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What is this car worth, any ideas


Guest tdommer

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I recognize the car from some photos I've seen. It's been used by a company that provides antique cars for films. It's owned by someone in Wisconsin, I believe, and is supposed to be a 1930 Model Six-81 Sedan. The 6-81 takes you to 66 h.p. and 248.3 c.i.d. and longer fenders than the 6-80, but otherwise it's the same mechanically.

Since it's old, rare, low-production and one of the Three P's from the first third of the 20th century it's worth double what any Chevelle is, in my opinion. How much money it would cost if you wanted to buy it, fortunately, is probably less than that. The average person doesn't know much about Peerless cars or their relative rarity, though that could change. What if Catherine Zeta Jones or Julia Roberts were in films with a Peerless? Or race car drivers Barney Oldfield, Louis Chevrolet and Phil Hill drove them? Actually, they were and they did.

----Jeff

Edited by jeff_a (see edit history)
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Guest Jim_Edwards

Unless I'm mistaken the wheels on the car are not Peerless. If it should be a Peerless it is certainly the low end product as most passenger cars had dual side mount spares. The horns are not standard Peerless (aftermarket?).

Jim

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This car is registered with the Peerless Club as a 1930 6-81 and purchased by Ed Ledebuhr and restored in 1952. The horns were added but the wire wheels were a Peerless option and original. The engine is a Continental 6, 66 hp. 116 inch WB priced $1,595.00

when new. Ed died a few years ago and the car was sold to Robert Rosendahl in Menominie, Wis. This was the last of the Peerless 6 cylinder cars. The balance of production in 1930 was all Continental 8 cylinder engnes.

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Guest tdommer

Sorry for the delay in getting back to everyone, this car is for sale. It is an eight cylinder model. It is a 1930 Peerless and it is in Wisconsin it does run. I will post more pics shortly

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Guest tdommer

sorry these pics stink they were taken with a phone. Anyway the car is for sale and I am considering buying it. They are suggesting that this car is worth 80-90k. I thought I would ask you guys if this is way out of line. My wife and I really like this car and it is very clean. She is way cool about me spending money on things she also likes, the one advantage of marrying a surgeon. Its good that she likes cars and guns :)

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sorry these pics stink they were taken with a phone. Anyway the car is for sale and I am considering buying it. They are suggesting that this car is worth 80-90k. I thought I would ask you guys if this is way out of line. My wife and I really like this car and it is very clean. She is way cool about me spending money on things she also likes, the one advantage of marrying a surgeon. Its good that she likes cars and guns :)

Just WHO is suggesting that the car is worth 80-90k? I know it's a Peerless, but I would guess half of that at the very most. Am I nuts or do Peerless cars really bring that much for a sedan??

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I can't give a good answer to questions such as "Should I buy it?" and "How much is it worth?", generally. If you were in Pasadena and just tore down a wall and found one of the missing V-16 Peerless prototypes...I'd say sure, give them $90,000 cash...but that's another matter.

The people who decide how much various cars are worth, as I alluded to before, don't know an excessive amount about this make of automobile. You probably will not find a "value guide" that even has the word Peerless in it*. The collector car market, as I'm sure you know, is more determined by trends than objectivity. That's not all bad though. People will stampede after what's trendy and maybe not drive the prices up on what you want to buy. As a buyer, you will benefit from a car that's rare but not super-in-demand. Sometimes the estimates are way off: two years ago, a 1909 4-cylinder Peerless in #5 condition, which the Standard Catalog says is worth $4,800, brought $170,500.

I averaged the prices of 17 Peerlesses for sale 2005-2008 and came up with $19,700 (condition #3 to #6), but I had to delete some high-dollar (6-figure) cars to arrive at this number. Pre-1926 Peerlesses tend to bring a lot of money.

If receipts for restoration total $80-90K (if it's been recently restored, that is), maybe that's reasonable, considering that they might have spent years gathering rare parts, rebuilding the engine, etc.).

I like this Peerless, based on the photos you have sent, but I would guess this to be a sub-$50,000 car...but then I have not seen it or talked to an owner. I'm kind of curious what movie or commercial it might have been in. ***[uPDATE]The movie supposedly was called "Time Portal".***

I hope my words are of some help. ----Jeff

* One exception is the Standard Catalog of American Cars, VOL. I, 1805-1942. My 1996 edition figures suggest: Condition #1...$22,000/#2...$10,500/#3...$6,300/#4...$4,200/#5...$3,100 for a 1929 6-81 Deluxe Sedan. These prices look kind of low, but remember they are not current. They did reprint the book this year.

Edited by jeff_a
Do more editing than writing these days. (see edit history)
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  • 9 months later...

Please note these are my opinions only and I am no expert:

1. Not sure I like the bright blue paint on such a dignified make such as Peerless. Would prefer a dark green or blue.

2. $32,000 Buy It Now seems to be a drop from what the owners wanted 1-2 years ago ($80-90K)

3. Nice grille. Peerless' had nice grilles from 1930-32.

4. Take those modern buckets out PERMANENTLY. I think I focused in on them when I looked at the auction photos. They seem out of place. i would use the original bench in trying to sell.

5. As to value, it is a 6 cylinder car so I think $32,000 is optimistic and there is a small pool of potential buyers. There is OR BEST OFFER but I think this is more of a $22,000 car.

6. Body style is holding back some interest, perhaps, but teh 4 door sedan was Peerless bread and butter body style by the late 20's.

Just my thoughts as part of the conversation. I am not saying I know anything about value.

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Bryan,

Congratulations on finally getting that Prewar Buick. Big news! Sorry I wasn't able to tow it to Iowa on the westward leg of the 6,500-mile trip to Hershey I was contemplating. I have a funny feeling 1936 Buicks weigh more than 2,900 lbs. and would have maxed-out my truck's tow rating a little.

I tacked this mention of an auction listing onto this old thread just because I didn't know how to transfer the pics from e-bay permanently. I haven't any idea where the $80K-90K figure came from, but this was a year or two ago and may represent a conversation between two people unrelated to the current owner of the car.

Personally, the car's nicely detailed and is very presentable in the blue/black/red-wire-wheels combination. Whether the blue is one of the 10 official 1929 factory colors, like Ohio Blue and Obsidian Blue*, I don't know.

The, uh, modern temporary front seats don't do anything for me either. The ad said they're a way to have the car in a parade without scuffing the front seats. One could also have spent $120.00 on a Pendleton Chief Joseph blanket, thrown it over the original upholstery, and done the same thing. There's even a chrome-plated rail to store this robe on the rest of the time, on the back of the front seat assembly.

I have never understood dollar values on old cars but figure $32,000 isn't unreasonable compared to some of the money people are asking for other cars. Once I saw, in one of those TV auctions, someone pay double that for a Chevelle, so this figure isn't that high at all, in my opinion.

On the plus side and not mentioned in the ad is that the Peerless is said to be about the only documented 1930 Peerless 6-81. According to a Model 6-81 owner in Florida, about 2,900 6-81s were built, mostly between August, 1928 and August, 1929. According to one source, Peerless cars built after September 1st were considered 1930 models, even though, officially, Peerless was an all-straight-eight company by 1930. Another plus is that the car was used in the film business, according to a company that paid to use it in at least one film role -- a movie called "Time Portal".

*please see "COLORS OF PEERLESS CARS" thread

Edited by jeff_a
I'm "into" editing. (see edit history)
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  • 10 months later...

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