Over the years I have purchased quite a few classic cars as well as helped friends purchase one themselves. Classic car shopping takes some leg work not only researching the car, but also the classic car seller.
There are typically some warning signs that are not uncommon when contemplating the purchase of a particular car. The sign can be centered around the car itself… perhaps it is claimed to be an “Arizona car”, yet the trunk pan has been replaced. Or a warning sign can be centered around the car’s documentation… perhaps the car has changed hands twice in the past year, but it is still titled in the name of the owner from over a decade ago. Sometimes the sign can be centered around the seller, who perhaps has a bad reputation, or makes statements that do not reflect what the car itself presents.
It is often rather easy to overlook or resolve the issue that raises the warning sign, but when many signs are raised, it is best not to overlook them, no matter how badly you might want to buy that classic car.
A few years ago, I was asked to help in the purchase of a VW Karmann Ghia by a friend of mine for his sister as a birthday present as it was her childhood dream. He wanted a specific car color and it had to be a convertible; so, finding this car was a bit of a chore even though it did not have to be show quality it was not an easy find. He had seen a few while classic car shopping, and finally found one that was reasonably close by, and after he had looked at the classic car, he asked me to take a further look at it with him. He told me that the car was far from perfect, but with some minor work he could make this the perfect gift car. He forwarded to me the listing for the classic car which included a description with such words as beautiful, shiny, mint, rare, refurbished, low miles, and included full documentation. I wondered how such a vintage car could be described this way by the seller but was described by the buyer as “far from perfect.” Hmmm….
We called the seller to set up an appointment to see the car at the seller’s home. I asked the seller to make sure he had all the documentation that he had noted in his listing. When we arrived at the address provided by the seller, we could not find the street address provided so we drove the block to see if we could locate the car; there was no sign of the car visible outside or even in the garages we could see. Eventually we made our way back to the closest address number to the one provided and found the car parked on the street. So now I have 2 signs of possible trouble ahead; with the second being that I do not want a car run before inspecting as I want the engine cold and not operated recently.
The car itself was not too bad. It appeared structurally sound with all the options that the buyer was looking for. This classic car was by no means beautiful, shiny, mint, rare, refurbished, not low miles. Rather it needed quite a bit of work to get it to a regular driver quality condition. So now we have another warning sign. As for the documentation the seller did not bring any of the papers; so, I asked the seller why he had none of it, he responded that “if he buys the car, then I’ll give it to him”; so, another warning sign.
Then just to add salt into the wounds the seller tells us that he has owned the car for at least 10 years as the second owner. Unfortunately, as I dug around the car looking at the condition, I found an old registration card under the passenger seat from the prior year in another state. Ahh another warning sign.
This classic car had all sorts of warning signs relating to the seller, the documentation, and even some the conditions of the car that were enough to eliminate it as a potential candidate for purchase. Even though this was a rare case with so many warning signs; as you search for a classic car purchase even one or two warning signs should be investigated, and resolved, if you can, before proceeding with any purchase is considered. It is far easier to walk away from a potential classic car purchase than it is to deal with the aftermath of a purchase in which the car is not as expected.
Remember as grandpa said “Measure twice cut once” to save yourself from making what could be a major mistake so take your time while classic car shopping.
