B Jake Moran

Mr. Jones - Perhaps you are correct, but there are many references to the post war Studebaker small series pickup as the "Coupe Express". Studebaker introduced an all new truck - the R2 - in 1949 that was even more modern styled than the Chevy Advance Design. To my knowledge, the Coupe Express was more of a slogan than a name plate. A 1946 Studebaker advertisement touts: "With the war at an end, thousands of truck users will welcome this announcement that Studebaker is again producing commercial vehicles - with the popular Studebaker Coupe Express Pick-up in the vanguard." The Saturday Evening Post referenced the advertisement's full color painting of the half ton Coupe Express explaining " that Studebaker Coupe Express Pick-up you see above is a full-fledged teammate of 197,661 Studebaker military trucks that wrote brilliant new pages of transport history at the fighting fronts." So, Mr. Jones, M-5 was the model number, but it was a Coupe Express, borrowing heavily from the passenger line for the interior, which was very untruck like. We call that splitting hairs here in central Iowa.

Marketplace - 1960 Ford Edsel | Facebook Lots of photos of this car on the link. 1960 Edsel Ranger. Powered by a 223 Cubic Inch 6-Cylinder Econ-O-Six Engine. Automatic Transmission. Restored in Bronze Rose Paint with Tan Vinyl Bench Seat Interior. Very Original throughout. Maintaining a Factory appearance Inside and Out. Paint and Body are very nice. Interior is excellent, Seats perfect, Dash intact, Gauges clear and functional, Door Panels, Carpet and Headliner nice. Trunk finished in Factory appearance. Very sound Mechanically and can be driven without issue. Owned by current owner for the last 5 years and has been meticulously maintained during that span. All receipts for routine and scheduled maintenance have been logged and kept with the car. Two binders full of receipts. Not as rare as the last 2 door Edsel I posted but wow, the photos are eye candy. Not sure I care it's a 6 cylinder. And the interior is stunning. 5 weeks on facebook marketplace might mean it's a bit over-priced, but not sure how you can say it is. I would go eBay or an auction setting. I always thought the Edsel "crowd" and some other groups were tight knit and knew about the special ones and jumped on them when they came up for sale. But even these groups - Studebaker, Edsel, Lincoln, and so on - are aging out.

Do you think that is a factory paint job? Hood in back sitting a bit high.

Marketplace - 1976 Mercury Grand Marquis | Facebook 460/automatic I bought this because it was cool and was going to drive it daily… Well that never happened and now I could use the room in my shop.

That is kind of bumming me out. I don't have to go fast with the 47 Coupe Express, which is a neat truck featured in the last issue of Vintage Truck that I received. But wow 170 cid only?

Agreed - silver and lipstick red work for me too. I am not a white fan. I hope these sorts of sales are the start of a long pricing correction for "normal" cars like this one. I hope no one pays anywhere close to $14,000 for this car. I am not knocking the car, but these were made in the thousands, and despite it being a Fleetwood, which is fun to own compared to a SdV, it's still a large, thirsty 4 door sedan. Just think if these traded hands in the $6,000 to $7,000 range, how many more younger folks might join the AACA and CLC. But it's hard to explain to your wife that you want to fill half the garage, already smaller than 35-50 years ago, with a 1967 Cadillac, while you park the F150 in the driveway. It's just a different world.

As some of you know, I am looking for a project vehicle (yes, still looking) to restore with a young friend. Not many, but a couple of my saved vehicles are Flatheads. One is a 1947 Studebaker Coupe Express truck with a small flathead 6. That got me thinking about why Flatheads stuck around so long even when the trend was toward OHV engines, and OHV engines, especially at Buick, had been around so long. I have never worked on a Flathead. I have owned a few, but never opened them up. Should I avoid them since I have no experience rebuilding them? Packard had a Flathead through 1954. Kaiser used the Continental based 6 through 1955 Hudson through 1954. Ford through 1953.

Yet again we see the next generation can't wait until the body is cold in the ground to sell the family heirloom. My Grandmother left me a 1974 Olds Omega 6 cylinder.

Probably an SO, look for the staples in the VIN plate.

A very correct statement. There are some folks on here with a lot of money to spend on the hobby. I am not one of them. To me, if I could own one very cool low production car like this H&E Lincoln, or spend that $60,000 on a collection, it's a no brainer - collection. Why do we love a car? Usually it's the static style of it, others like the drive and how it transports a person back to a bygone era. All of that can be achieved without spending $60,000. I can think of a neat 4 car collection, or 3 car - with an average purchase price of $15,000 (4 cars) or $20,000 (3 cars) that would provide the same driving and ownership enjoyment as this one car. I am NOT denigrating this car the same as you are not. Except for a few Lincoln collectors with deep pockets, who are into preservation of special Lincolns specifically, this car has little interest.

Thank you Mr. Higgins for enlightening all of us with your insight. This is why the Not Mine forum is an asset. Based on your collection, this is clearly a favorite. I can appreciate that you find mentions of value rather insulting, but there are few folks who want to own one of these cars. I have been interested in LWB cars for some time, and despite an often low production number, there is a small market for them, and therefore value judgments are relevant, but kind of frustrating. I paid close attention to one aspect of your analysis - that was the discussion of correctness. Making a H&E 59-60 Lincoln absolutely correct seems almost impossible. Unless you, meaning you since you are the subject matter expert on these, perhaps with a small cadre of fellow Lincoln Club enthusiasts - have the restoration guide printed and available for prospective restorers or those who wish to maintain one of these, then an incorrect application of restoration BECOMES the correct method. I am sure you may disagree with that sentence, and I am not talking about a wild departure from what was there, but in your analysis you pointed out cars that are close, but not perfect. Even the discussed car is not ideal. You stated the Goldenrod Garage car was far from correct. To my untrained eye, it appeared to be quite a nice car and one which would give a potential owner the satisfaction derived from owning a 59-60 H&E Lincoln. Per your comments, perhaps paraphrased, a new roof covering is unobtainium and a person correctly restoring one would need to do a special process to get it correct. As mentioned, I love LWB cars and there is no market for restored cars. Not even close to what a restorer would spend. As to your comment here - My better car is a major project. If I gave it away for free with an endowment worth as much as they are asking for this car, it would still cost that much again to restore it and everybody would still bitch that the finished project is not worth what it cost to do it, yet if I proposed crushing it, I would be called a heretic. I find value in adopting the projects that I love and my motivations are not based upon the expectations of others. You are thus summarizing the hobby as it exists today, for all cars. My point that this is not a car that most older folks just retired would want - is not meant to criticize your choice or mine, but rather is a true statement about what we likely find a fault in the current state of the hobby. Of course, someone can say I am painting with a broad brush, but as with most of us, we have gone to the show n shines, car shows, even AACA events and seen restomods and muscle cars dominate the show fields. I have personally witnessed some rare cars get crushed, and yes most people say that person is a heretic. I have seen perfectly preserved projects sitting in western salvage yards that are now Toyotas, or new Fords. A person can not stop it. We have all expressed sadness at posts of salvage yards, especially in northern states, or hoarded collections of deteriorated hulks that can not be saved and said "shame on that person!" I just tend to disagree, and say if you own the car, you can do what you want, even crush it. I don't think you will. To summarize, I am glad folks have restored a few of these H&E cars. I would not be interested in knit picking them unless they are wildly off target. The asking sale price and the current non interest from most (not all) of the collector car market is relevant and at the same time - not relevant. I can't get any more ambiguous than that!

John, You may recall that Goldenrod Garage had one of these for sale for years I think at $21,000? It was nice too, but probably more like a 2 - car (Goldenrod Garage is no longer as the proprietor passed away). This car that is posted is more likely a $25,000 car and there are only a handful of potential buyers anywhere. Any salt and pepper haired potential owner with $50,000 is after speed and cache. Not a dowdy fifties formal sedan. Not showing up cruise night and waving at the others “hey come see what I just bought!”

You are correct, these are my favorite collector cars. Usually sellers have an inflated price not commensurate with market pricing. As for the 70s era 75 series, I would love a 74-76 75 series. I do not see any 75 series for sale on my Facebook feed so I am not sure how available they are.

Link is not working. The subject car remains for sale and I’m sure there has been little interest. Curious if there would be any serious interest if it was price adjusted or if there is simply no one with deep enough pockets to restore this car.

Why do they ask such a high starting price?

I have heard they are very complicated to adjust and practically use. Plus, parts are unobtainium.

Here is a quick look in my area: 1990 Red/Tan convertible with 68,000 miles, new top, $9,000 and unsold after 2 1/2 months. Marketplace - 1990 Buick Reatta · Leather | Facebook

Dave, I don't see the proof that Reatta convertibles with 100,000 miles are selling for $10,000 +. We all agree that 100,000 is not particularly low mileage in a Reatta convertible or coupe. My 1990 Driftwood convertible was purchased for $4,500 and failed to maintain that when sold on eBay for $3700, with 110,000 miles and a 4 inch binder of receipts and a new convertible top. I had a Red/Tan 1990 convertible that had 214,000 miles on it and the guy that purchased it drove it back to Texas from Iowa. But - in trying to entice a previous non owner of a Reatta convertible, as a start to an ownership relationship, 100,000 is a lot. It's not low mileage. Reattas require a lot of maintenance. The owners that do those maintenance and repairs generally take better care of their cars - witness this car and it's nice appearance. I no longer follow Reatta pricing trends, and Marck seldom comes on this forum to comment, but it would be nice to hear his opinion on pricing. The last I did look at Reattas, especially convertibles, pricing was well below $10,000 for cars with mileage from 60,000 to 95,000.

Love the car, hate that color. Think of this classy 3 box styled Park Avenue in Buick's very dark blue color, or that Cranberry red metallic, even black - but yellow is a deal breaker.

Thanks Steve - I probably won't get involved with long distance purchases. I believe this car was in New York. I am almost always a day late on these buys, and most folks nowadays don't want to hold cars for transport. I can't tell you how many deposits I have lost or even full payments on cars I could not get transported. Maybe $50,000. So I am not willing to take that risk. I am in central Iowa and generally look no more than 500 miles out and more like 250 miles max. At 250 miles, I can get a friend who has a truck and trailer to go get it, paying him and we go, pick up the car, get lunch and come home.

I was going to post, so I am glad you did. This is a "cousin" to the 1937 Buick Special I posted specifically in the Buick Buy-Sell section. Since we are not buying these older cars for practical transportation, my preference would be for a more symbolic body style of the era, the streamlined look of this Olds or the Buick, or an Airflow.

Posting deleted. This car was a Milestone level car, maybe even a CCCA classic. It just was not going to hang around at $6,000. I see total POS on facebook everyday that could not hold this car's proverbial jock strap.

These and most large size 2 doors are favorites of mine. John S in Penn prefers the 4 doors in these New Yorkers and I prefer the 2 door models.

Marketplace - 1977 Chrysler New Yorker | Facebook 1977 New Yorker Coupe, 23k original miles. brand new A/C compressor, receiver dryer and lines. Ice cold air. Drives great very reliable. Perfect interior ! 400 cu.in. Big Block . 23640 Miles

Marketplace - 1985 Buick Riviera | Facebook Someone may need this rare Suede Seats Riviera. I would hate to see this scrapped with these 68,000 miles seats. Upgrade your car. As for the actual Riviera, it may be too far gone and is in perhaps my most unfavorite color.