1912Staver

I really have to wonder about Ford's rationale . First they dropped nearly all the cars from their line . Gas has shot up to near European prices here in Western Canada , $1.70 / litre Canadian , about $4.80 U.S. / gal. And just Mustangs and trucks for sale. Not everyone has an expense account for fuel. Then they load up the vehicles with tons of built in tech. And how many years do you think will pass before all that "stuff" either does not work or is obsolete ? 24 month leases are a very expensive way to go. Many younger people don't have that sort of disposable income. Many older people don't want all that built in future E waste. Seems like a flawed marketing strategy. The way Uber treats its drivers I can't see that business model surviving long term either. Not everyone can operate a car for hire on minimal income forever. Greg in Canada

Were chrome wheels common on upper middle class cars like Auburn's when new ? Or are the something later owners have added ? They look a little too over the top. Same with the wide white's Very nice cars regardless . Greg in Canada

Your story sounds much like mine. Except that you had the money to buy a pretty expensive car in 2000. When you were close to 60. I am about 20 years younger than you. It's a certainty I won't be buying a car even close to the equivalent price to what you paid for the Buick when you were 60 ish. My generation has less prosperity than your generation had, and the younger yet generations are even further down the scale. I had a trade qualification, a 5 year technical education teaching degree, and a qualification as a marine engineering ships officer and I only made as much as my father with a high school only education made up until the last 5 years or so of my career. My generation got hammered in the 1980's just as we were starting out and never really made up the lost ground. Then hammered again during the 2007 recession. My fathers generation ; he was 84 when he passed away at Christmas, was effected to a much smaller degree by those two events. During the first he was already well established in his career. During the second he was already retired. I suspect you had a similar experience to my father. People in my age group are often squeezed by an ever rising cost of living combined with decades of stagnant wages. I don't attempt to speculate about your financial situation however my father had a slow steady rise in income over the vast majority of his earning years. Almost always at least a little more than inflation, and an almost unbroken slow ,steady upwardly mobile standard of living. My wife's story is identical. Vastly more qualified in her career than her parents. Masters degree in Health Care management vs high school. And practicing at a much higher level of skill and responsibility. Significantly less financialy successful than her parents. They are also in their early 80's. Greg

That was exactly the point I was trying to make earlier. People who don't have quite enough money might like the car. People with enough money are probably looking for a higher stature car than a 1939 Buick Special. Your buying habits line up exactly with mine Matt. Generally an opportunity buyer, every now and then a specific buyer. We may be more alike than you think. Greg

Your car has many fans who certainly don't want to throw it away. But money is a problem for many middle class people once they hit their 50's. The new society might not generally want a 1939 Buick. But lots of people age 50 and up still have up to 30 years left to enjoy cars like your Buick. They just don't have any or many earning years left. So hobby cars need to be in the modest price range for it to work for them. Kids education and retirement savings are first and foremost. Repeat, there are hundreds ; if not thousands ,of people who do not want to "throw it away". Greg

Downward mobility during our 50's and 60's for a number of us in the middle class is just as much a fact as upward mobility was in our 30's and 40's. You have a middle class car that mainly appeals to older middle class buyers. And your price needs to meet the ability to pay of your potential market in order to make a sale. So far your experience and frustration suggest there is a gap. Greg

Anything Darrin is of significant interest and quite highly valued. Kaiser Darrin's wouldn't be my first choice , but amongst Darrin cars they are possibly close to the cheapest. Its close competitor the Nash Healey would be my choice between the two. But that's just me. Greg

I have no real idea of what a very nice 4 dr convert is worth. Once a car is clearly beyond me price wise I for the most part tune them out. Very nice cars for someone with far more disposable income than I will ever have. Same with boats, pre -war motorcycles, airplanes etc. All things that at one time were possibly within my reach and I was very interested in however time priced me out of the market for all of those things. Now they are of a slight academic interest to me , nothing more. I was only stating what I observed someone was willing to pay, and suggesting that in todays market place that might be close to a realistic value. I am no expert on the realistic price of any car that I am not prepared to put up the cash for. I can only concretely make statements on cars I have actually purchased or been willing to purchase and been a little too late on. On ebay do you ever know who is bidding or why? It's your car, you can put whatever value you want on it. Greg

In the completed auction section of your cars listing it has been bid up as high as $33,400.00 and still not met the reserve. That tells potential buyers the reserve is probably at least $35,000 and possibly higher. $33,400 could be your cars realistic market value. Get the dealer out of the picture and shoot for that price on your own. If it is too much trouble to sell the car yourself do you have a knowledgeable friend that might help out ? Greg

Please don't get me wrong, I probably like pretty cars just as much as you do. But unless I settle on a 1962 Plymouth sedan I simply can't afford a pretty ones. I have been involved in a number of high quality restorations years ago before I switched careers and became a Marine Engineer. I enjoyed the process a lot, from initial documentation and research to final assembly and de- bugging. The only caveat is that someone with a much healthier wallet than I have was paying the bills. We all can like anything, but the crunch comes when we ask ourselves the all important , can I afford that ? Some will compromise on condition, some will compromise on what the actual machine is. A lucky few don't have to compromise at all. I am a machine guy { engineer } the pretty stuff is substantially less important to me. I virtually never show my cars, just drive them. These days even at shows I am as often as not more interested in the drivers than the really shiny , rarely driven ones. I can sometimes seriously contemplate owning the driver quality cars. The really shiny ones are no different to me than a beautiful work of art in a gallery ; very nice to look at, but it is never going to come home with me. Greg

Respectfully , no I wouldn't . I like scruffy " driver" quality cars. And I do all my own work. Nothing shiny , heavy patina is quite acceptable in my books. As long as the mechanics are up to snuff and it isn't so ratty I get hassled by the police that just the way I like them. People get underwater on lower end old cars treating them as if they were in the $50,000.00 and up range. Paint , brightwork , interior cost nearly as much on a $10,000.00 car as on a $40,000.00 car, but you will recover very little of that expense at sale time. My intention is to buy a scruffy one; make it mechanically to my satisfaction, and drive, drive , drive it. If I bought the nice one I would be hesitant to even use it except on one or two perfect weather days each year. And that would not serve my purpose in any way. Greg in Canada

Yes, the demographics of the boomers have always worked against me. In 1970 I was in Junior High with a paper route. About all I was buying were model Airplanes and even then only if they were on sale. Even when it was time to buy a house the boomer demand had pushed up prices much higher then several years previous. I know your problem almost exactly. You have a very nice example of a " average " desirability car. The people who want it can't afford it, the people who can afford it want the next step up in the old car world pecking order. I am in the same situation with the very limited production British car I am trying to lasso. 46 of them were exported to North America. The scruffy ones sell in my price range, except they are also in demand back in the UK so I keep getting beaten in my attempt to close a deal. Land logistics are more difficult for me than export logistics and by the time I have a plan for getting the darned thing home some one else has made their move. There is a very nice one close to home { very similar to your situation }. However the very nice one is twice as expensive as the scruffy ones I keep missing out on. No one wants the very nice one, it's been for sale for months. I can just afford a scruffy one, no possible way I can think about one for twice the money. The scruffy ones sell in a blink. You could probably sell 25 of them in a year. Anyone who can afford the very nice one wants a higher status car and doesn't even look at the very nice one. They are concentrating on finding a scruffy example of cars a notch or two higher on the scale. It's a funny world. Greg in Canada

I think there are many of us who think your car is very nice. But few of us are able to afford a car in your price range. I am more or less forever stuck in the $10,000 - $12, 000 price range, and I had a decent middle class job up to my retirement. In aggregate I have of course spent at least double the value of your car within the hobby. However that was spread out over the 40 + years I have been involved. At no single point did I have anywhere near that much money at my disposal, and I would never borrow that heavily on a want. And I suspect my situation is more common than many think. I have always looked at my car hobby spending as old car university tuition. Unfortunately just as I received my degree I had to retire. Yes, there are many people more affluent within the hobby. But I get the feeling they are after bigger fish than your Buick. I think you are probably in the unenviable situation of where most people attracted to your car simply can't afford it. Greg in Canada

It seems like you are having to wait far too long for machine work. I have rebuild a good many MG engines ; although none within the last 5 years , and have never waited more than 2 weeks for the machine work stage. As often as not, in Monday out Friday. They are not Aston Martin V8's after all, just a version of an Austin Cambridge plain as vanilla engine. Very rare for one to need line boring. also the crack story seems odd. The heads and less frequently cranks crack , but the blocks are tough old things. Quite overbuilt and under stressed. Greg in Canada, 44 years of MGA ownership

Do you really think young people are concerned if people old enough to be their parents approve of their hand held devices ? Either you get the social media thing or you don't , either you get the old car thing or you don't. There is absolutely no correlation between social media attitudes amongst the existing old car hobbyist's and the number of younger; social media savvy or otherwise, people becoming interested in the old car hobby. Most people who chose not to be social media involved really don't care if others are involved. Each can indulge in whatever turns their crank. I think that there are many ways to waste time, some don't even involve social media. It's a personal choice , nothing else. I don't think social media people are necessarily bad people. We all had things in our youth we later grew out of and even regretted as we gained wisdom and maturity. Greg in Canada

That's easy, 1969. Chevron B 16. What more would anyone need ? {apart from a nickel era stablemate}

Thankfully I am still in my early 1960's. As long as my health holds up; in another 10 years give or take, I might actually be able to afford one of the pre war cars I really like. And have several years to enjoy it if the cards come out my way. Being a decade younger than many pre war car people always meant I was a day late and several dollars short in the pre war car marketplace. As a consequence I ended up with several lost cause project cars over the years. At least I was able to learn a lot about pre war cars, the engineering and construction techniques of the various pre war era's. There may be light at the end of the tunnel; in a decade or so , about actually being able to afford one that can be driven! A Marmon 6 cyl. sure would be nice before the long nap. Or a Kissel or a nickel era Stutz. The possibility's are endless, even exciting. Greg

That does not seem to be the case in England and Europe. Greg

Once again, Youtube is probably technically social media. So I was wrong in stating I am social media free. And even if I watched a lot of YouTube how would that translate into "social media presence" ? One would have to be a frequent Youtube poster to benefit from your adoption program ? That sounds quite discriminatory, and even a bit elitist, not really the spirit of the AACA. If there is a AACA involved program such as you suggest should not all old car fans be possible participants ? Would younger social media stars be means tested ? Or would the program be limited only to young, social media savvy , disadvantaged potential old car hobbyist's. What about us middle age impecunious old car hobbyists ? is the AACA going to adopt an ageist policy ? Greg

This forum may well technically be " social media" however I suspect very few typical mainstream social media users would see it in that light. Greg

From what I have seen there are plenty of old car video's on YouTube and has been for some time. The drifting and Australian style burnout videos seem to be a lot more popular. Greg

You had me right up to the "solid social media presence " line. The world does not revolve around the facebook crowd, or the twitter twit's ! Leave social media for the fans of the Kardashian tribe, not old car's. Many mental health professional's identify youth's involvement with social media to have a harmful effect on a number of areas of younger peoples lives and emotional health. It is a leading contributing factor of social anxiety in younger people. If it takes that sort of "exposure" to spread the news to younger people then the future of the hobby is indeed bleak. I know it's modification of an old line however " Social media, a mile wide and an inch deep. Also , many cars would be quite popular at 1/2 the general market value, not just pre war cars. Greg in Canada,... a dedicated old car guy with 0.000 % social media involvement.

Yes, not surprising. I am sure there were several similar offerings by various makers. Most I have seen are Schrader , and I jumped to the conclusion yours was as well. Greg

These kits were marketed by Schrader , possibly as late as the 1960's. Not 100 % correct for a teens car, however a very practical solution. I bought my kit, N.O.S. at a swap meet {Portland ?} for a reasonable price. Greg in Canada

My 1918 McLaughlin is done the same way. Probably a reasonably standard technique in this era. Greg