1982 Chevrolet Corvette coupe
Sold at $35,200
RM Auctions, Fort Lauderdale, FL, March 29, 2019, Lot 1016
VIN: 1G1AY8782C5105503
Why is it that low mileage can double or triple the selling price of any vintage car? Sure, a low-miles Mopar convertible with a manual transmission I understand. But that well-preserved Pinto with 4k miles for $35,000? Not so much.
Vehicles like this belong to, as I call it, the “What the Hell? Club.” The latest addition is Read More
1971 Chevrolet Nova
Sold at $12,000
RM Auctions, Auburn, IN, May 29–June 1, 2019, Lot 5023
VIN: 114271W252964
Springsteen says glory days will pass you by. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not if you keep your old hot rod.
That’s Read More
1957 Chevrolet 210 Custom 4-door 4×4
Sold at $21,450
Leake Auctions, Oklahoma City, OK, February 23–24, 2018; Lot 531
VIN: B57K132434
This is going to be difficult. On the one hand, I’m a fan of four-bying just about anything with wheels, but this conglomeration falls way short of its potential.
First off, if you’re going to drop an Read More
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 2-dr hard top
Sold at $56,000
RM Sotheby’s, Phoenix, AZ, January 18-19, 2018, Lot 219
VIN: VC570163461
One of the more controversial moments of this year’s ACC Insider’s Seminar at Barrett-Jackson came when Carl Bomstead called out Chevrolet’s Tri-Five cars as one of his two “Sell” picks in the current market.
There’s probably no more iconic classic American car than the 1957 Chevrolet, and for years, they’ve been safe bets in terms of Read More
1973 Ford F-100 pickup
Sold at $41,250
Mecum Auctions, Indianapolis, IN, May 17, 2019, Lot F111
VIN: F10HKS27097
GM trucks from ‘70s have been achieving big prices at auction for over two years now. Fords just haven’t had the same meteoric rise in values. Why not?
To highlight just how large the discrepancy is, a search Read More
1975 Chevrolet Cosworth Vega Coupe
Sold at $13,750
Mecum, Phoenix, AZ, March 15, 2019, Lot F91
VIN: 1V77E5U215244
American car manufacturers applied the “no replacement for displacement” mantra when designing cars up until the 1970s, when the growing demand for fuel efficiency and government-required emission standards all but ended the life big-horsepower, big-displacement V8s.
Chevrolet adapted by releasing the uninspiring 80-ish hp Vega in 1971 — a low point in Chevy history that remained until 1975 with Read More
1982 Pontiac Trans Am KITT
Sold at $66,000
Mecum Auctions, Harrisburg, PA, August 2–4, Lot S139
A few years back, I was reviewing cars at an auction for Sports Car Market with a couple of older friends when we happened upon a Knight Rider KITT conversion. Everyone else in my group laughed at it. I secretly wanted it.
Why? Because I was a kid in the 1980s, when David Hasselhoff was Michael Knight, and his jet-black Read More
1984 AMC Eagle sedan
Sold at $3,850
Mecum Auctions, Chicago, IL, Oct. 25–27, 2018, Lot T35
VIN: 1FAFP42X1YF206398
People want cars that do it all. Part sedan, wagon, SUV and minivan. But with all those requirements, we have ended up with the endless amount of crossover-types clogging up our roads. They have it all, yet do nothing well — and most of them look like jelly beans left out in the sun.
When editor Pickering sent me Read More
1966 Plymouth Valiant Signet convertible
Sold at $8,960
Bonhams, Greenwich, CT, June 3, 2018, Lot 213
VIN: VH27B62594626
A few years back, the classic car world fired up with excitement over a brand-new 1957 Plymouth that had been buried in a concrete vault in Tulsa, OK. Opened in 2007, a time-capsule finned wonder was to emerge, educate the future on the past, and be handed over to one lucky drawing winner.
Hindsight may Read More
1974 Ford LTD Country Squire wagon
Sold at $45,920
Gooding & Company, Amelia Island. FL, Mar. 8, 2019, Lot 85
VIN: 4J76S162122
Utility was the strength of a 1970s wagon. Beautiful? No. Fast? No. Good at hauling the family around town? Now we’re talking.
At just under 19 feet long, over 6.5 feet wide and weighing 5,004 pounds, the Country Squire was like a 2001 Ford Excursion SUV before its time. Instead of a 7.3-L Power Stroke Read More