 years, you could have been tooling around in this beast.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
RE; Frazer-Nash Dashboard Comparisons --- it's subtle, fin, you have to look close.
And then the timing chain has to be replaced around 160,000. Isn't a timing chain something that usually gets replaced when you rebuild an engine? :confuse:
The term "rebuilt" is like the term "I love you". It doesn't seem to have one particular definition for a lot of people. To me, "rebuilt" SHOULD mean---every single part in that engine is brought back to new factory standards, whether it was working okay or not.
If old parts are re-used because they are still 'good", then the engine is "overhauled", not rebuilt.
I will say one thing though, that paint doesn't look to be the quality of the factory job. These cars received amazing paintwork when new, and it is tough to duplicate today, and could never be done for 2 grand on such a large car. I noticed it before I read the list of receipts. The mirrors should also be a silvery-grey, not body color - and I am pretty sure that color would have never been monotone when new, these cars usually had a contrasting lower panel, on this car it would have been grey, IIRC. The front seats also look a little saggy and could be reinforced. The interior looks really nice otherwise, though, and I like seeing the original radio. I do prefer the 1989+ cars over this, for their revised upholstery and door panels. They also had a smoother steering wheel.
I have to wonder if the car was neglected early in its life, as that engine is relatively durable and rarely needs such work before 200K miles or so, unless someone hasn't maintained it. The mention of door locks and ignition being replaced doesn't bode well, either. The tranny failure at 120K is almost certainly because it never had a service before then. You're also not going to get a full engine rebuild on one of these for 3698, not in 1996 (and it appears there are other things on that receipt, with 2200 in engine work) and not before or after.
You mean JC Whitney steering wheels and gauges weren't OEM items in 1930s British cars?
"It takes as much genius to do something 100% wrong as to do it 100% right. Think of all the things you have to consciously ignore".
I agree. :shades: The ones where you can spin the steering wheel effortlessly a hundred times.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
The "Engine Rebuild" receipt reads "something.....valve job for $2200", so maybe it's no engine rebuild, but just maintenance work..
I'm also curious why the front and rear bumper covers were replaced and the car repainted if it was maintained so meticulously and kept in a climate controlled garage.
Either something funny about this one, or the original owner was just an elderly guy who ran into everything with this Benz.
For the mileage, and because of the repaint if I was gonna buy it, I'd offer him $3500 tops.
2016 Audi A7 3.0T S Line, 2021 Subaru WRX
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1383412394.html
1. No VW engine. 2. Lots of gauges. 3. Not a Mercedes. 4. ?
http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/cto/1380764273.html
Hey buddy, where's the fire?
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1379565435.html
Oh, it's a REAL fire?
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1362203485.html
You were close, Jennifer, real close
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1357006334.html
1999 T-REX CHEVY GMC HUMMER DODGE
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ctd/1366538167.html
Quote # 1
"...currently being used as a storage facility for all of my daughters toys"
Quote # 2
...the looks of utter horror or complete adoration on everyone's faces as I rolled, neigh...roared, up beside them was more than gratifying. "Yes, I could squish your $250K car with the slip of my left foot," was often a thought...
http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/cto/1338593428.html
Drive this one till it
collapses into a puddle of rustdrops ? I know it's irrational, but it's tempting. I mean, this and a bottle of corn liquor...and....http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/cto/1386789025.html
Can you guess the decade, boys and girls?
"...over $7k spent on chrome alone..."
http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ctd/1383173398.html
Buick is pretty, but it bugs me when people do an all out restoration but get the whitewalls wrong.
I had planned to post photos of the original Mercedes SSK dashboard and engine, for comparison, but upon investigation, I found the difference so utterly and galactically vast in contrast, that it's not even worth the time.
to
I have nothing against replicas PER SE...for instance, some of the Cobras and Porsche Speedsters are very nicely done....but GOOD GRIEF don't do it BADLY....14" tires with fake wire wheel hubcaps, and a tiny steering wheel with tilt and gauges from a lawnmower.......and those vulgar "Gatsby Horns".
Worse yet, then they dress up in 1910s garb while driving 1930s replicas, so it's a double bad.
Utterly blind to history---no excuse for it.
The whole concept baffles me.
The only exception I can see is a well-built Cobra or a Caterham... Since the originals were only mythical beasts anyhow, nobody believes that yours is pretending to be the real thing.
Those fake MBs are the worst of the worst. The Cobras can look OK, the fake Model As look OK, even the fake MGs and A-H look harmless enough from a distance. But the fake classic period MBs...always ridiculous.
I never liked the fender skirts on these cars...I think it makes them look fat. But I do like the big triangular rear windows, rather than the little opera windows like my '76 Grand LeMans has. Otherwise, nice color scheme. I hate it when they mistake vinyl seats for leather, though!
It was white, and you could use some pretty strong cleaners on it without damage.
My '69 Bonneville had some pretty nice vinyl in it. Too bad it was an awful goldish color. And I like the vinyl in my '76 Grand LeMans. The inserts on the seats seem to be of a nicer looking, softer-feeling vinyl than the rest of the car. Unfortunately, it's the nicer-looking stuff that's starting to tear! There's a pretty bad tear on the base cushion of the driver's seat, so I just keep a red towel over it. And the back seat looked pristine...until I started having passengers back there! The top of the backrest had become tender from years of sun exposure I guess, and started to crack a bit.
Pontiac tried really hard to guzzy up the LeMans, but it just didn't seem to work out. The '73 was popular, but then the first oil embargo took care of that in '74. For '75, Pontiac replaced the Luxury LeMans with the Grand LeMans, and spruced up the interior a bit. Nicer door panels with pull straps, thick vinyl, and lower carpeting. And the Grand Prix dashboard was definitely a nice upgrade from the standard LeMans dash. But, it just didn't sell. I think the '75 actually sold less than '74, and then '76 and '77 saw further declines. I think Pontiac sold about 39,000 just of the Luxury LeMans coupe in 1973, yet by 1977, the whole LeMans lineup was down to around 80,000 units. The Grand Prix really didn't cost much more, and had a lot of magic in its name and styling cues, so most people probably figured why buy a LeMans when you could get a Grand Prix? Or, just go over to Olds and get a Cutlass.
Another car that really impressed me with its vinyl was, of all things, the 1978-81 Malibu Classic. It had this really nice, thick vinyl that was comfortable at the same time (well, for vinyl), and had a nice texture and look to it. The only thing that really marred the look was a nasty looking plastic strip that ran down the middle of the seats. I always thought that was a bit odd, as the base Malibu didn't have it.
Those old interiors were really nice stuff, and I can't believe that there wouldn't be a lot of people willing to pay for whatever BMW and Mercedes call their pleather.... if you could get in some nice colors.
I mean, can you even get a Camaro now with a red interior?
Some cars, like the Chrysler Cordoba, gave you a wide choice, offering a cheaper cloth, vinyl, a nicer cloth, and leather. But I think as leather became more widespread, it started to replace the nicer vinyls, and ever cheaper cloths started taking over at the low end.
I do miss the wide variety of interior colors you used to be able to get, but I guess that's just a symptom of cost cutting. They'd rather just offer 2 or 3 generic colors that more or less go with everything, instead of a wide array, where some colors can only be used tastefully with a few exterior choices. For instance, on the 1980 Malibu, they offered interiors in black, dark blue, "camel" (a darker beige I think), "claret" (red that had just a touch of magenta in it IIRC), green, and "oyster" (probably a very light creme). The Malibu had 14 exterior colors and seven two tones (here's the brochure where I'm getting that info from).
The black went with just about everything, while the oyster and camel were offered with most of the exterior colors. But then green was only offered with an exterior color of beige, black, white, or green. It must have been a pain to offer 6 different interior colors, in four different materials (regular Malibu cloth and vinyl and Malibu Classic cloth and vinyl).
I had an '82 Cutlass Supreme that was a light silvery green. GM had three variations of that color that year. One was just called "Silver Green poly", and then there were two different "Light Jadestone Poly" colors (maybe they made a running change sometime in 1982?) Anyway, the interior of my Cutlass was done up to match, with a light silver/green interior, and a dark green dashboard. It was the perfect combination for that exterior color, and also worked with their "Dark Jadestone Poly", but other than that, I couldn't see that interior working well with any other exterior, except maybe white.
When I bought my Genesis that is exactly what the dealer told me. The interior choices were black, beige, and saddle. Not even a grey available which really stinks if you want a sliver or grey car and don't like an all black interior.
I really wish they would bring back blue interiors, looks so sharp with a white or silver car. However, IMO the reds, greens, and golds should stay in the 70s! I remember in the mid 90s Ford brought back green interior on certain cars, it didn't last for long.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart
In theory, it means that an engine, prior to being finished, is pulled from an assembly line and then finished to higher tolerances of tightness and balance.
In practice, an experienced machinist can work with a finished engine and very carefully further remove some material to get this level of precision and balance.
However, you will see the term 'blueprinted" to describe what is merely a rebuilt engine that was done to factory specs.
Blueprinting is in fact beyond factory specs.
Why do we do blueprinting? For more power and for a smoother running engine. Also, by careful balancing, we can eliminate stress points in an engine.
On the other hand, a meat-fisted machinist can remove too much material and destroy an engine in about 2 seconds.
That is, I think that the average engine today is built to tight enough tolerances that you would never see -any- improvement in gas mileage or durability in normal use let alone enough to justify the costs.
Is that true?
Of course, if I ever find my Alfa Spider, and get to build the performance engine I want, I'll be out in the garage with a digital scale and a file, making sure all the rods are the same weight
Some modern engines are built so tight you can't even bore them out---if they wear, you throw them away.
But it depends. Probably the Detroit iron still using pushrods could be improved with blueprinting.
I remember that green, and as I recall, it wasn't too savory. I seem to remember it having a greasy look on the plastic surfaces. I think some blues can get that way, too. I remember the exterior green paint being fairly attractive, but it just looked better with a beige interior.
I think red could work, if it's a decent shade of red. That "claret" I posted in that 1980 Malibu brochure is a bit much, but in its defense, I think the colors got distorted in that scan. I don't remember it having that much pink in it.
I don't mind a ligher colored interior to brighten things up - but it's almost impossible to find in a German sedan. It can be ordered, but the sheeple always seem to go for black.
2025 Ram 1500 Laramie 4x4 / 2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Icon I6L Golf Cart