For Sale: 1954 Chrysler Windsor flathead 6. Runs great, low miles - $3,500 - New Britian, CT - Not Mine

[58L-Y8]

For Sale: 1954 Chrysler Windsor flathead 6. Runs great, low miles - $3,500 - New Britian, CT 

https://hartford.craigslist.org/cto/d/new-britain-1954-chrysler-windsor/7228766434.html

Very rare in this condition 100% original 16000 MI runs great and drives great shifts amazing and stops well no rust or rot floors are in great shape all original interior everything works even the heater believe it or not sold with bill of sale can be driven home if you live a short distance tires are old and would not trust them on the highway I have another set of original aluminum Cragars that go with the car for an added charge need reverse thread lug nuts.  Does have a small leak in the upper part of the radiator it is the original radiator can be fixed with brass weld or get another one cash and pick up only no trades this vehicle is in fantastic condition all original including the paint

Contact:  (860) 3-six-8-7-one-9-six

Copy and paste in your email:  7fbfb9a735993baaa09135d9de3da1ff@sale.craigslist.org

 

I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this 1954 Chrysler Windsor sedan.

[58L-Y8]

If it doesn't sell at a lower price, install a set of Crager mags, jack the price $1000, try again:

1954 Chrysler windsor 6cyl auto 16k original miles - cars & trucks -... (craigslist.org)

[JACK M]

I would take that choke off of the top of the carburetor and get an air filter.

[Dosmo]

I guess it is possible that the car has only 16,000 original miles, but I'm a little skeptical of that without seeing some more photos of the interior, particularly the accelerator & brake pedals.  

 

I see the firing order written down in one of the engine compartment photos.  Coupled with the absence of the original air cleaner, those two items could imply some shade tree mechanic activity.  It's not a bad car, by any means, but I'm having a hard time believing that the addition of the Cragars, along with the $1000 price increase, makes this car more marketable.

Edited November 27, 2020 by Dosmo (see edit history)

[The 55er]

I'm an older gray-haired guy now and in my experiences (for what they're worth) of checking out old cars for sale over the years I've come across very few for sale with less than, say, 20,000 original miles. This goes back to the pre-internet days when old used cars were found through newspaper ads or parked in the driveway with a For Sale sign in the window. It was just very, very rare to see one with super low mileage unless it was in a museum display or parked on the showfield. These low mileage vehicles (that maybe aren't) seem to to be showing up for sale more and more now and IMO today younger people selling collector cars aren't trying to be dishonest or deceitful, they just don't know that cars used to have 5-digit odometers instead of 6. They didn't grow up hanging around repair garages, junkyards or used car lots and are unaware of just how things were in the past. Maybe they think if the odometer topped 100K the whole thing would turn over, the numbers would become skinnier and a 1 would pop up on the left side or something. Also, after watching Mecum Auctions and fake car restoration shows on TV, they're seeing their own car through rose colored glasses and are convinced ANY old car is worth a lot of money, especially theirs. Today, anyone that shows interest in buying a 1954 Chrysler Windsor would most likely be an old gray-hair like me and would have their own opinion of how many miles the car has travelled in it's lifetime. Sorry for the rant but IMO in many cases the knowledge and ins & outs of how antique cars worked has been lost over the years to some folks and they're presenting the vehicle for sale as best they can. 

[JamesR]

I'll say this about mileage: unless you have documentation of some sort that shows low usage over a car's lifetime - usually through meticulously kept service receipts that record the mileage at the time of service - odometer mileage claims have to be taken with a grain of salt. I think it's true that many people seem to make claims of "first time around" mileage without much concern to accuracy. They make other dubious claims as well, and I can't help but think that internet sales have possibly worsened this trend due to the relative anonymity of sellers; they're unlikely to see you ever again, even on the street. (Here's where the value of reputable dealers comes into play. They have a conspicuous presence on the internet and they're reputation is important so they typically try to maintain it. Joe blow flipper, however, is ubiquitous and may or may not care about his reputation or honesty, as it has less impact on the internet. No offense to honest flippers out there, I know there are many of them.)

 

The lower the mileage on a car, the harder it is to verify, IMO. I'm reasonably sure that the mileage on my '54 wagon was an original 61k when I bought it because I knew that the car hadn't been registered with the state since 1971. There was sometimes a lapse of a couple of years between the service records (which were sometimes no more than oil change stickers on the door jamb) but it's not likely that a car that was driven an average of 4000 miles per year was suddenly driven 100,000 miles in a two year period with no service records at all during the very extensive usage. It's possible, but not likely. It's also possible that 100,000 miles were put on the car during the 30 year period that it wasn't registered and licensed for legal road use, but again probably not that likely. Nevertheless, the car looked far from pristine when I got it due to a neglected finish and tatty upholstery.  The problem is that whoever I sell the car to will not know that the car wasn't registered for 30 years. I don't really know how to document that lack of use, and I threw away the old '71 license plate that was on the car when I bought it (dumb.)

 

I would guess that the challenge with an exceptionally low mileage car is that it won't have had regular intervals of service work done since it wasn't used that much. If it only has 10k or so miles on it, it may never have been in for repairs at all. I don't know what people do to get documentation for cars like that. Compounding the issue is that some very well maintained cars with 110,000 miles on them can look visually to have far less mileage than they actually do, while other low truly mileage cars - like at the famous Nebraska dealer sale a few years ago - can look fairly shabby.

 

To be honest, though...I think all of this is kind of a moot point with the specific car in this ad. It's a very low price on what looks to be a solid old car. If it runs as well as the ad says it does - and I was in the market - I wouldn't be swayed one way or the other by the odometer claims. I also WOULDN'T be impressed with the mag-wheel-loving seller.

Edited November 27, 2020 by JamesR (see edit history)