Collectible Thunderbirds Design, Style and Fashion – Part 3 of 5
You can still find good cars out there in the six thousand or so range that can only go up in value. Keep in mind that these cars are spendy to restore. So, if you find a low mileage original car in the fifteen thousand dollar range, it is probably a better buy than a five thousand dollar car that needs a lot of work.
1967 was the first year for the "Big Birds." For the five year production run of 1967 through 1971 the Thunderbird was back to a body and frame construction shared with the Lincoln Mark III. Design and styling of the 67 through 69 years is quite good. Also, these years you could have bought a four-door thunderbird sedan with suicide doors on the rear. These are quite collectible. Not many were made or sold. If you find one, buy it.
The 1970 and 1971 Thunderbirds were restyled with a longer hood and beak-like front end that made the car look like a Pontiac. We have owned a 1970 Thunderbird and I can tell you that it is very easy to crunch the grille in a parking lot. From the driver’s seat you cannot tell how far that beak sticks out there. Still, the car has a sleek and no-nonsense look about it that says "personal luxury" ready to move out fast. The collectors are just finding these cars. If you find a "cream-puff" four-door or a 1970 with the beak uncrunched, buy it now. You won’t find one if you wait till later. Production was down to about 40,000 cars in 1970 so they are not plentiful.
Next we have the 1972 to 1976 "Luxo-Birds." From 1955 to 1971 the phrase "Unique in All the World" applied to the Thunderbird. With the 1972 to 1976 Thunderbirds the T-Bird became a blatantly rebadged Lincoln Mark IV. It had virtually all of the toys and luxury of the Mark with a price about $2,500 lower. I own a 1973 Thunderbird with a 460 cu. in. engine. I love it.
Collectible Thunderbirds Design, Style and Fashion – Part 4 of 5
It is a super luxury cruiser but it is not distinctively different from the Mark IV. But then, I very much like the Mark IV too. If you like the big luxury personal cruiser look for a low miles original T-Bird or Mark IV from these years. They are available for not a whole lot of money. You can be sure that they will not be building more cars like this in the future. They were pricey luxury gas hogs that were very useful for impressing the neighbors. Today they are costly to restore if deteriorated. I predict that years from now these cruisers will be comparable to the big Packards and Marmons from the 1920′s today. Keep on the lookout for a clean original car and you may find a real bargain with respect to future appreciation.
1977 was a major turning point for the Thunderbird. From its birth in 1955 until 1977 the T-Bird had been growing in size, luxury and price. The 1977 to 1979 Thunderbird was a move down in size and price. Now 900 pounds lighter and smaller, the T-bird also sold for thousands less. Sales exploded from approximately 91,000 to an astounding 322,000 sales in 1977. Some collectors refer to this series as the "Torino Bird."
Others call it the "Fashion Bird." Built on the Ltd II chassis and mechanicals, the body was uniquely Thunderbird. The Town Landau model with a bright tiara crossing up and over the mid-roof was reminiscent of the flashy Ford Crown Victoria of 1955. The car had a distinctive architectural look to it. The public loved it!
By today’s fashion standards it looks out of date, but I will maintain that the style of the 77 to 79 T-Bird was true to the design and a beautiful car then and now. Oddly enough, I found a 1977 T-bird on someone’s list on the web of the "Ten Most Ugly Cars." This is absurd. This Thunderbird is just fine from a design and pure style standpoint. It is clearly not fashionable by today’s standard. But then, I think that the current fashion craze for ovoid "blob" cars with slanting eyes, the rear end hiked up into the air and a goofy wing on the trunk lid look utterly absurd. By analogy, what do you think of the high school basketball players today wearing baggy trunks that come down to their knees and are so big that they look like a skirt! It’s goofy! If you think that that looks good, then you should go out and buy a blob of a Japanese "buzz-box" car and forget about collector cars.
Collectors are just starting to think seriously about the 77 to 79 Thunderbirds. You should be able to find a very nice one for not much money. Look now. If you find a low mileage bird that has been well preserved now is the time to buy. In 1960 I passed on the opportunity to buy a nice 1955 Thunderbird for $1,500. In 1974 I passed on the opportunity to buy a nice 1957 Thunderbird for $3,000. The 1977 Thunderbird is now over 25 years old. If you pass on buying a nice one now, don’t cry about it ten years from now. If you are a car nut… your biggest expense is most likely to be DEPRECIATION. That is not the case with a pristine 77 to 79 Thunderbird.
The year 1980 brought a downsizing of the Thunderbird to the Ford Fox platform. Hundreds of pounds lighter and some ten inches shorter, the "Box Bird," or "Fairmont Bird," as many collectors call them have not yet found great favor with the car collectors. Sales fell off to a meager 49,000 units in 1982. I have heard this version of the Thunderbird referred to as "ugly," "over-decorated," and anemic in power. I disagree.
The 1980 Thunderbird looked very similar in many ways to the 1979, it was just smaller…. much smaller. Also, by 1982 Ford had taken some huge price increases. I think that the biggest problem with this version of the T-Bird was simply that it did not measure up to the luxury expectations of the typical Thunderbird buyer. They were shocked at the thought of paying almost twice as much for a luxury Fairmont as they had previously paid for a 1972 rebadged Lincoln Mark IV called a Thunderbird.
Collectible Thunderbirds Design, Style and Fashion – Part 5 of 5
One style blunder of the 1980 T-Bird was that the 14-inch wheels and puny tires looked odd on a body with such large wheel wells. Take a look at my 1982 Thunderbird Town Landau that has been converted to 15-inch alloy wheels and bigger tires. Also, the fake wire wheel hubcaps that looked fine on a new 1955 Thunderbird looked really fake by 1982 fashion standards.
The same can be said for the padded roof, opera windows, headlight doors and other styling queues that were simply going out of date. The V-6 engine was not a powerhouse, but the whole set-up was not significantly different from the new 1983 Thunderbird.
1983 was the beginning of a new version of the Thunderbird referred to as the "Aero Bird." This version was substantially unchanged for six years. The times were changing and this new aerodynamic or "jellybean" shape brought a whole new style to the T-Bird. The first time I saw one I just did not like it. But, the style grows on you and I came to not only like it…
I bought a new 1983 Thunderbird. The price loaded was over $14,000 which seemed like an enormous amount of money when you consider that my brother had bought new a loaded 1978 Town Landau for approximately $8,000.
Sales soared up to almost 141,000 in 1986. From a style standpoint, the 1987 Thunderbird is a classic in my book. Also, the Turbo Coupe is an excellent choice if you are looking for a collectible. Go for the V-8 over the V-6. There are lots of them out there. They are not recognized as highly collectible now, but I assure you that they will be. Look for a well cared for low miles original. Seek and you will find. Buy it. Try driving a daily driver that is appreciating, instead of depreciating.
The tenth incarnation of the Ford Thunderbird (1989 – 1997) is referred to as the "Super Bird," by most collectors. With only superficial changes for a run of nine years, the last big Thunderbird was super in many respects. With a supercharged V-6 in the earlier years and a big V-8 later, the car is a good-looking version of the personal luxury sport coupe. Sales drifted down to 66,000 units for 1997. The exterior of the car has a sleek but rather bland yet appealing shape. The interior continued with the luxury that one would expect to find in a four-passenger cruiser. In 1993 Ford launched the Lincoln Mark VIII which was in many ways an upscale Thunderbird… up in the $40,000 price range.
Ford pulled the plug on the big T-Bird and the Mark VIII both in 1997. Too bad. Seems that the buyers had lost interest in big personal coupes and were buying SUVs. If you want to buy a car that is near the bottom of its depreciation curve and will go nowhere except up, look for a pristine Thunderbird Super Coupe, or V-8, or a Lincoln Mark VIII. You cannot lose with one of these cars unless you pay too much for one that is worn out. Watch for estate sales and you will find a buy that makes paying 40 to 50 thousand dollars for a new car seem foolish.
After a four-year hiatus, The Thunderbird returned to Ford Showrooms as a modern reincarnation of the "Baby Bird," which collectors refer to as the "Retro Bird,"or the "Modern Bird." As with the original bird, there is a very limited market for a sporty two-seat car. Buyers tend to be single or affluent enough to spend a considerable amount of money on an additional car that is reserved for pleasure driving.
Most buyers perceive them to be collectible and will preserve them as such. Ford has announced that the last new Thunderbird will roll off of the assembly line in July of 2005. If you have the money and interest in collectible cars, consider the merits of buying a new 50th Anniversary Thunderbird. Sure, you will take a big hit in depreciation but if you hang on to it for the next twenty years I am confident that you will not regret the purchase.
Who knows what lurks in the mind of the FoMoCo brass? I would put my money on a small four-seat thunderbird to surface in two or three years. Look at the Lincoln Mark X and you won’t need a crystal ball to see what is coming. WDM
1966 Thunderbird Lost and Found
Tehran, Iran, 1966 — My brother, Delmar Murray was about to finish a tour of duty working for the U.S. Government in this middle-east metropolis. In his enthusiasm to get home to the states he decided to take the Ford Motor Co. up on their offer to sell overseas workers a new Ford product at a substantial discount.
The question was, did he want a new Thunderbird or a new Lincoln Continental. Ford sent the brochures and price lists. After some lengthy considering, he decided to buy the top-of-the-line Town Landau Thunderbird in Candy Apple Red.
The car was ordered from Ford with no fender skirts, thus the bright garnish molding around the rear wheel wells. Arrangements were made to pick up the new T-Bird at Cherner Ford in Washington D.C. It was early summer when Del flew into D.C. and picked up the big bird.
A 2,800 mile cruise across American took him from Washington D.C. to our home in Spokane, Washington State. The big bird was a joy to drive with its cool air-conditioning, eight-track tape sound system and 390 V-8. Del paid about $5,000 for the car. That seemed to me like a huge amount of money at that time. When Del showed up with this gorgeous new 
bird, I was impressed. The all white interior with "wrap-around" rear seating looked like luxury at its best. Del and I took one trip together in the big bird. We took a leisurely drive up to Banff, Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies. Del was proud of that car, but he harbored some regrets that he didn’t take the plunge and buy a convertible.
Del was with us in Spokane for about a month. He had been hoping that his next government assignment would take him to a country that would be practical for him to have his new T-Bird go with him. But… word came from D.C. that his next assignment was to Karachi, Pakistan. Karachi is not the place to take a car like this. So, there was nothing to do except leave the car with me. I played with the car until the fall season was threatening snow. Del instructed me to sell the car for him.
The car was sold that fall to our cousin and her husband, Bill and Maxine Copley. Bill Copley had retired out of the Air Force and his family with three teenagers was living in an elegant older home on the South Hill here in Spokane. We saw the car only occasionally for several years. I distinctly remember their daughter Linda, who was in her late teens driving the candy-apple bird. I can almost hear the Beach Boys singing "fun, fun, fun till daddy takes the t-bird away."
Linda was well known in the family for her travels with the "Up With People" organization. She later became a stewardess for an airline company. Sadly, Linda was killed in a tragic car crash (not in the t-bird) but I still think of that beautiful red Thunderbird when I think of her.
The Copleys sold the Thunderbird and we completely lost track of what became of it. The years rolled by. Can you believe that the car is now 39 years old? What happened to the time? It still seems like just yesterday to me. No one knew where the Thunderbird was. Seems that it had been traded in to Wendle Ford in Spokane, and subsequently sold by them to someone.
One day in 2002 I happened to pick up a copy of "Wheel Deals" the local free automobiles-for-sale publication. To my surprise, I found a color photo of a red and white 1966 Thunderbird Town Landau. The description matched the car my brother had brought home some thirty-five years earlier. I called the number in the ad. The gentleman who answered the phone told me that the car had already been sold. In inquiring about the car, I became convinced that this was in fact the same car that I thought it was. I learned that the original owner lived on Sanson Avenue. That was our house. The seller would not tell me who had bought the car. He somewhat reluctantly agreed to pass along my phone number to the buyer.
A few days later my phone rang and the caller identified himself as the new owner of the red Thunderbird. In discussing the car with him I was now certain that this was the car that I thought it was. The new owner had no plans to sell the car. He had built a new shop and had the Thunderbird in it along with a 7-liter 1966 Ford Galaxy that he had purchase new. He went on to say that he had been looking for a well-preserved 1966 Thunderbird for the past seven years and had not found one this nice until now. He allowed that he might consider trading for the white 1966 Thunderbird Town Landau that Wendle Ford had in their showroom. But even then he would want some "boot" money due to the fact that he thought that the red T-bird was a somewhat better car. He mentioned that when he was inspecting the white 66 bird he noticed that the doors (which are quite heavy) would sag about a quarter of an inch when the doors were opened. The 1966 Thunderbird was unit body construction and known for rust problems with older ones. The red T-bird had been in dry Spokane all its life and had no rust problems. We agreed that I would bring my brother Del (now retired) out to see the car.
Before going out to see the red Thunderbird I made a trip up to Wendle Ford to see the white 1966 Thunderbird. The sales manager informed me that they had recently sold the car on Ebay for $11,500. So, I could forget about the plan to buy it for a swap.
Del and I went out to meet with the new owner and see the car. Amazing! During the past 30 years the car has been driven a mere 30,000 miles. The white molded vinyl driver’s door panel was perfect. Usually this is the first thing to crack and deteriorate as these T-birds age.
During our visit with the owner, he mentioned that he had been lusting after a 1972 War Bonnet Yellow Corvette that was in the showroom of a local collector car dealer. If we wanted to buy that Corvette he would trade "Even-Steven." We decided to take him up on his proposal. After some negotiation, we purchased the Corvette for $12,000. This was twice the amount that the Thunderbird had been offered for in the Wheel Deals ad. We met with the Thunderbird owner, swapped titles, and the Candy Apple Red T-bird was back home!
Since finding and regaining ownership of this Thunderbird we have spent another $4,000 on it. Some minor bodywork needed attention. At least half of the paint on the car is still original.
We decided to indulge in a new set of Kelsey Hays replica roadster wheels.
This Thunderbird still has all of the good looks and appeal that it had when new. Things that I like about it include: 1. The nose that has a more conventional front bumper than the 1964 or 65 bird. 2. The sculpted sides. 3. The "power-dome" hood. 4. The sequential tail lights. 5. The car has a masculine stance to it… it’s big and husky, but lean, powerful and ready to "kick-ass." Yet, at the same time it exudes luxury with its big bucket seats and classy interior. Think of that dream car that you once owned, but unfortunately let get away. Perhaps you traded it in for a more practical family car. Don’t tell me that you sold it for an embarrassingly small amount of money. Take heart! Start looking for it. You may luck out and discover that your long lost car from your youth is resting in a garage near by… being carefully preserved by some elderly gentleman… just waiting for you to find it.
WDM
Searching for the Ford Victoria Crown Jewels
The year was 1955. We were hearing just the first stirrings of rock-and-roll. Elvis was not yet a well known star. For car lovers it was a blockbuster year. Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth all had hot new models with flashy chrome and bright new colors in two-tone and tri-tone combinations.
Most of the cars on the road were of pre-second-world-war design from the thirties and forties. Unless you were there, it is difficult to understand just how new and different these new models were, when compared to previous designs. Wrap-around windshields were brand new and found on almost every new car. A new two-door hardtop convertible was every teenager’s dream car.
I was a junior in high school. My older brother Del was out of school and working a steady job as a telegrapher for the Union Pacific Railroad. Del had a 1947 Ford Tudor and I was driving a 1942 Ford Tudor that had been a staff car during WW-II.
One day there was a knock at the door and to our amazement, the salesman for the local Ford dealership, Madison Motors, was at our door. He had driven up in a brand-new 1955 Ford Victoria that was two-tone Coral Mist and Raven Black, with a white and black interior. He had found out that my brother had a good job and he had come to sell him this fantastic new Victoria. We struck a deal. As part of the bargain, my ’42 Ford was traded in along with my brother’s ’47
Ford. So, I had claim to occasional driving privileges on the days that my brother was home from his work.
That Victoria was my dream car come true. The skinny steering wheel with power steering was like silk. It was quiet and smooth with the Fordomatic transmission. With the Power-Pack engine it had plenty of power, and boy, did it look classy to us. Coral Mist was a late color that does not appear in the Ford sales literature for that year. I am slightly red-green color vision defective, so it looked more like black and white to me. It looked pink to me only if I thought about it. The color should not be confused with the later 1956 Ford Coral color.
The star of the 1955 Ford model year was the Crown Victoria. A stainless steel tiara crossed over the top to make a flashy break between the front and back halves of the roof. This allowed Ford to offer an acrylic roof on the front half with a special model dubbed the Crown Victoria Skyliner. The Skyliner name only applied to the "glass-top" model and should not be confused with the later retractable Skyliner or the standard Sunliner Convertible. The Crown Victoria glass-top was stunningly beautiful. Although it only sold for some $60 more than the standard Crown Vic, it was not a popular model from a sales standpoint due to the "greenhouse" effect that made the passenger compartment hotter than Hades on a summer day. Ford only sold 1,999 1955 Crown Victorias with the glass roof. It is body code 64-B. Remember that air-conditioning was very expensive and very rare in a Ford. Sure, some Lincolns were available with the new air-conditioning, but almost no Fords had this accessory.
For my senior year in high school I was in "hog-heaven" when I had the opportunity to drive that beautiful Victoria.
Our local Ford Dealership, Madison Motors, only sold about a hundred cars and trucks per year. As I remember it, they only sold one Crown Victoria for the entire year. It was Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White. Tropical Rose was a gaudy sherbet color that was quite stylish in 1955 but looks garish by today’s standards.
A young man from St. Maries, Idaho bought the Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White Crown Victoria. I was told that after owning it for only a few months, they left the road at a high rate of speed and rolled it into the St. Joe River. It was a total wreck. I have never forgotten how beautiful that car looked sitting in Con Madison’s Ford showroom.
The years rolled by and my brother and I both moved on to many other new cars but we could not forget the joy that we savored with the memory of that Pink and Black Victoria. 
Moving forward in time to about 1975… a local used car dealer here in Spokane, Don Rohrer, had begun seeking out and selling collector type cars in his showroom on North Division Street. Don acquired a 1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan that had super low miles and was showroom perfect. We had to have it. Seems to me that we traded a 47 Ford, a Model A Ford and some cash for it. I don’t remember for sure. Anyhow, we got our hands on this absolutely perfect 55 Fairlane Club Sedan with the tinsel in the upholstery fabric, and fresh as new. The only thing wrong with this car was that it was not a Crown Victoria glass-top, which was still our dream car.
Shortly after buying the Club Sedan, the telephone rang and a friend told me that he had spotted a black and white 55 Crown Victoria glass-top sitting behind the Ford dealership in Ritzville, Washington. Within the hour we were off on a 65-mile trip to check it out. Sure enough, there behind a cyclone fence sat a black and white 64-B glass-top that looked pretty good. The dealership was closed on Sunday, so we could only look through the fence.
The following Monday I called the dealership, Benzel Ford, in Ritzville. The owner told me that he had sold the car new to a Catholic Priest. The priest later traded it in. For a year or so it had been in the hands of someone going to Washington State University. He had recently gotten the car back again to his dealership. Since he had started the dealership in 1955, his plan was to put the car in show condition and display it on his showroom floor. He had no plans to sell the car. I told him that we had a 1955 Ford also and perhaps he would like to see it. He thought that that would be nice but had no enthusiasm to do so.
The next day I took off from work and drove the 55 Club Sedan to Ritzville and parked it in front of the Benzel Ford dealership. The owner, Larry Benzel was there and immediately took an interest in the perfect 55 club sedan. I handed him the keys and suggested that he take it for a drive. That he did. When he returned from driving the Fairlane Club Sedan he had nothing to say. I asked him what he thought of it and he replied, "I feel sick."
He felt sick because he knew he had to have that car for his showroom… and he also knew that the only way that he was going to get it was to trade his black and white Crown Victoria glass-top. We traded cars straight across.
After we got the 64-B glass-top we looked up the priest who had bought it new. We found him in Post Falls, Idaho. He liked the black and white colors and thought that the glass roof gave him a better view to the heavens. Oddly, he had ordered the car new with the small hubcaps instead of the usual wheel covers.
The 1955 Crown Victoria 64-B glass-top was with us for a number of years. It appeared in several car shows and a number of car club events. As I recall we began to lose interest in the older Fords and the car was sold in about 1983 to raise money for the purchase of a new 1984 Lincoln Mark VII. A Pomeroy, Washington farmer who was an avid member of the national Crown Victoria Association purchased the car. I never saw the car again and I have no idea of where it is today.
Back in the middle 1970′s my brother Del was driving down the highway when he spotted a blue 1954 Ford Skyliner heading it the opposite direction. He flipped a U-turn and followed the car until he met the owner, John Peterson. John had restored the car which was very unusual in that it had the dealer glass window on the hood to show off the new overhead valve V-8 engine. Some time later I met John Peterson and he told me that he knew where there was a Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White 1955 Ford Crown Victoria glass-top 64-B lurking in a garage on the South Hill of Spokane. He couldn’t remember the address, but gave me an idea of the general vicinity. I went looking for the car but was unable to find it. After several frustrating and unsuccessful attempts to find it, I was able to locate the car. It was in a dilapidated one-car garage next to a 1920 vintage two-story house. The garage door was stuck up about a foot from the driveway and the car could not be seen from the street. I rang the doorbell but no one was home, so I invited myself to take a look. The car was in a tiny garage with all tires flat and the nose of the car was under a workbench. The garage was leaning over and appeared to be on the verge of collapse. A truss above the car had already broken, with the broken truss pointing directly at the glass-top roof of the car. I knew that I had to have that car.
Some days later I spoke with the woman who came to the door of the house, and inquired about the possibility of buying the car. She informed me that the car belonged to a family member who was away in the military service, but that he planned to turn the car into a hot-rod. She offered me no encouragement that the car would ever be for sale. Being the persistent cuss that I am, I returned to the house about every six months to inquire about the possible purchase of the car. No luck. In fact they clearly considered me to be a pest. I was not inclined to give-up.
My wife is a Doctor of Optometry and as luck would have it, about a year or two later, the lady of the house where the 64-B was lurking scheduled a vision-exam with my wife. My wife mentioned something about my passion for old cars and the lady realized that the doctor’s last name was the same as that pesky guy that kept leaving business cards in their door. Although she did not want to sell the car to me, she allowed as how she might sell it to my wife! Wonderful! My wife, Barbara, made the necessary arrangements and soon I was on my way with fresh tires and wheels and a tow chain to bring the car home.
The car was a horrible dirty mess. I really worked to get it cleaned up and the dead leaves out of all the cracks. The paint polished up pretty good, but in spite of how good the car was starting to look, it was clear that this car needed a complete inside and outside restoration. I stashed the car in my warehouse, waiting the day that I had the funds to properly restore it. 
A year or so passed and one day I happened to stop in at Don Rohrer’s Select Cars showroom to check out his inventory. While I was looking at cars a gentleman came into the showroom and I heard him ask Don if he knew of anywhere he could find a 55 Ford Crown Victoria. Don replied that he should talk to me. At that time my brother and I had four 55 Crown Victorias, two glass-tops and two standard, plus one 55 straight Victoria. The fellow insisted that I take him to my warehouse to see these cars. I somewhat reluctantly agreed to do so. When he saw the Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White 64-B he announced that he had to have it. I pointed out that the car did not run, and in spite of the fact that it looked pretty good, it needed a total restoration. Plus, I had no intention whatsoever of selling it. He seemed to have it in his head that I would sell if he only offered enough money. No. I know from experience that in a situation like this, offering more money only makes the owner angry instead of persuading him to sell. He left. But, for a period of about two years, every three months or so, the phone would ring and this guy would be inquiring if I was ready yet to sell the Ford Crown Vic glass-top. The answer was always no.
As it turned out, one dark and rainy November night our doorbell rang, and here was the same guy asking if I wanted to sell the car. He caught me at a time when I really needed money for something or other, I don’t remember what, so I agreed to sell. He had a roll of hundred dollar bills with him and proceeded to count out the cash to pay me a price that I thought at the time was ridiculously high. He lived about a hundred miles away, but the next day he showed up with a large truck to winch the car onto, and away he went. One reason that I decided to sell was that the screaming Tropical Rose color that looked pretty good in the 1950s was just not something that I could live with in the 1970s.
Once you have established a reputation for buying collectible cars you will begin to notice that through referrals, the cars start finding you. This happened to us one time during the late 1970s when the doorbell rang and there was a young man wanting to sell us his 1958 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. We had no particular desire or need for his big hulking Turnpike Cruiser, but when he told us the price it was clear that he was willing to practically give it away, the price was so cheap. We bought it.
Later, we traded the Turnpike Cruiser to a Canadian fellow for a 1954 Mercury Sun Valley… but that’s another story. What’s of interest here is that Larry, our Canadian friend had two 1954 Mercury Sun Valleys that he had acquired in trade for his 1956 Ford Crown Victory 64-B glass-top. That was an extremely rare car, only 603 were produced by Ford. Unfortunately his 1956 64-B was so rusty that the bottom perimeter of the car was just shaggy from missing metal. Somehow he was talked into trading for the two Sun Valleys. He later explained that he felt that the Mercurys were misrepresented and that he had gotten the worst part of the deal. He regretted that he had ever agreed to let the 1956 64-B go.
Take a look at the photo of the cover of the November – December 1976 issue of Special-Interest Autos magazine shown here. Yes, that’s a Tropical Rose and Snowshoe White 55 64-B on the cover. Our friend in Canada really wanted to buy one. He was paying airmail rates to subscribe to Hemmings Motor News. When he opened his Hemmings he found an ad for this car which appears on the cover of the magazine. The party that placed the "for sale" ad was in California, so Larry called them up and discovered that this was the cover car… but that the car had already been sold. He inquired as to why the car was sold before the ad came out. The seller explained that some Canadian guy had offered him a higher price if he would sell before the ad appeared. Larry discovered that the Canadian buyer was the same person who had gotten his 1956 64-B away from him.
So, Larry, thinking that he knew where this car, in moving from California to Canada would cross the border, called up the Canadian border customs station and said, "Say, did you happen to see a pink and white 55 Ford Crown Victoria come through recently?" They did. Larry suggested that perhaps they would like to call this number in California and talk to the seller to see what he sold it for, compared to what the buyer had declared the price to be at the border crossing. They did. The Canadian customs people went out and seized the car. The buyer was hit with enormous fines and penalties and it was months before he was able to get his car back.
They say that revenge is sweet, but I would not have done that. I guess that the moral here is that in the old car hobby, you had best play it as Mr. Straight Arrow, or it will come back to bite you. I truly hope that all three of the 1955 Ford Crown Victoria 64-Bs that I have been telling you about are sitting in some well cared for car collection someplace. I would still like to own one, but now that they are fifty years old they are worth so darned much money that I would rather buy something newer… before that "U" shaped depreciation curve starts rocketing upward.
WDM
What is my Collector Car worth?
The quick and easy answer is that your collector car is worth whatever you, as a willing seller are willing to accept, and what a willing buyer will agree to pay. So the question really becomes, "What is a figure that a buyer might be willing to pay to buy this vehicle?" That is not an easy question to answer.
Perhaps you should let the market decide. Enter your car in one of the many collector car auctions and you can easily find an answer. You may not like what others are willing to pay to buy your car. If that is the case, you hopefully will have had a "reserve" on the selling price and your entry becomes a "no sale." You will have paid the entry fee to find out that there is no willing buyer at your price.
Not long ago I was at a Silver Collector Car Auction in Spokane. A gentleman from Moses Lake, Washington entered his 1989 Chrysler TC by Maserati in the auction. Since I am the owner of two of these Chrysler TCs I was most interested to see how the bidding went for his car.
The car had been repainted a non-stock ugly frog green color. The expensive Italian leather interior had been replaced with vinyl. The costly Fondmetal wheels had been replaced with some odd looking aftermarket spoked wheels. Worst of all, an ugly "continental spare wheel" had been added to the rear bumper. As I recall the bidding stalled at $11,500. This did not meet the sellers reserve and the car was a "no-sale." If that had been my car I would have grabbed the money and run!
On the other hand, you may find that your car will sell at auction for substantially more than you hoped it would bring. If there are two or more qualified buyers that want the car, who knows where the bidding will stop? I have observed at auction cars selling for more that twice what I would be willing to pay… but, does that mean I truly know what the car is worth and the buyer is ignorant? No, I don’t think so. Whatever a buyer is willing to pay is in fact what that car is worth to the buyer.
Daniel Strohl, writing in the February 2005 issue of Hemmings Motor News about the Kruse auction at Auburn cannot resist injecting into his report what he thinks a "fair" price would be. (I am referring to the 1956 Studebaker Hawk on page 52 that sold for $10,900. Mr. Strohl considered this to be about $2,000 more than a "fair" price.) This strikes me as arrogance. The fair price is the price at which the auctioneer’s hammer went down. It is just possible that the buyer was more knowledgeable about the car than the journalist observer.
It is the job of the auction firm to get buyers and sellers together. If your car is not bid up to or above your reserve price it is their job to persuade you to lower your selling price to match the buyers price. You may find that in your mind the car is already sold, so lowering your reserve is just being realistic. Even if you think that you "gave the car away," in fact what happened is that you let the market decided what your car was worth.
Selling your car at an auction just to find out what it is worth might be just as stupid as going to the blood bank to donate blood just to find out if you have AIDS. So, here are some other considerations to ponder.
Condition is Everything
Most collector car enthusiasts are familiar with the point system for rating cars such as that used by the "Old Cars Price Guide:" 1. Excellent, 2. Fine, 3. Very Good, 4. Good, 5. Restorable, and 6. Parts Car.
You might want to transpose these criteria as: 1. Perfection, 2. Damn Nice, 3. Looks good until you get up close, 4. A driver, but has problems, 5. God help us! and 6. Junk. Based upon condition, the worth of your car can range from way above Kelly Blue Book or NADA book, or in fact it may have a negative value if it is such a basket case that it will cost you to get rid of it.
For example, last Summer I sold my brother’s 1997 Ford Probe for $10,000 cash. The car was perfection. Only 1,600 miles since leaving the dealer showroom. Never been in the rain… needing absolutely nothing. NADA book on the car was $5,087.
On the other hand, I drove about 70 miles to investigate a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria that was advertised in our local newspaper, only to find that it was a complete nightmare. The car had been in a major wreck that bent the frame. It had been sitting out in acid rain near a smelter. No kidding, I could not find anything on the car that was not damaged so badly that it was junk. There would be no point in paying to have it hauled home. It may have been a good set of plans. But, you may not realize how easy it is in your attempt to restore a "junker," to discover that you have spent $40,000 building a $20,000 show car.
Hire an Appraiser
Talk is cheap. If you have not paid to have a professional appraisal done on your collector car you may discover that what you think it is worth lacks credibility with your insurance company. Three years ago an uninsured driver from Idaho ran a red light with his truck and totaled my 1986 Cadillac Eldorado. My little red Eldo was insured on our personal auto policy as a daily driver. It had over 100K miles on the odometer but it was a beautiful and well preserved car that was a joy to drive and own.
Our insurance company was of the opinion that the value of the car was less than one-half of what I was willing to accept as a settlement. It took six months to settle the claim. I was required to hire a professional appraiser to attempt to appraise the wreck as to its replacement value before the wreck. This was an exercise that I do not care to repeat. Now I make it my business to have a professional appraisal done and on file for every car in our collection. The professional appraisals done by a staff member of the Silver Collector Car Auctions include pictures, the point system rating and the information I would need to have on hand to settle a dispute. I may not agree with their findings, but they are an independent third party that is providing their objective appraisal.
Keep in mind that there may be a big difference between "market value," and "replacement value." This is a big problem when we are talking collectibles and antiques. You may not be able to find a comparable replacement for your destroyed collector car at any price. You might want to discuss "stated value" insurance with your agent.
A few years ago I purchased a blue 1988 Buick Reatta from LaFavor’s Showroom Cars here in Spokane. I paid $8,000 for the car and felt somewhat uncomfortable in that this was, I thought, a rather high price. But I had to have the car. It was a beauty. I had the car professional appraised. The appraisal for market value came in at $9,500. I had no serious intentions of selling the car. But a Buick affectionado offered to buy it at $10,000 so it is now gone to a new home.
Consult a Published Price Guide
You may want to reference one or more of the published collector car price guides. Go to www.blackbookusa.com and check out CPI. This is the "Black-Book" that your banker or insurance agent may use as a reference. Also see the Old Cars Price Guide magazine which you can find on just about any magazine rack. A word of caution here, Unless you thoroughly understand their point system you may mistakenly think that your car is worth a whole lot more that what is realistic.
Subscribe to the "Bible," of the old car Hobby, Hemmings Motor News. Do a survey of the classified ads for cars that are comparable to yours. Remember that these are asking prices and do not reflect the actual selling prices.
Don’t forget the more familiar sources such as NADA. See: www.nadaguides.com and go to the Classic Car section. Enter your car in collector car shows. You are sure to meet owners of cars similar to yours. Learn what they think about the current market values of various collector cars. Keep an open mind. Know that you can be wrong.
Several years ago my brother and I were attending an "All Clubs Open Car Show." My brother was admiring a beautiful little black 1934 Ford three window coupe. The owner in a somewhat flippant manner said, "I’d sell this car if I could find someone willing to give me (here he quote what he clearly thought was a high price) for it. My brother said, "sold" and got out his checkbook. The owner looked shocked. Clearly he did not appreciate the impact of what he had just said, or expect that someone would take him up on it.
So, we are stuck in an awkward position of not having a good answer. The owner of a collectible car may feel uncomfortable not knowing if the price he wants is a "give-away" that is foolishly too cheap… or if he is way high and asking an embarrassingly high price. If you are a buyer you are in a much more comfortable position. You know that if you have found the car of your dreams, the only price question is, "Whatever it takes."
Take comfort in the knowledge that if you are dealing in collectibles, the supply is limited and demand is surely and steadily increasing. If you lose money on your collector car you will have to have really screw-up. The usual worst case scenario is that you just have to wait a few more years for the market to catch up to what in your opinion is a fair value for what your collector car is worth.
WDM
