[Stanley_P]

What should the appraisal value of my car be????
Besides the interior everything was totally redone.
Farm Bureau is going to ask me to send it to some local car lot for an appraisal, how are they going to know what it is worth?

Any help or ideas?
Thanks,
Stanley

 

[Travis]

Charles Goin is usually willing to give an appraisal based on pictures, receipts and a full description. He's on the NADA board I believe.

-Travis

 

[chuckspeed]

The guy at the local car lot is the guy who told you it was a GM corvette...

You may have better luck if'n there's an old Buick dealership nearby. From time to time, you'll run into (figuratively, mind you) an old-timer that remembers them new - if he's part of the dealership, he'll appraise it at pretty much whatever YOU think it's worth.

If not, do the following:

a) Tally up the bill stack.
b) Estimate the # of hours in the car.
c) Organize the photo journal.
d) Check off some of the pricier GT's on Ebay - put them in your 'watch' column. Closing values are important.
e) Go to http://www.traderonline.com and do a GT search under collector car trader. There are always a few higher dollar cars there - put them in your records also.

Armed with this stuff, you'll be able to provide enough documentation for even the most dimwitted used car geek to arrive at an intelligent appraisal. You know your car best - it's up to you to make sure they understand this!

 

[Kristi]

Stanley... I just went through this also for my loan company (nerds). I looked in my yellow pages under Auto Appraisals and found a classic car shop that did appraisals also. IMHO the appraisal was low, but then what the heck do I know...

 

[Stanley_P]

I went down to the local car lot that Farm Bureau recommended and he/we appraised the car between $10,500 to $12,500....Is that High or Low?

Stanley

 

[chuckspeed]

depends.

If you're looking for insurance replacement value - it's okay.

If you're expecting it to sell for that amount - probably not.

Got into this discussion on a '73 BMW R75/5 that I was selling. Street value was in the low 2's...Buyers felt the bike was worth $1800, sellers would put the price more at $2800. It sold for $2200. Meanwhile, there was this nut attempting to sell a similar bike for $5600 - on account of that's what it appraised for. He got angry with me (?) for bringing down the market value on HIS bike (!?)

Sheesh.

Truth is, the market sets the price - vehicles change hands when the buyer and seller come to an accord on price.

there's a nice gold GT with 39K miles on it a few miles from my house - the seller is asking $5500 - been asking $5500 for a long time now.

in the event of (aack!) theft or (gasp!) accident, the bill stack and appraisal are pretty hard to argue with. If the insurance co give you a hard time, then tell them to...replace the car.

exactly.

down to the last bolt.

They'll write you a check about two minutes later.

 

[Kristi]

Yup.. mine has a new coat of paint (albiet not in the original color) a perfect dash, a 5-spd getrag, all working elect's including the clock, headlights work perfectly, interior carpet and seats are new and it was appraised at 3300-3700. Didn't make me too happy.

 

[Travis]

Stanley,

$12,500 seems a bit on the low side to me. Have you talked with Charles? He really is the right person to see about this.

-Travis

 

[Kristi]

Is Charles aka "GoinManta" on here?