65 Riviera

[lrlforfun]

OK Riviera People: I saw it and I don't know what to top think. At today's Jackson-Barret Palm Beach auction...... a dark blue with white custom interior 65 Riv GS, nicely equiped and looking, at least on TV, magnificent. The sale price? 49K plus auction fees, tax & license fees and possibly transportation fees.

The buyer of that car will have spent almost 60K after the dust settles. Are these things worth that much? Any comments about current market values of all the first-gen Rivs? Mitch

[pyntre]

Do a REALLY nice frame off resto on one of these cars and then add up the reciepts....Thats not to say they are worth any certain amount of money but the informed bidder / buyer that knows these cars and how much it takes to get it to that top bracket look probably also knows a deal when he sees it ! I am on my way to sizeable dollar resto and I already know I could never get my money out of it , but thats not my objective on this car. Its always been said ,and it is fact, that its way cheaper to buy a DONE car than it is to restore one yourself.

[JZRIV]

There have been many arguments over how much impact BJ has on prices of our cars. Take that same car and try to sell it outside of BJ and you might have some trouble getting $50k unless you are very creative and resourceful at marketing. BJ attracts some wealthy people who like the auction and the attention a BJ event brings. They don't care if they are paying a little more than market value or not because its a form of entertainment to them and its easy one stop shopping. Sometimes this can lead to artifical inflation of prices when selling using conventional advertising.

As pyntre mentioned a high quality restoration coupled with an appealing color combination done on what is arguabley the most popular and sought after Riv (65 GS) with matching LX code engine and drivetrain, $49k is not surprising. I didn't see the car but would hope for that money it was matching numbers.....but on BJ that doesn't always mean as much as we sometimes think.

When it comes to a special car like that and a wealthy buyer is looking, I think color combination can be the difference between getting top dollar and not even an offer.

I remember a local ROA member from Knox, PA had a dark blue 64 with beautiful white interior which he drove to several meets. It was a stunning combination and appealed to many people indicated by tons of attention it got. The older gentleman told me he had several offers to sell over the years and he finally caved and sold when he got what he called a crazy offer.

Back to the 65GS - Take that same car, remove the GS option package and the value would be less than half selling in the same venue.

I just looked at the pics.

Barrett-Jackson Auction Company - 1965 BUICK RIVIERA GS

It always amazes me at obvious deficiences of these big buck frame offs. Why would they go to all that expense but fail to purchase and install a horn bar on the wood wheel. When I see something like that, its a red flag that there may be other issues left unattended to.

Edited April 9, 2011 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[1965rivgs]

Surprised it didn`t bring more but hard to judge the car given the pics provided. I wouldn`t draw any conclusions regarding the non-GS cars. The muscle car aspect of the GS model draws much more attention and a significantly different buyer. Best to compare apples to apples when making value judgements,

Tom Mooney

[Guest Rob J]

Actually, I too, am surprised it didn't bring more.

This one hammered at 77k (if I remember correctly) a couple of years ago.

When I'm done with my car, with it's options and colors, I couldn't imagine selling it for less then 60k or so. Not that I plan on selling it, but sometimes you just never know.

[steelman]

OK Riviera People: I saw it and I don't know what to top think. At today's Jackson-Barret Palm Beach auction...... a dark blue with white custom interior 65 Riv GS, nicely equiped and looking, at least on TV, magnificent. The sale price? 49K plus auction fees, tax & license fees and possibly transportation fees.

Anybody know what color that car was? Was that blue a factory color? It looked black in the shadows and was a deep blue in the lights. Just what I have been looking for to put on my 63. Any help is appreciated.

[JZRIV]

Anybody know what color that car was? Was that blue a factory color? It looked black in the shadows and was a deep blue in the lights. Just what I have been looking for to put on my 63. Any help is appreciated.

Really hard to tell for sure by pics and TV with varying light conditions. I would say it is at least a reasonable possibility its the factory color.

Unless you contacted the owner, it would be speculation as to whether or not the factory paint mix ratio was used.

I have seen a few cars in the factory "Midnight Blue" color and it is pretty true to its name. Dark blue in shade/shadows but in the bright sun light there isn't any problem telling that its blue.

I see the color Midnight Blue was first offered in 65 on the Riv according to the color and trim info on the ROA website. This doesn't explain the dark blue 64 I spoke about. It was a 20,000 mile original car???

Edited April 11, 2011 by JZRIV (see edit history)

[Guest nickdaytona]

Really hard to tell for sure by pics and TV with varying light conditions. I would say it is at least a reasonable possibility its the factory color.

Unless you contacted the owner, it would be speculation as to whether or not the factory paint mix ratio was used.

I have seen a few cars in the factory "Midnight Blue" color and it is true to its name. Deeeeep dark blue in shade/shadows but in the bright sun light there isn't a problem telling that its dark blue.

I had a Chevelle painted with a BMW blue called "Carbon Schwartz" .

Unless the car was clean AND the sun was shining it was a black car.

Thinking of doing the Riv in this colour..

[Guest Rob J]

Speaking of BMW colors, the wife and I went to the BMW dealer this weekend and test drove a new 5 series. We are thinking of possibly getting one. We walked the lot and saw a 5 in Black Sapphire Metallic. That's a pretty sweet color. Black, but when the sun hits, it has a nice pearl look to it. I doubt I'd get one in that color, as long term black cars are a PITA to keep nice (been there), but I imagined that color on the Riv, and for a mildly driven classic, I think it would be a real nice color choice for a non factory color paint job.

[steelman]

Speaking of BMW colors, the wife and I went to the BMW dealer this weekend and test drove a new 5 series. We are thinking of possibly getting one. We walked the lot and saw a 5 in Black Sapphire Metallic. That's a pretty sweet color. Black, but when the sun hits, it has a nice pearl look to it. I doubt I'd get one in that color, as long term black cars are a PITA to keep nice (been there), but I imagined that color on the Riv, and for a mildly driven classic, I think it would be a real nice color choice for a non factory color paint job.

I have looked at the BMW Black Sapphire. Not quite enough metallic in it for my tastes. I agree that anything near black is a PITA, period, but I love the way it sets off the lines of the car. Mazda has a color called Stormy Blue that has better metallic, but isn't as dark as I would like. Maserati also has a blue that is close. I'll find it eventually.

[RivNut]

I painted my '85 Riviera a 2008 Ford color called Dark Blue Ink Metallic. It looks almost black until you get it in the correct light. The metallic is there but it's not overwhelming.

There's a picture of it posted on the "Show us your Riv" thread.

Ed

[dship]

Black Sapphire Metallic was the original name for paint code 28 on the early 90's Riviera. But, because folks got confused as to whether it was Black or Sapphire GM renamed it Midnight Blue Metallic. My 92 Riviera documentation lists both names.