About two years ago, Michigan resident Dave Mier decided to sell his 1973 American Motors Hornet, a car that was not only in pristine condition but also had low mileage after it was rebuilt.
To Mier and his wife, Anita, lovers and collectors of AMC cars, the Hornet was invaluable but unneeded.
But Mier also knew that other people would not put the Hornet up on a pedestal as he and his wife did. Nor would the car have the allure of, say, a 1966 Ford Mustang or a 1957 Chevrolet.
“I really doubt I could have got much for the car if I put it up for sale on the street, despite its condition,” recalled Mier, of Ionia, near Grand Rapids.
Mier decided to instead try to sell the car through the American Motors car clubs in the U.S. He sold the Hornet within a few weeks to a local resident for $5,500, a price that was much higher than what he would have gotten on the street.
“Because the gentleman who bought the car was a lover of American Motor cars like myself, he was willing to pay a little more for it,” Mier said. “He appreciated it.”
What the Michigan man had to wrestle with is what a growing number of car owners are facing: What do you do with a 25- or 35-year-old car that’s not collectible but is far from junk?
Charlie Kuhn, who with his brother, Phil, runs the Chicago Car Exchange Inc. in Libertyville, says they often get a visit from someone who has inherited a 1965 Cadillac or similar vehicle.
“It was grandma’s car, and it’s been sitting in the garage since they bought it so consequently it is in great shape and has low mileage,” said Kuhn, whose business buys and sells collectible and antique cars. “While the family has placed great sentimental value on the car and they think it’s a classic, unfortunately, there’s very little of a market for the car because there’s few people interested in it.”
A lot of cars that have been showing up at the Kuhns’ doorstep are what he calls “big land yachts” from the mid-1970s.
“The grandparents who owned those cars are passing away, and the families don’t know what to do with these Lincolns and Thunderbirds they inherit,” Kuhn said. (He doesn’t buy them because they’re not collectible.)
“The families don’t want these cars because they’re big cars,” said Greg Grams, owner of the Volo Auto Museum, which also sells collector cars. “They’re even hard to park.
“They think their car might be a `classic’ or `collectible’ but they soon find out otherwise,” he added. “So they wind up letting them go on the street for next to nothing.”
Key here, said the experts, is that every older car has value but not every car is appreciated.
“It all comes down to supply and demand,” said Keith Mathiowetz, the editor of Old Cars Weekly magazine, produced in Iola, Wis. “Even if a car is 20 or 30 or 40 years old, there might not be much demand for it.”
Demand is what makes a car “collectible.”
What is in demand now? At the Kuhn’s Libertyville business, what’s big are 1965 Ford Mustangs, 1967 Pontiac Firebirds, 1960 Chevrolet Corvettes and 1950s Chevy Bel Airs.
Grams has been selling a lot of muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s: A 1970 Oldsmobile 442 convertible, a 1968 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport and a 1972 Chevy Camaro Z28. Some of the cars have sold for as much as $40,000, Grams said.
“While muscle cars are hot, most cars from the 1970s are not,” said Mathiowetz. ” The general rule is what was popular when it was new is now popular with collectors. A 1965 American Motors Rambler was not a popular car when it was new, so it will be less collectible now.”
So if you come into a pristine 1964 Dodge Polaris or a mint 1974 Chevy Vega with low mileage, what can you do?
First, try to determine the car’s value from pricing guides such as the National Automobile Dealers Association Official Used Car Guide (www.nadaguides.com) and Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com).
Then, there are several options, the experts said. For example, you can turn to the car clubs, as Mier did. A longtime member of the American Motors Cruisers Club, a west Michigan chapter of the American Motors Owners Association, Mier knew he’d find someone who appreciated a Hornet, which he had bought from a collector a few years earlier.
“American Motors cars are classics but to a limited audience,” said Mier, who also owns a 1972 Javelin, a 1970 Rebel Machine and a 1969 AMX.
“There are car clubs for Vegas and Pintos and just about any car,” Mathiowetz said. “They’re small but they’re out there. Even Gremlins show up in mint condition at car shows.”
Where to find buyers
The best way to find a car club is to search the Internet, the experts said. Old Car Weekly publishes a list of car clubs each April and again in the summer. (The Transportation section last published a listing of local cars clubs Nov. 4.) Other options for selling that ordinary but vintage car include:
– The Internet. The World Wide Web has brought car sellers and buyers together, the experts said. “The Internet is a phenomenal tool,” Kuhn said. “But it has also created competition as far as car prices.”
“The eBays are an option, but you’ll most likely be selling the car as a used car, not a collector car,” Mathiowetz said. “You may also have to have the car shipped across the country.”
– Quasi-collectors. If you’re lucky, the experts said, you might find a buyer who is sentimental for a 1976 Toyota Celica or a 1971 Buick Electra. “The car might be the car they drove in high school, the car they wanted in high school or the car their dad drove,” Kuhn said.
The best bet here is to again poke around the car clubs or check the Internet.
– Local newspaper. You also can try to sell the vehicle in the newspaper classifieds, the experts said, but it will most likely be picked up by someone looking for a cheap and reliable used car.
“What will sell the car is if it’s priced attractively,” Kuhn said.
Even then, there are no guarantees. “I met a guy with a 1971 Ford Torino who thought it was really something special,” Grams recalled. “He put a lot of money into it and asked me what to do with it. I told him to take an ad out in the paper but no one would buy it.” (Grams did not know what eventually became of the car.)
– Auctions. Car auctions are another option, but again, the vehicle will be marketed as a used car, the experts said.
– Charity. The vehicle also could be donated to charity and used as a tax write-off, the experts said.
“Depending on your tax situation, that can be a better deal than selling it on the street,” Kuhn said.
– Keeping the car. Another option is to “drive it into the ground” as a second car, Grams said.
“I had a guy show up eight years ago with a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado that was painted a very ugly gold,” he recalled. “He had inherited it. It was a two-door hardtop with only 10,000 miles on it, and it was worth probably $6,500.
“It would have been a very hard car to sell so my suggestion to him was to use it as a second car,” Grams added. “I saw him a few months ago and he had the car up to 90,000 miles. He got a good bang for his buck, considering you couldn’t get much of a second car for $6,500.”
Mier agreed with the option. “If I couldn’t have got that much out of my Hornet, I would have kept it,” he said.
“The downside here is you’ll get a lot of looks when you’re in a parking lot,” said Mathiowetz.
