Dan's Papers - March 7, 2008 - Classic Cars with Bob Gelber

Probably the most common e-mails I receive are from readers who want to know what their car is worth. I usually tell them (in a nice way) to bug off asking me that silly question, because without seeing the car in person, it is virtually impossible to even guess what it's worth. It's the old, "He had a face that only a mother could love," syndrome. The car owner always believes his little beauty is a lot better than it actually is.

Cars are advertised in a lot of weird ways. Recently, I saw an ad in Old Car Trader in which the owner states that the car just had a $150,000 restoration. Strangely, the asking price for the car is $95,000. Boy, that was a bad investment, or the guy is lying. First show me the car, then show me the restoration bills. I'll bet you right now that this car was about as kosher as the Pope's Friday night dinner.

What about the unbelievable ad where the owner states that the car had a ten-year restoration? My BS meter went off the scale. I only know of one fellow who had a ten-year restoration on his '55 T-Bird because it sat in the back of a body shop gathering overspray from the other hundreds of cars that were being restored while he gathered up enough dough to put his car together piecemeal. Unless your restoration/body shop man takes really long daily naps, it is simply impossible to take a decade to restore any car.

Occasionally, one comes across a car that has a so called celebrity history. Adolf Hitler must have been a big car enthusiast because every time I see a pre WW2 Mercedes advertised, it always seems to have been an ex-Hitler ride. Next in fame would be Elvis. How many Cadillac convertibles did this guy own? Generally speaking, famous ownership, unless fully proven and documented, doesn't mean that much when deciding a car's value. Though I will say that Steve McQueen's old Ferrari just sold for about a million bucks more than it was worth. Go figure.

Another common advertising gambit is the expression, "show winner." That's always an impressive statement when describing a car for sale, but ask yourself, "What show was it?" If it was a local Lion's Club car show, the statement doesn't hold much water. However, if it was a well recognized national event, that's an entirely different story. A good friend's vintage Porsche won the "People's Choice" at the Pebble Beach concourse several years ago. This is the car that if advertised well, would sell in an hour. Sadly, the car is actually too perfect to drive on the street. To sum up, being a show winner is good - just make sure it's the right beauty contest.

Many times a car is advertised as being totally mechanically rebuilt, engine, transmission, suspension, etc. First, the owner must show repair or restoration bills for all the work that he asserts was performed. Second, the person who did the rebuild should have been qualified to work on that marquee automobile. Ferraris, even early Alfas, are difficult cars to repair. British cars have many idiosyncrasies. With German iron, you must obey all technical orders when rebuilding. The British car enthusiasts have an expression for various automobile experts. They call them specialists. If you have a Bentley in England, without question, it goes to a Bentley specialist. It's usually the same for every other model. Today, when even a humdrum flat head Ford V-8 is unique, it is best to search out a specialist to repair/restore your car.

Speaking of specialists, it's not a bad idea to try to find one to evaluate any expensive car you are thinking of purchasing. I'm talking about relatively expensive collector cars, not cars like an MG-A or a Volkswagen thing. If you're investing $100,000 plus in a collector quality automobile, it would certainly be prudent to have someone who knows more than you about the car you are about to drop a bundle on. One more thing - DRIVE THE CAR! To be perfectly honest, you may hate driving your mega-dollar collector car. By modern standards, old cars are not as much fun to drive as new cars. The cars of the '50s rock and roll era actually rock and roll severely on curves and rough roads. You may look great in a '57 Chevy convertible, but hold on to that wishy-washy steering wheel on the curves, and slow down. Please don't ask me to look at any cars for you. I'm not a specialist, just a guy who likes cars.

Bob Gelber, an automotive journalist living in the Hamptons, appears regularly on television as an automotive expert. You can email him at bobgelber@aol.com