SPEAKER 04 : 0:10

This is Drive Radio, The Extra Mile, with your host, John Rush.

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Another episode of Drive Radio, The Extra Mile. And as I say each episode, thank you all for listening. I appreciate it greatly. And I get tips and questions even at times that fill this hour up. The last episode we did, we talked about, well, in the past, we’ve talked about buying cars, selling cars, everything in between, maintenance and so on. Last week, we talked about what you do with a lease at the end and what is a lease and does it work well or not work well well still staying on the theme of buying and selling cars in honor of the bear jackson auto auction which i will be at as you all hear this first episode play the replay of course i will be home by then but i will actually be at the bear jackson auto auction as this particular episode is playing on saturday and reality is classic cars lots of folks have interest in sometimes you end up with a classic car through an inheritance or you know things along those lines sometimes things are passed down and of course in some cases maybe you’ve just kept a car from uh days gone by your childhood even and i know that might sound funny but for some people they do now i’m going to sort of get into Number one, what qualifies as a classic car? And classic cars, just as I get started here, they can be a really, really great investment. And there’s folks out there that have made literally boatloads of money on buying and selling classic cars. I will also say that the opposite is true. And classic cars is a lot like… art or anything else that has some sort of value, especially sentimental value. And what I mean by that is there are trends in every market. In the classic car world, it’s no different. And the way those trends work is just like anything else, there is supply and there is demand. And if demand outstretches supply, prices go up. If on the same token supply outstretches demand, prices go down. And a lot of times people think when it comes to classic cars that they’re always going to go up and they’re always a great investment. And the reality is nothing could be farther from the truth. in some cases yes that is very true there was it happened to be not barrett-jackson but one of the other auctions i think it was mecum this last weekend there was a very rare 1962 ferrari it was a racing car and most people aren’t going to believe the prices thing brought with all of the auction uh all the auction house uh you know uh fees that it takes to actually sell the car and so on the car brought $38.5 million. Not $3.8 million, $38.5. So think about that $500,000 even. There’s a lot of cars out there that aren’t even close to being worth $500,000. This car brought $38.5 million when it was all said and done. I think it was $35 million. By the time you got all your other fees and everything on top of it, it ended up being… $38.5 million. So was that a good investment for whoever bought that car back in the day and acquired it and has probably changed hands? I didn’t see the history of the car, but it probably changed hands numerous times. And at the end of the day, did somebody make money on that car? Yes. Will somebody make money on that car again? No. Probably so. Now, there’s no guarantees there other than it’s a one-off, single-color production Ferrari that has history with racing and so on. Chances of it going down in value is probably slim to none. That’s one of those cars that there’s always enough people around that want that type of car, enough billionaires. Because think about that. You’re writing a check for $38.5 million. you’re worth most likely at least a billion dollars or close to it. Or you’ve just put a lot of money aside to go buy a car that you wanted to buy. Now, the person that bought this car, I believe, is a Ferrari collector, meaning they probably have very deep pockets and spending $38 million wasn’t a big deal. And off they go. My point is this. That’s a rarity. And the other thing to watch, and this is in my notes, but the other thing that you have to watch when it comes to auctions especially is just because a car at an auction brought X amount of money doesn’t mean that the car grandma has in her garage or the one that you might even have in your garage are going to do the same thing. It just doesn’t work that way. Now, sometimes it does, and sometimes you’re sitting on literally a quote-unquote pot of gold. generally speaking for most people though it’s sort of like winning the lottery it doesn’t come along that often in those particular circumstances of what i just said you know don’t happen that often and and in a lot of cases there are people out there that really do understand the buying the selling the collecting of classic cars they play the market well They get rid of cars when they should. They acquire cars when they should. By the way, much like real estate, not everything goes way up in value. They can stabilize and even flatline and go down some even depending upon what you’re buying. But I thought, again, in honor of a lot of the wintertime, a lot of auctions happen just because it’s a good time to do that and You go to the warmer weather states to have them. The one I was talking about a minute ago is down in Florida. Barrett-Jackson happens to be in Scottsdale. So, of course, they put them in different sections of the country where things are warmer and people want to escape the cold. And they go down, they look at cars, and they sell cars, and they buy cars. And if you’ve never been to one of those types of auctions, just really quick as a side note, I’ll put a plug in for Barrett-Jackson because I’m going to be there as this is playing. It’s a lot of fun. If you’ve never been to one of these higher-end auto auctions, and I will say this, this is nothing against Mecham Auto Auctions, but I’ve been to both. And I will tell you that on a scale of 1 to 10, with Barrett-Jackson being an 11, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that, everything they do is absolutely to the T, top-notch. Everything from vendors to displays to the cars themselves to the people that are there, it’s top-notch. Now, not saying that Mecham is bad, but on a scale of 1 to 10, it’s about a 6. And I’ve had friends that have gone with me, so I’m not exaggerating in what I’m saying. There’s that level of difference between one auction versus the other. Nothing against Mecham and the guys there. They’re great people. And I’ve known some of those folks that have run those auctions as well. But it just isn’t the same, especially in Scottsdale, where Barrett-Jackson owns the entire facilities and they’re not renting anything and it’s their headquarters and so on. Yeah, they’ve got the thing dialed in. Just the people watching alone and watching who’s bidding on cars, especially these really high-end, you know, $500,000-plus cars. It is fun to just sit there and be in the room and watch these guys literally, you know, throw money around like it’s, you know, Luke and I. Luke Cashin is my engineer today. It’s like Luke and I buying a Coke. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. I mean, some of these guys literally are throwing money around that Luke and I would go spend lunch on, and I’m not exaggerating. In the comparison to how much money they have versus us going and buying lunch, it’s really not much different. I mean, some of these guys can spend a boatload of money on a car, and it’s a rounding error in some cases as to what they have going on, and I’m not exaggerating. So the point being, are the auctions fun? Yes. If you ever have an opportunity to attend one and you can work it out into your schedule, if you’re somebody that doesn’t even like cars, but you’re just intrigued by all of what I’m talking about, it’s worth going. I mean, you have to realize that in a lot of these auctions, Barrett-Jackson included, a lot of these guys are being flown in, the high-end buyers, they’re being flown in either by their own private jet or Barrett-Jackson has booked a private charter to get them into the auction because they want them there to spend their money. And it is a whole nother level of wealth. And yet when you look at these guys, if you were to rub elbows with them walking around the auction, you wouldn’t know them from anyone else. They look just the same as everybody else does. So to me, it’s fascinating just to look at some of the buyers. And when you start realizing who some of these people are and you start even recognizing faces and names, it’s pretty intriguing. But going back to… Let’s start with this. What qualifies as a classic car? Well, believe it or not, and I’m 61 years of age, so I grew up in really the late 70s, early 80s and on, and watched a lot of different cars, classic and so on. And keep in mind, when I was a kid, Cars in the 60s were considered a classic, and I’m not exaggerating. In the late 70s, early 80s, a car in the 60s was a classic. Even an early 70s car at that point was a classic. So in today’s world, it’s a little different because we’re in year 2026 now. And I will tell you straight up, you can go look at a 2000, so a car that’s 26 years old. And would I consider a 2000 of anything a classic? Not really. Sorry, not really. Now, there might be some cars in that era that if you really looked hard and determined, you know, how many cars were built and is there a market for that particular car? And for example, there’s going to be some exotic type cars where that might fit the bill. But you look at the overall numbers of cars that were built in the year 2000 and the types of cars that were built. Are they classics? No, they’re just old cars. they’re not really considered classic. So that kind of begs the question then, okay, so what qualifies a car as a classic car? It’s not just age. I think that’s where a lot of folks get sort of upside down in their determination of what a classic car is because, again, it’s not just age. Lots of factors come into what makes that car unique and quote-unquote classic. Now, you can have a newer car, by the way, that still has great appreciation, and that comes down to how many were built, who own the car, and by the way, that’s really key with a lot of cars in general, is who own the car, what’s the history of the car. Cars like art can carry history. And if somebody like Elvis Presley, for example, owned a particular car, or they auctioned off a car of Donald Trump’s a couple of years ago at Barrett-Jackson. Okay, if you’re somebody of that status, that stature, I should say, and you’ve owned a car for X amount of time and it’s proven that you own the car, does the value of the car increase? Of course it does. Because a well-known figure owned the car. That’s different than John Rush owning the car. No offense, me owning a car means nothing to the majority of people. Who cares? Okay, so John owned it. Who cares? I mean, John might be a great guy. He might have taken really great care of the car. In fact, he may have taken better care of the car than some celebrity did. But at the end of the day, no one cares. Because I’m a nobody compared to a Brad Pitt or a Steve McQueen or somebody along those lines. I mention both of those, by the way, because Brad Pitt’s like the modern Steve McQueen. So that’s why I use those two as comparisons. And yes, if somebody like that owns a vehicle, the value of the car increases. So lots of things when it comes to buying a car. Now, the one thing, and this is in my notes. And by the way, there’s a difference between classic cars, muscle cars, vintage cars, and collector slash limited production cars. That’s kind of where I was going with that a moment ago. You can have a very new car, very limited production, and have it still keep its value very well because it’s a limited run car. Now, that’s where it gets a little bit dicey on newer cars is, okay, what does limited run mean? Is that 500 units? Is that 150 units? Is that 50 units? Is that 5,000 units? I mean, what does that mean? And quite frankly, no one knows the answer to that at the time of production. Now, if you’re in the 100 or less, chances are that’s going to be a car that has collector value to it. even 50 or less same situation 5 000 it’s dicey 5 000 it’s a low number for production cars but still 5 000 produced so this is one of those things where it’s always a little bit of a gamble especially on a new car trying to determine is this car going to retain its value and be some sort of a collector piece you know limited production you know collector piece or is this just going to be like every other car And that’s where it gets a little bit dicey. So, yes, there is a difference between classic cars, muscle cars, and vintage cars. And where I’m going with this is even some of the muscle cars, depending upon the car, they’ve lost a little bit of their flair. They’re not bringing the money they were even a couple of years ago. So that world changes just like any other collectible world does. It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking art, watches, you know, chandeliers, jewelry, anything like that. It can change, again, going back to the whole supply and demand. So let me give you an example. For the longest time, early Fords, you know, 32 Fords, even Model As, 34 Fords, 36, 37 Fords were worth really good money. And there was a lot of reproduction units. You take a 32 Ford, you know, highway roadster, for example, or even a three window, five window. A lot of those cars produced. In fact, it’s very well known that there’s more 32 Fords today on the road than Henry Ford ever produced. Reason for that is because of all of the replicas that have come out since, all the fiberglass bodies, the steel bodies, and so on, all the frames that are produced. The reality is there’s far more of those cars in existence than he ever made. In fact, I got in a big argument one day on Drive Radio because I had a listener that didn’t believe my statement. But if you go look it up and even use AI or Google what I just said, it’s a very well-known fact that there’s more of those cars out there on the road than he produced. Okay, and here’s the caveat to that. at one time those were really high-end sought-after cars i had a car here recently that i just traded off 32 ford high boy i had all of the documentation of the build and i can tell you from looking at the quality of the car and a good friend of mine now owns it but i will tell you the quality of the build is second to none i mean everything down to The pinstriping and the frame and the powder coating and the way everything was assembled and the hiding of wiring and so on. I mean, just a very, very, very nice build. And again, I had an entire catalog of all of the steps in the build process that I guarantee you, and this car is a little bit older, but I guarantee you, even at that time, somebody spent over $100,000 building this car. Easily. The paint alone was $25,000, $30,000 just by itself. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. And yet, that car today probably has a value somewhere in the 45K range. 45, maybe 50 tops, but in that 40 to 50K range. You can buy 32 Fords, nice ones, high-end build, nice cars all day long for that price range I just mentioned. You can buy some cars that weren’t really a high-end build, but they’re still a good, solid, drivable, go-to-a-car-show-with-it type of a car, you know, drivable car in that same era. You can buy for $25,000 to $30,000, and I’m not exaggerating. That at one time would bring $75,000 or more. So point is, those early Fords have really slowed down in value, and here’s why. And you guys all know my story, and my dad was a great car guy collector. My uncle is. He’s still alive. My dad has passed away here recently just towards the end of last year. And here’s the reality. As guys like my dad and even my uncle start to move away from those cars or they’re just not here any longer like my dad, there’s less and less buyers of that car. And yet, here’s the thing. The cars don’t die. The people do. The buyers of the cars do. But remember, the car itself never dies. I mean, unless that car gets wrecked, totaled, stolen, crushed, something along those lines, that car is still in existence. It’s not going anywhere. But yet the owners are. And I think it’s something in the classic world at times we tend to forget. We as owners age. I’m aging. Luke’s aging. I mean, Luke’s much younger than me, but someday Luke will be my age. I’ll be dead and gone by then. And the reality is the type of cars that I would buy and own are not going to be the same type of cars that Luke wants to buy and own. Meaning that as I age out, some of the cars that even I enjoy and like will not have the same value unless it’s some really spectacular, special, you know, one-off piece like this Ferrari I was talking about earlier. But any other general collector type car, as I age out… those cars don’t necessarily quote unquote age out and go away this is the problem they still exist if for example and i i don’t want to sound you know weird here but this is this is how it works if every time an owner of one of those cars passed away the car got crushed now you’d have a higher value on all those cars because there’d be less of them in existence But the reality is because it’s a hard, tangible asset that has literally a forever life. Think about it. Unless it’s destroyed some way, somehow, it’s going to way outlast its owner. In fact, in some cases, it’s probably had several owners in its lifetime. car has outlasted the owners meaning that number of cars let’s say for example there’s you know in the case of a 32 early 32 ford you know is there an easy 500 000 of those units out there probably might even be more than that there might be a million of those cars out there for all i know reality is there still is just because a million owners died doesn’t mean a million cars did What happens is the owners aren’t there any longer, meaning the interest isn’t there like it once was. But guess what? The cars still are. Now, here’s the plus side to all of this. If you’re somebody, especially somebody like Luke, where, you know what, you want to get into hot rodding, and you want to go out to some of the car shows and rod runs and so on and have a lot of fun, guess what? You can buy an early Ford today at a very reasonable price. In fact, there’s cars out there that are in the low 20s. That you literally, you couldn’t go find another car for the same price and have the same amount of fun with as you could some of those. So I think as some people like Luke and my kids start realizing, well, wait a minute, I could go buy that car for that kind of money and still go have a ton of fun with it. And it’s a pretty inexpensive car to own. And I can even work on the car myself and so on. OK, at the end of the day, if that’s the case, OK, they might start coming back up in value a little bit as other people start figuring out that, hey, this is a car I can own and enjoy and have a lot of fun with. Until then, though, those cars are going to continue to go down in value, not up in value, down in value. Because, again, I go back to the whole how many buyers are there and how much supply is there. And quite frankly, even my age group, I’m 61. I owned a 32 Ford Highboy for a while. Will I ever own another one? Maybe. It’s a fun car, but I’ll be quite honest with you. They’re not daily drivers. It’s a car that you are going to fiddle around with and work on, and they’re rough riding, and you drive that car. You don’t steer that car. For me personally, I’m just going to say it straight up. I’d rather go hop in my ZL1 Camaro or my Z06 Corvette. Fast, smooth, hit the button, starts every time. I’m not dinking with anything and off we go. And by the way, they’re fast, fun cars to own and drive. So as people like myself, start losing interest in certain eras of cars and the fact that even the folks that are 20, 25 years older than me are starting to not just age out, they’re passing away. My dad’s age group, I’m 61. 25 years means you’re 86 years old. The average lifespan of Americans is less than that. So the reality is when you get up into those 80s, let’s face it, your days are numbered. In my case, I’ve got a 20, 25-year life left. Now, you think about it and you’re like, geez, that’s not very much. No, it’s not. And time goes by. And it kind of goes back to even if you want to own a car and have a lot of fun with a car and you’re getting to that age, well, then go do it. You know, go have fun. And that’s the point of this whole show is if that’s something you’re interested in and you can have a lot of fun with it, well, then by all means, go and do so. All right. I got a lot more tips and tricks when it comes to buying and selling of classic cars. I’m going to get into even sometimes if you inherit a car, you know, what you need to do along those lines. So we’ll be right back, though. Don’t go anywhere. This is Drive Radio, the extra mile right here on KLZ 560.

SPEAKER 02 : 21:21

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SPEAKER 04 : 22:46

This program was recorded earlier for broadcast at this time. No phone calls can be accepted.

SPEAKER 05 : 23:03

All right, welcome back. KLZ 560, Drive Radio, The Extra Mile, talking about classic cars, buying, selling, and so on. Now, when it comes to that whole end of things, and I want to put a plug in here for BP Appraisals, Burke Payne, great guy, on our website. Just find him listed, BP Appraisals. If you ever have a question on what your current car is worth or what a potential purchase of a car might be worth, Burke is your person, and I mean that sincerely. He can give you a full analysis of what that car is worth. And by the way, again, that’s if you own a car or you’re looking to buy a car or one step further is looking to sell a car. And what I mean by that, you’re inheriting something. Let’s just say, because in today’s world, I kind of know some of these cars that are floating around. You inherit a, I don’t know, 57 Chevy or a 66 Impala or whatever. And you’re trying to figure out what’s the value of said car. Bert can tell you that. He can come out, take a bunch of pictures. He’s got all the resources to know what have some of these cars sold for recently. Because, by the way, what a car is worth is much like appraising real estate. It’s not what’s listed for sale. It’s what have cars sold for. Because that’s the real value. Because the old saying of what’s it worth? What someone will pay for it. True with any item on the planet. What is something worth? What someone will pay for it. That’s its value at the end of the day. In the case of this Ferrari, 1962 special edition, racing, blah, blah, blah. What was it worth? Well, $38.5 million. Somebody’s willing to pay that. So that’s the value of that car. So, again, where I really caution people is they’ll say, well, my grandfather or my aunt or my grandmother or my whatever, they’ve got this quote-unquote car that’s in the garage that I know someday is going to be worth X amount of money. Well, not so fast. Maybe, maybe not. I have an accountant, my accountant, he’s a guy that, he’s really a funny guy. And every time I ask him a question, he’ll come back to and point to a box of depends. Because guess what? It depends on lots of factors as to what certain things are worth at the end of the day. So here’s the other thing too, and I didn’t get into this yet. And it is in my notes. A classic car is worth exactly what someone’s willing to pay. Today, that’s what that car is worth. One of the things, too, that you’ve got to look at when it comes to cars and how they’re built and so on, especially if you’re not a car person, is how is the build done? In other words, you’re looking at a classic car. We’ll take a car that I would really love to own, a 70 Chevelle or a 69 Z20. I would love to own either one of those cars. Still worth a lot of money in today’s world. They haven’t really leveled off. They’re a very valuable car because there’s not a lot of them out there, and there’s still a high demand for those cars. Now, here’s where it gets interesting, though. And you hear a lot of this through sources and so on. Is it a numbers matching car? So let me explain really quick what numbers matching is, because a lot of folks don’t understand what that meaning is. And in some cases, it’s really hard to determine, is this car really a numbers matching car? Because there was a time, those late 60s, early 70s, whereby the manufacturers didn’t do a super great job of telling you what was on this car to begin with now there’s name plates and and build plates and so on where you can usually go back through and trace things but even then it’s not a hundred percent accurate as to how that car was built and made even down to the color of the car so numbers matching means Everything on the car is as it was originally, including the numbers on the block, the heads that are on it, the intake manifold, the carburetor, the camshaft. I mean, on down the line we go. Transmission and so on. Is all of that the way it was when that car rolled off the assembly line? Because if it is… It’s typically worth more money, especially when it comes to Corvettes and Camaros and Chevelles and Mustangs and so on. Even on the Chrysler side of things with the Hemi Kudas and so on. Is everything the way it was originally when it came off of the assembly line? And if the answer is yes, then the value is increased. This is where a lot of people get misled as well. You can have a car that’s numbers matching that you maybe – we call these barn finds. So you find a barn find, and it’s all numbers matching. Everything on it is original, transmission, engine, everything, color. It’s not been painted. Everything is original. But you look at the paint, and it’s like, man – It’s a little wary. It’s been sitting in a barn. It maybe has had bird poop and all sorts of other stuff on it over all these years, and yeah, we can get it out and get a really good cleanup on it and so on, but man, you can tell it’s weathered. Leave it alone. Don’t paint the car. And I know I’m going against the grain of what some people would think, but at the end of the day, you’re not increasing its value by painting it. In fact, unless you do what they call a complete… You know, body-off-frame rotisserie build, where you literally take every nut and bolt apart from the car and restore it correctly, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. I’m talking hundreds, not 100. A couple hundred thousand dollars to do. It’s not worth doing. In fact, in a lot of cases, you’ll end up with more money in the car than the car is worth even doing what I just said. There’s a few exceptions to that. You take like a COPO Camaro where you can go through and do the things that I’m talking about. You might increase its value by doing that. But even then, there’s a lot of cars whereby you’re diminishing its value by messing with it, by touching it, paint-wise especially. Meaning, you could probably go through, do some interior work, do some cleanup work, make sure the engine and transmission and everything is solid. That’s fine. Nobody’s going to nick you for doing anything along those lines. But the paint and body work, even if it’s got maybe a teeny bit of rust here and there, but it’s all original and the paint’s original and so on, you can see what it was like in 1969, for example. Here’s the thing. Leave it alone. you’re better off not touching the car and that’s hard for a lot of folks including myself because i want something that looks pristine i don’t want something that looks like half the paint’s gone for me that’s that’s a tough pill to swallow but when it comes to the value of the car You’re better off leaving it alone. And this is where, again, somebody like a Burke Payne from BP Appraisals can come alongside you and say, if you do this to the car, here’s what you’re doing to its value. You’re either increasing it or you’re decreasing it. And he can tell you, Burke can specifically, whether that’s a car you should mess with or not. Now, there’s a lot of fakes. In the marketplace. And this is where you really have to be buyer beware when it comes to buying classic cars. And I’ll see some of these cars at Barrett-Jackson. Now, at Barrett-Jackson, they won’t try to hide anything. They’ll tell you, this is a clone car, for example. This is a car that wasn’t original. It’s not numbers matching. It might be a really, really, really nice build, but it’s not a numbers matching car. Now, I’ll tell you this. You can buy, we’ll use the Camaro for an example, the 69, 68, 69 Camaro. You can buy a 68, 69 Camaro that, by the way, has been modernized, might have an LS engine in it, might have a better automatic transmission in it, better suspension, etc. And you know what, when it’s all said and done, probably a better car. Probably a more fun car to drive than what it was originally. But here’s the caveat, not worth the same. Not worth the same. Drivable car, fun car to own, fun car to go places in. In fact, paint, everything might have been completely redone. It could be an extremely, extremely nice car. But it’ll never bring what that original numbers matching, you know, Z28, big block, you know, whatever the case may be. It’s never going to bring that kind of money. Or, you know, an LS Chevelle, for example. They’ll never bring that same money because they’re not an original car. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad car to own. You just have to know… with that car here’s the caveats of and you’re limited on its upside when it’s all said and done so again this is one of those things where you really have to understand the car market and if you don’t learn it and i mean that sincerely i can’t tell you how many people that i’ve met over the years that have gotten upside down in classic you know muscle type cars Because somebody told them something that they believed, and they bought it, and then at the end of the day realized that, oh, wait a minute, I got scammed. I bought something that I thought had a lot more intrinsic value than what it actually does. Now, one other thing when it comes to buying classic cars. And this is so important, even for somebody like me. Now, I’m not an emotional buyer. I’m just not. I tried to buy a car, for example, at Mecham last spring. It was a 69, all original 69 big block Chevelle. Nice car. Very similar to the Buick that I have. I have a 68 Buick Grand Sport, and this car was like its clone in Chevrolet versus Buick, and partly why I was looking at the car. Now, what I do is, in this particular case, I put a top end of what I was willing to pay for the car. I’m only going to pay X amount of money for that car. In my case, in this particular vehicle, I was at $55,000. I wasn’t going to pay more than $55,000. Now, come to find out, the guy had a reserve of $70,000 And that’s what the one auction guy finally told me. His reserve was 70. I wasn’t going to pay 70 grand. Because it wasn’t 70. Because 70 plus 10% in this case means it’s 77. I’m not paying that. And even though I wanted the car, even though I would have loved to have had the car, I’m not an emotional buyer. I’m a factual buyer. So even at an auction, the thing that happens at auctions by the time is you get into a contest with somebody else, you want the car more than them, and that’s how the price goes up. That’s what auctions do purposely, by the way. They try to get two people or more to go against one another, and we men are great at this. We don’t want to be outdone by the next one. So you keep bidding up and up and up to where you win. It’s almost a contest then as to who can win. I don’t play that game. I don’t care. I look at more of the value of the car. What do I think the car is actually worth? Will I be in that car for the right money, not being upside down, knowing if something happened, can I get my money back? That’s how I view all cars. If I can’t be ahead outside of my daily drivers, which are always depreciating, that’s a conversation we’ve had in the past. But when it comes to classic cars, if I can’t always get out of it what I’ve got in it, I don’t want to own the car. And if any given time I feel like the value of that car is diminishing, then I’m going the other direction. I’m getting rid of that car. I’m selling that car. And I don’t do that very often. But if I feel like there’s a particular car make model that is starting to go down, it’s in my notes even, this is the reality check of what’s going on in the marketplace. If at any given time, like a piece of property, like a piece of art, like anything, if I feel like that car is somehow diminishing in value, then I’m getting away from that car. I’m not going to own that car. And again, I look at it like I do anything else. And some of you out there listening to me know exactly what I’m talking about. It could be the same for livestock, horses, certain types of other assets that you own. If it’s time to get rid of it, then get rid of it. And what I mean by this is this is where it’s hard for a lot of people because the emotions come into play. I’m not emotional. Everything I have is for sale. Now, some would say, well, geez, John, my wife says this. I own my car that I had in high school. Long story. I’ve told it before on air, but I’ll tell it really quick. So I own that car through high school, bought it from my great aunt, drove it through high school, had it up until my last kid, Richard, who you hear on air periodically. You know, he had the car or sorry, he was coming along and I had the car. And, you know, I was raising a family. I needed down payment for the next house. I had other needs that were more important than owning that car. So I had a good friend of mine that wanted to buy the car, so I sold it. And some, I’m not exaggerating, some 20 years later, the opportunity came up to buy that car back through a course of events, and long story there that I’m not going to get into, but I had the opportunity to buy the car back after 20 years of not having it. And I did. And I was fortunate enough to be able to buy the car back that I had owned all the way through high school and even the early years of my kids. And I did. Now, was that an emotional purchase? Well, here’s the way I looked at it. I bought it back at the right price. I wasn’t upside down in the car. I was able to actually own the car. And I did the math on it. I actually bought the car back for less money than I would have spent owning it for 20 years. By the time you figure it in insurance. You know, carrying costs, maintenance. This person had painted the car and done a really nice job of it. I mean, at the end of the day, I ended up saving money in selling the car and buying it back than if I would have owned the car for 20 years. Now, is that emotional? I’m even to this day, if somebody wants to buy that car, I’ll sell it. I don’t care. It doesn’t bother me, one way, shape, form, or another. If the right person, now my wife is a little different and my uncle for sure, they’re both more of, you know, you need to keep that car. Guys, I’ll be straight up honest, I don’t care. It’s a 1968 Buick Grand Sport that I’m technically the second owner on. I’ve got all of the original, everything from when it was sold new because my family dealership sold it when it was new. So I have the original dealer plate, window sticker, all the paperwork, the whole nine yards. The car’s got 52,000 miles on it. Everything on the car is original other than paint, wheels and tires, which I have the original wheels and tires even. I mean, the car is as original as it gets. Would I sell it for the right price? Sure. Absolutely would. Now, to me, what’s the right price? If you want to buy it, let me know and we can have a discussion. But yes, would I sell that car? Sure, I would. Absolutely. Because again, everything I own is for sale. I don’t get emotional when it comes to buying cars. So that’s something that, by the way, I think is a rarity when it comes to classic cars, because in most cases, buying and selling cars becomes emotional. And where I’m going with this is don’t let it be emotional, because that’s not a good place to be. All right. I’m going to do this. I’m going to take a quick timeout. I’m going to come back, finish things up. I’ve got more things that I want to go through when it comes to classic cars, things to look for. And if you’re looking to buy and or sell a car, I’ll give you some tips on that as well. So hang tight. We’re going to be right back. This is Drive Radio, The Extra Mile. We’re talking classic cars, the ins and outs of right here on KLZ 560.

SPEAKER 02 : 38:33

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SPEAKER 05 : 40:17

All right, we are back. Drive Radio, The Extra Mile. And again, talking about classic cars, and I use the term classic cars because we could be talking about classic cars, cars that are just worth more money, investment-type cars, cars that you want to do something else with, a legacy-type car, and so on. And I’m going to get into some of the emotional things as well. I was talking about that a moment ago. Now, here’s where emotions, it’s okay. If you have a particular car, and I have one of these. So I have a car I’m going to keep. And I’m going to talk about the emotional side for me, because I did say a moment ago that everything I own is for sale, except one car. And for me, this is emotional because there’s a car that I have that my dad, my uncle, I helped with some of the build and so on. We built it in my shop. It’s a 34 Ford five window, and it’s not anything super fancy. It’s a car that they did to kind of be period correct for the type of car they were wanting to build. It’s got a flathead Ford in it. It’s a fun car. It’s not super fast, but it’s a fun car to get in and drive. Now, it’s a car that my sister and I both have decided we’re keeping. Why? Well, because it was my dad’s. It’s kind of one of the last pieces we have of him and my uncle. If something ever happens to my uncle, it’s a remembrance of those two. And the fact that I was involved in the building of it to a large extent, it has some sentiment to it. Now, I’m typically not a sentimental value guy, and I’ve always said everything I have is for sale, with that one exception. Because it’s sort of in my world, and I’m not exaggerating, I won’t cry here, but it’s the one piece of him that I still have. And so for me, it’s sentimental, and it’s a reason why I won’t sell that car. Everything else I have, and I’ve got some exotics, I’ve got regular cars, I’ve got trucks and so on, everything else I have is for sale minus that car. So you may own a car like I just said. Now, if you do, you’re not owning it for the investment. You’re not owning it for the resale because you probably won’t someday. Your heirs might actually deal with it at that time, but you’re owning it for much different reason than trying to make money on the car. And again, as I said a moment ago, that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. If that’s you and that’s what you want to do, then knock your socks off. Keep that car. Have fun with it. Do what you want to with it. And everything else I’ve talked about in this particular program doesn’t matter. Because you’re having fun with a car that has a lot of value to you, and it doesn’t matter what the value to everybody else is. Just remember… that you’re probably never going to get the value out of that car because it’s an emotional car, not a car that you bought to make money with. But as I said, that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you know going into it that that’s the reality of it, then you’re fine. Now, back to cars that you might be looking for. And for some of you, there’s always that dream car that you’re looking for. And some would say, well, how do you find these cars? Folks, it’s not easy. And I will tell you that probably not the auction, or it’s probably not at auction as to where you’re going to find your dream car. Now, in some cases, you can, because, you know, somebody bought this 1962 Ferrari and probably was a dream car to them. Now, that’s a rare situation, typically speaking. You’re better off finding your dream car by literally beating the bushes. And I mean that. You start asking around. You start looking around. You start looking on the Internet. You start doing as much as you possibly can in the search for that particular car that you really want and start finding it. You look at, you know, you go out in the middle of the country sometimes. And by the way, here’s something to get a good relationship with. there’s a particular car that you’re looking for and you know people that have ups routes or amazon routes or mail routes and they’re out in the rural areas learn who those people are get to know those people because guess what they see these things they get to see the garage door open at times they get to see the barn door open at times they know where some of these cars are by the way they might have little to no interest in said car but you might and what you need to know is where is the car They know where the car is. You don’t. And everything I’m telling you, by the way, I’ve known these individuals and I have found cars this way because these people see the cars, know the cars, and can tell you where they’re at. Because otherwise, keep in mind, they’re not on the open market. It’s not like these folks that are on these farms and in these particular places are listing the car for sale. Typically, by the time the heirs come along and the auction house comes along, then you might know about the car. But otherwise, it’s a barn find. So if you want to find a barn to find, that’s how you do it. Now, when it comes to those types of cars, and I know I’m tight on time. I’m going to try to get all this done in one particular hour, sort of like last week’s show that I didn’t think I’d have enough content for. The hour rolls by really, really fast. One of the things that really helps the vehicle value is documentation. So if you happen to find a car, the next thing is what documents are on it. Like I told you with the car I own from 1968, I have every piece of material on when the car was sold brand new. The invoice, the dealer. Back then they had a dealer plate that was used for a warranty, much like a metal credit card with numbers on it. I have that. I have the original window sticker. I have other documents that came with the car when the vehicle was purchased. Does that increase the value of the car? Yes, it does. The other thing that increases the value on my car especially is I’m basically the original owner. I mean, it’s been in the family, if you would. Yes, I sold it, but I bought it back. So essentially, it’s a one-family car. Does that add value? Sure, it does, especially in this case. It’s a 68 Buick Grand Sport 400. They didn’t make a lot of them in the first place. Now, is it worth what a Chevelle is? No, it doesn’t say Chevrolet, unfortunately. It’s a Buick. Now, some would say, well, John, it’s more rare. It should be worth more money. No, it comes back down to the buying and selling of. How many buyers are out there for it? There’s not as many Buick buyers as there are Chevrolet buyers. It’s that simple. And until that changes, that car will never be worth what a Chevelle is. It’s just the way it is. Now, is it still fun? Is it still fast? Does it still get the same looks and so on that a Chevelle would? Yes, but it’s not a Chevelle. My point, though, is that particular vehicle, because of the fact that I have all of its original documentation, does that make the car worth more money? And I’m trying to put dollars and cents to it. You know what? Maybe as much as, believe it or not, $2,500 to $5,000. Not $50,000, but does it add $2,500 to $5,000 to the price of the car by having all of that? Yeah, because here’s the thing. It’s provable the car’s never changed from when it was new. The 52,000 miles are original. The engine’s never been, the valve covers, I mean, nothing’s ever been a part on this particular vehicle that’s worth money in and of itself. And those are some of the things to look at when you’re looking at classic cars. Now, some would also say, you know, how do you buy these cars, John? You know what, believe it or not, They’re actually banks, and they’re people that sell classic cars. Worldwide Vintage Auto is one of them. They can fund the car purchase. Believe it or not, they have relationships with banks. And here’s what’s interesting on classic cars. They’ll do 10-year loans on classic cars all day long. Now, some would say, why would you ever want a 10-year loan? Well, it gets the cash flow down, gets the price, you know, gets your monthly payment down. Think about this. If you were to go out and buy a regular car right now, a 60-month loan on most new cars is $750 a month. And that’s on a $55,000 or so car. So if you bought a $55,000 classic car and did a 10-year note on it, it cuts your payment in half, basically. So you go from $750,000 to $375,000. Well, for a lot of people, $375,000 a month to buy that classic car and just budget that in for the next 10 years, a lot of folks will do that. And you can always pay the car off early. There’s never any issues there. But that’s why they do that. Because here’s the thing. They know it’s low risk on the classic car. You’re not driving it every day. The chance of it getting stolen is pretty slim. You’re going to baby that car. You’re probably going to improve the car. Nobody buys a classic car and neglects it. Rarely does that happen. So these guys in the financial institutions, they know that, wait a minute, we’ve got a really good customer. They’re going to make payments on that car. They don’t want that car repossessed. The chances of that car ever coming back to us are slim to none. We just want the interest. And they’ll get that in selling to those particular individuals. And typically, people that are buying those cars have good credit. Because they’ve established themselves in the community and in their life and so on. And no offense, they’re not 20 years old. They’re probably in their 50s and 60s. All the kids are grown and gone. Their burn rate is really low. Their house is probably paid for or close to it. And for them to go out and spend, you know, 70, 80 grand on a classic car and a 10-year payment, it’s easy for them. Shoot, their social security check probably covers that price of that car at that point. And these institutions know that. So I always get that question. Where do people find the money to buy these cars? In some cases, they don’t have the money. They have a little bit of money down, and they finance it. And most people don’t know you can finance a classic car, but here’s the reality. You can probably finance a classic car easier than your daily driver because of everything I just said. So some folks think, man, my dream car is always going to be out of reach. No, it probably is within reach because of some of the things I just mentioned. It really is because you have the opportunity to do some things that you wouldn’t have otherwise done because these financial institutions are there. Now, back to the whole what car do you buy? Folks, I could literally spend an entire three episodes of this show talking about what car to buy. And this is where if you don’t know cars, you really need help, a helper even, a Burke Payne or even somebody that will even go with you to look at. And I’ve done this before. I’ll go look at a classic car with somebody. And honestly, I’m not joking. There have been certain cars I have looked at that I didn’t even have to get out of the car to know this was not going to work. I could see the car in the driveway and from the end of the driveway looking at the car knowing, yeah, this isn’t going to work. This is a car that has just been hacked away. It’s been rode hard, put away wet, you know, all of that. It’s just not a car that anybody would want to own and literally can see that from 25 feet away. And then as you approach and even get closer and start looking at things intricately, it’s like, yeah, no, this is, yeah, run, run. You don’t want to spend any money on this car. It has more problems than it’s worth. This is not a car you want to own. Now, I’ve had the opposite, where I’ve went and looked at cars, and it’s like, yeah, okay, you know what? Has a few flaws here and there, but all in all, not a bad car. And if you can get the price to be correct when it’s all said and done, pretty decent car to look at. Now, one other thing that you probably would want to do when you’re buying a classic car, and these are relatively inexpensive. This is something you can do on your own. They make gauges to tell you how much Bondo or quote-unquote plastic is in the car if it’s been restored. Now, you can’t use this on Corvettes and so on because you need metal underneath, but you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of repairs have been done to the car and not a bad idea to have one of those to check certain areas where you know for sure they probably had repairs done. quarter panels with rust, underneath back windows, fenders, lower fenders, rocker panels, things like that. Not a bad idea to have one of those tools, and they’re relatively inexpensive now. So if you’re really wanting to buy a classic car and want to know what’s under the paint, because again, you can’t see what’s under the paint, not a bad idea to have one of those gauges to determine, do I have a quick flip and somebody put a bunch of Bondo in to actually make a car look really good that in two or three years, even parked in the garage, is going to start coming apart. Because it will. If the car is not fixed properly, it will start coming apart. It’ll crack. It’ll craze. The bondo will start to pop and so on. And those are some of the things you need to look at. Now, again, these are typically things that somebody with a little bit of an experience that comes alongside you can help you with in determining, is this a car that I should actually buy and own or not? And there are some folks out there that will do some, you know, you can call Worldwide Auto, for example, and say, hey, I’m looking to buy this car. If one of these cars comes in and you get a chance on, you know, because most of their cars are done on consignment, if you get a chance for one of these cars, it comes in and you need a buyer, guess what? Call me. As long as it meets X criteria, I’m willing to buy. Now, one thing where it also gets a little bit dicey is what else has been changed on the car? You know, paint, body, all that might be really great, but what running gear does it have? Does it run? Does it start and run? Is it drivable? Does it shift properly? Does it have any other issues when you go to get in the car? And if that’s the case, how do you fix those things? Because remember, one thing that gets a little bit difficult on classic cars is not all shops work on them. So if you’re not super handy, and you don’t know how to program that fuel injection that somebody added to that classic car, or you don’t know how to tune that carburetor, or you don’t know how to set the timing, or I keep going down the list, well, guess what? You’re now finding somebody that’ll do that work for you. And I’ll tell you right now, in this Denver Front Range area, and this is kind of true across the country, that’s a dying technician. There’s not a lot of guys out there, even like myself, that can even overhaul a carburetor. Or they can even set a carburetor. Or, by the way, it can set timing. There’s a lot of young kids that don’t even know what a timing light is because you don’t use one anymore. All that’s computerized and done differently. You don’t have a timing light like you once did. Most young technicians, if you asked them what a timing light is, they’d look at you funny like, what in the world does that thing do? That’s a strobe light. They would have no idea what that means. So one thing you have to think about when it comes to owning classic cars, and this is true for a lot of people that don’t think about this on the front side, how do I work on it? Do I have the ability to work on it? If I don’t, who is? On top of that, where am I going to store this car? Is it going to be inside? Is it going to be outside? Do I have enough room for it? Am I going to keep it covered? Is it in a heated garage? I mean, there’s all sorts of factors that come into play when it comes to owning classic cars. I read an article. One of you guys sent me this the other day, and it talked about these individuals out there that have large collections. What does it cost on an annual basis to keep this collection afloat? And I didn’t look to see what the total value of this collection was, but there was one collection I looked at that had a price tag of 300 grand a year to maintain. $300,000 to maintain his car collection. That means he’s staffing people, he’s got cost of parts and fluids and so on, and he’s got a large collection because it’s costing him that much every year just to keep it afloat. It’s sort of like owning a mega yacht. You know, buying the yacht’s easy. It’s the fuel, the maintenance, and everything else of that gets expensive. Buying it’s the easy part. Everything else becomes expensive. By the way, classic cars aren’t any different along those lines. As you start collecting these, well, guess what? You’re insuring them. Now, cost of insurance is less than a typical car. I get that, but you’re still having to pay and write the check to insure them. Tires go bad after a time. Tires don’t last forever. They’ve got a shelf life as well. Fluids have a shelf life. All of these things, you know, rubber gaskets and so on, all of those things have a shelf life. And unless you’re willing and or have the ability to work on those vehicles yourself, you’re going to pay somebody to do that for you. So bottom line, number one, you got to look at what’s the car and can I afford it? In other words, do I have the wherewithal to buy the quote unquote dream car that I’ve always wanted from my childhood? Number two, do you have the ability to work on that car? Do you have the ability to store that car? If a problem arises, who’s going to help you with all of that? Number three, what’s your budget? What comes into play with all of this? And are you buying it because of an investment or are you buying it because of the nostalgia and the fact that you just want to own that car because it’s a good memory from your childhood? And then lastly, you might inherit a car and you’re trying to make decisions. I get people to call Drive Radio on this all of the time. I’ve inherited such and such. What do I do next? And again, this is where a Burke Payne from BP Auto Appraisals can come into play. And he can tell you exactly what’s that car worth. Here’s what its upside is. Here’s what its downside is. And at the end of the day, we’ll tell you, is this really something worth purchasing or hanging on to? Or should you just, you know… Cut ties, let it lose, let your emotions, you know, kind of go by the wayside, and you go ahead and sell that car and move on. And you can always, by the way, and I get these questions all the time, you can always reach out. The text line is 307-200-8222. You can drop me an email as well. Pictures and all that are easier on the email side. It’s john, J-O-H-N, at drive-radio.com. This has been another episode, guys, of Drive Radio, The Extra Mile. Appreciate you all listening. Anything else you want me to talk about, please send me an email or text message, and I’ll work that in. This is Drive Radio, The Extra Mile, right here on KLZ 560.