Classic cars or muscle cars are collectible items for many people and they carry a lot of worth. Usually these cars stay in the family and get passed down to the next generation but many people make the decision to sell their vehicle when they need funds or no longer have the room to store such a big collector’s item. Getting an honest and true auto appraisal for your classic car can be a step in the right direction to selling your classic car for a good coin.

When you obtain an auto appraisal for a classic car you are asking a third party to give the rundown of the vehicle. This includes all the good as well as the bad. It’s usually pretty hard for an owner to list all the intricate details of a classic vehicle because not only have they enjoyed their vehicle for many years but they also might not know what could be wrong under the hood or on the frame. A professional auto appraisal will include the shape the motor is in, the quality of the body work and what parts may need to be replaced. There are a lot of factors that go into how much a car is worth.

Seeking a professional auto appraisal will ensure that when you go to sell your vehicle you will receive every penny that it’s worth. A thorough description of a classic car will give potential buyers a clear picture of what they are purchasing and they’ll be more apt to pay a higher price.

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Having a full blown classic car inspection done, coupled with a certified car appraisal is where you should start if you’re serious about selling your muscle car or antique car in today’s on line market. Buyers typically expect that the one’s selling their own car will reveal the car in a very favorable fashion….to be expected. This process gets worse when you add in a broker that hasn’t really seen and studied the car. Most of those deals fall apart mid flight, due to lack of confidence on the buyers part. If they do end up selling, it’s for a lower dollar than they should have sold for, because smart buyers don’t overpay for a car they are not confident in. The key to success? Earn the buyer’s confidence. Not just through salesmanship, but through honest, accurate depiction. Having the car inspected by an outside, professional 3rd party inspection company will reveal the car’s strengths and weaknesses, and help both parties get down to the truth, which leads to a truthful and favorable outcome for both parties.  Our process includes jacking up the car and test driving it when possible, along with magnet test results, and in some cases video presentations, when personally conducted by the owner. Even if you have some computer skills, the management of a successful selling campaign on line can be a arduous process. Having the time to send out 100’s of photos, over and over to different prospective buyers, teaching them how to link to and or view videos, answer dozens of questions, and continually follow up  with people is what is required. You can utilize the reports and photos that Autoappraise.com will create for you on site to sell your car, or better yet, you can let us step up and handle the whole task for you. We have sold EVERY car that has been consigned to us, through our unique process of thorough accurate depiction. Don’t just take our word for it. Auto Appraise will put you in touch with the actual sellers of the cars we’ve consigned, so you can hear the stories of our success from them….which is really their success. Put the hard work and skills of certified auto appraiser  Jason Phillips to work for you. Please call us to discuss your unique situation. We offer discounted service for car collections. Auto Appraise Inc. is well reviewed in the Classic car field, so check out what our client’s are saying! Call us to discuss your needs. 800-301-3886, or 810-694-2008. M-F, 9am-7pm, Sat 10-2pm, EST.

Technorati Tags: auto appraisal, auto appraiser, buying a used car for sale, Classic car chat, classic car for sale, consignment, muscle car for sale

This 1964 Restored Belvedere 2-dr post  is for sale in Michigan. Inspected by certified classic auto appraiser Jason Phillips,  It’s a high end, very showable car. 440/bored472 C.I. engine, mated to a stock 4 speed, 8.75 rear 3:91 posi, which have all been fully rebuilt (receipts viewed). Resto pics show car stripped down to bare metal. Very clean, all steel original survivor body hand blocked straight and flat. Impressive, right down to  the rocker bottoms and jamb surfaces. Excellent magnetic adhesion all around exterior and underneath. Fully rebuilt suspension front and rear. Collision free, rot free underbody with no patch panels. Nicely restored period interior with great glass and trim all around. Very high quality rebuild/restore on a radio delete car. 17″ American racing wheels in rear, 15″ matched fronts, are like new, mated to Mickey Thompson ET street radials in rear, show virtually no wear. Upgrades away from factory (other than wheels) include the bored 440, MSD/billet distributor, disc brakes and gages. Rest of car looks bone stock.  In today’s dollars, it would cost well over $80,000 to do one up this nice out of a solid survivor body. Car rocks down the road, tracks and brakes nice with plenty of power and aggression in throttle. See videos posted on youtube.com of test drive and walk around. $1800 rebuild on factory 4 speed completed in July 2011. Rear end rebuild done in 2010, engine approximately 2000 miles ago. This owner has spent a lot of money to build a very nice car. We’re asking $45,000.00. 800-301-3886 or 810-691-2664. email cars@autoappraise.com. Request a well written, narrative report, along with over 300 photos completely detailing this car. Feel free to come yourself and drive it, or send your own KNOWLEDGEABLE Mopar inspector.

Update: Thanks for looking, we have sold this car.

Technorati Tags: 1964, auto appraisal, auto appraiser, Belvedere, classic car, for sale, Mopar

This 1963 Ford T-Bird is a wonderful survivor car. The owner, who recently passed purchased it in 07 for close to $50,000, according to the records.  It has excellent magnetic adhesion all around with visible factory spot welds present everywhere. It’s had one nice repaint in the original medium blue metallic. Paint underhood and inside trunk appears original.  All trim is still very presentable, some with varying grades of patina present, but all very acceptable on a 2-/3+ show-able driver car. The complicated top system has gone through the typical $3000.00+ rebuild of all the solenoids with a replacement canvas that is very nice. This top works flawlessly, see pics. You’ll see in the YouTube test drive linked below that the 390 c.i. engine runs very well and the tranny shifts nicely. The underbody and trunk remain very solid. No patch panels, no repairs, no rot. All is very solid underneath. It could use a good long day’s worth of steam cleaning and paint detailing to the underbody on a hoist, to really make the bottom stand out. All dye holes are clean and uniform on the frame rails, and the spot welds from the rail flanges to the pans are easily seen. It’s obviously a collision free body. Interior is a combo of mostly new vinyl components and carpet, mixed in with well survived original pieces. The whole car presents in a really nice fashion. The previous owner, spent a lot of time and money in upkeep, and it shows. Links are posted below to youtube videos of the car. Autoappraise.com conducted a 3 hour long inspection on this car. We have over 200 photos and a well written detailed narrative report that will soon be viewable on our blog, see link below. The best thing about the car….just get in and drive, it’s ready for summer without delay. We are asking $35,000. 800-301-3886 or 810-691-2664, or email cars@autoappraise.com. http://www.autoappraise.com

Technorati Tags: auto appraiser, classic car, Classic car chat, for sale

The current owner purchased this Corvette in the summer of 75, and it has remained in his garage ever since. It’s original code 74 Dark Red paint is still in very nice shape, and has had some cosmetic repaint work done to repair stone chips a few years back. The code 142 referred to by many as “Silver moon” interior still looks very nice and has survived well. This is rare interior color fior 1975, less than 1000 units of the 38,000+ came equipped this way. Mileage claim is supportable, based on how clean the date coded side glass is, firmness of window regulators, lack of substantial interior wear in driver’s compartment, as well as limited wear showing on pedal rubbers. Left seat bolster wear along with carpet wear are present, and acceptable for this level of mileage. The underbody is very solid, no frame damage or rot ever, easily seen because it has NOT been masked with undercoat.Cosmetic oxidation and surface rust are present, and could certainly clean up and detail out nicely if one so chooses.  Original bonding strips signify no past collision history.  The engine, transmission and rear end have all been verified as “number’s matching” by Jason Phillips, owner of Auto Appraise Inc. The car runs and shifts excellent, has recent tires and updated stainless calipers with newer pads. The stock A/C blows cool and all equipment is in good working order, right down to the ignition buzzer. Comes with original owner paperwork. You’re invited to come and see for yourself or send an appraiser. We have over 50 photos and a detailed narrative report that was written after a 3 hour long inspection and test drive were completed. Contact our office for a password to view report and more pics. http://www.autoappraise.com . e-mail us cars@autoappraise.com. 800-301-3886 Click on the link below to see a walk around video that’s about 2+ minutes long. We are asking $14,900.00.

UPDATE: Thanks for looking, we have sold this client’s car.

Technorati Tags: auto appraisals, auto appraiser, chevrolet, classic car, corvette, numbers matching

In this article, auto appraiser Jason Phillips breaks down the 1-6 “condition numbers” that often get assigned to determine a vehicle’s worth, and the general weakness of this approach in a real attempt to place a proper value.
The first question one should ask would be…”is the car untouched and all original”? From my past experience, it’s very rare when a buyer runs across this situation. This is the easiest situation to assign a single number to a car with equally aged components. Seller’s often unknowingly represent their cars this way, when in fact they have been partially or fully repainted, or modified in some amount they consider not worthy of mentioning. Sometimes, they’re not even aware of previous changes, due to purchasing the car in that condition. Other times alterations are “bolt-ons”, absent the original parts accompanying in the trunk. Sometimes a beautiful exterior re-paint has left the door/trunk jambs in single stage, unattended condition. Sometimes those new base/clear repaints get reacquainted with their old; patina soaked or pitted original bright work. One thing is for certain; other than an untouched, unaltered “barn find”, it’s very difficult to describe most cars with only ONE NUMBER!
After 21 years in the hobby/ workforce, I consider myself a veteran auto appraiser. Appraising and training others to appraise is my full time career. I say this not to establish bragging rights, (though my mother is very proud) but to help establish a foundation of where my opinion comes from. I’ve had the honor of creating an education from inspecting over 6,000 vehicles. Of those, I can count on two hands (O.K., maybe three) the number of actual untouched original vehicles viewed. While a multitude of these appraised cars were close to “bone stock originals” improved upon minimally, the vast majority had at least one exterior repaint, re-covered seats, replacement carpets coupled with some interior paint freshening and re-plated bumpers. The rest fell somewhere between frame up and frame off restored, excluding the “street rods” and “resto-mods”. On cars such as these, it is virtually IMPOSSIBLE to assign just one narrow, categorized number for valuing! To further complicate matters, consider the following; of those touting “frame off” restored, the quality of workmanship varied between that “at home” amateur father and son first project look, all the way up to “House of Kolors” over-restored dialed in to the max beauty look!
If my past experience as an auto appraiser has taught me anything, it really all comes down to this: most cars have a “split personality” regarding value. That is to say varying levels of new and aged improvements made on various components, and the quality level at which said improvements were tastefully executed plays a huge role in determining value. Ill-fitting poorly made Chinese reproduction parts are no substitute for true OEM components and or nicely restored original pieces. Stop signs and home heating duct do a sufficient job of patching holes in a trunk pan, but are not equal to a replacement trunk pan that’s been properly installed. New seat covers and carpet DO NOT equal a restored interior. Neither does spray canned black control arms and coil springs with new yellow shocks installed inside them equate to a rebuilt suspension. And NO, roofing tar does not make a sufficient frame repair, regardless of how smooth you may get it to look over the rust holes!
In summary, breaking down the car by each major section and assigning a number or grade is the way I come to a logical conclusion on placing value. Having a solid basis of knowledge on restoration costs, OEM parts expertise vs. aftermarket parts and their associated value, as well as a good eye for quality workmanship are the key factors you should apply when assessing values on your own. Just for grins, Try numbering your own classic car by section and see what you discover. If you end up with mostly #1’s and #2’s, well then……ask your best car buddy to do it for you again, JUST to be sure you’re not missing the mark or showing any subjective favoritism!

Technorati Tags: auto appraisals, auto appraiser, Classic car chat

It’s hard to believe, even as a certified auto appraiser that the brake rotors on my 1993 class A Winnebago reached over 450 degrees Fahrenheit on my families recent trip out to Yellowstone…but they did! Note the photo below of the digital temp gauge reading on the front rotor. It makes one wonder, at WHAT point does wheel bearing grease boil out of the bearings?

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Ordering an auto appraisal on line is almost as easy as ordering Chinese take out. So, how do you know who’s knowledgeable, versus somebody that’s just copied some good sales info to a website in an effort to take your money? How do you know if insurance underwriters respect their opinions? How do you know if banks will even accept their work? How do you know if they’re even real. Don’t be charmed by price alone. Although price is important, be enamored by knowledge. Read referral letters and testimonials. Contact by e-mail or phone any referrals that posted their contact information. If there is no path provided to contact the past customers, then you too should pass on choosing that company. Autoappraise.com has over 100 testimonials posted, each allowing personal contact through e-mail, and some have left telephone numbers. They have 265 inspectors and auto appraisers nationwide. They are staffed with knowledgeable and trustworthy people. Call them at 800-301-3886.

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As an auto appraiser I’ve been asked many times about the VIN stamp on 1969 Z-28’s. People see the engine assembly info on the motor stamp pad, but see no vin derivative next to it. Most of the vin numbers I’ve verified are on the stamp pad near the oil filter. Knowing which casting number your block has is a big help.

Technorati Tags: auto appraiser, classic car, muscle car