Apprasied value of my 90 Reatta

[JWC]

Just had my Black 1990 Reatta with 63k miles and in VERY GOOD CONDITION appraised and it came in at $6250 I know they didn't make that many over the 4 years (I worked at the Reatta plant for 2 years) but I just don't think they are worth that much. They maybe some what rare, but not a lot of people care about that, unless you are a member on this site.

[Barney Eaton]

What years did you work at the Craft Centre? What did you do when you were there?

[JWC]

I worked on the pilot program and left around Aug. 1988 I pretty much made sure the workers were following the PAD documents, measured body gaps as the car went through the plant to locate problems and when needed designed kits for the tooling.

[KDirk]

Nice to hear from someone who was there! Personally, I'd love to have more of the back story on the Reatta and how it came to be. A decent amount is known, at least anecdotally, but would be great to have more of the details.

And regarding the valuations; well that issue has been beaten to death here multiple times with no consensus. I look at it this way: doesn't matter what anyone says it should be worth, only thing that counts is reality as it presently exists. And that reality is that the Reatta is a great but underappreciated car that can be had for a bargain.

The only people complaining are those who need/want to sell and cannot recover their investment in purchase price and cost of improvements made. Well, many cars/motorcycles/collectibles du jour are poor investments from a profit making standpoint. That has been the case for a long time, so no one should be surprised and yet many people complain to no end about loosing money (or rather not gaining anticipated appreciation) on what they thought would put money in their pocket.

This is just an indication of a mature and declining economy (which the US has) as there are few legitimate ways to make a quick gain any more without influence and favors in the right places. So people resort to questionable means of making money. Buying and flipping cars, houses, equities, etc. are all a symptom of this. When these boondoggles don't pan out, people get indignant because they didn't get what they hoped for. Hope is for suckers. People hope for the winning lotto ticket; see my point now?

So, I buy hard assets for their utility and enjoyment value, not as a potentially money making scheme. This keeps me from feeling burned. I make my money the old fashioned way, I earn it. If I do profit from the sale of a car, house, or anything else besides real work, that is a bonus - not an expectation.

KDirk

Edited April 25, 2014 by KDirk (see edit history)

[JWC]

I agree, I own my Reatta for the pleasure of driving it and the "What kind of car is that" most people are surprised it's a Buick. When the Reatta first came out I said it would have done better if it was priced in the mid to upper teens.

People talk about this car being "Hand built" ALL CARS are built by people, yeah I know there are many robots working on the line, the Reatta also had automatic welding machines/welding bucks, etc. and guys standing there with manual weld guns.

I think the "Hand Built" comes from the car traveling by A.G.V. system they used to bring the car to a "work station" where men and women put parts on the car.

I had tons of pictures of the inside of the plant but they are long gone now, I wish I would have kept them to share.

[Machiner 55]

I had tons of pictures of the inside of the plant but they are long gone now, I wish I would have kept them to share.

What happened to them?

John F.

[JWC]

When I moved 12 years ago I threw them away