Guest imported_MrEarl Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 There is an awesome inventory of Buicks on this website but danged if I can tell where it is or who is selling them. can anyone tell me what the story is A conversion rate to KR would help http://www.motor-life.com/americanmotors/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Lamar, I believe that the site is based in Sweden or possibly Denmark. As you may be aware, there is tremendous collector interest in vintage American cars in the Scandinavian countries (especially Sweden) and in Australia.People elsewhere in the world have recognized that no one else built cars like the Americans did in the 1950's and 1960's. Many models that are not highly-valued in the American marketplace are highly-prized overseas. While so many Americans are oriented toward mid-1950's Chevrolets and the early Ford Mustangs, overseas buyers appreciate the design and quality of Buicks, Cadillacs and the big-finned Chrysler products of the 1950's. These cars are highly affordable to affluent overseas buyers, as are the four-door and wagon models that are usually overlooked by American buyers seeking only convertibles or two-door hardtops. At one point back in the mid-1980's, I heard that the port of Long Beach, California was shipping more than 200 vintage American autos per month to Sweden.My friend, Rolf Astrom, who immigrated to the U.S. from Sweden, is aware of at least three 1959 Buicks, for example, in a small Swedish town situated far north of the Arctic Circle.Since I do not read the Scandinavian languages, it is not clear to me whether the site includes autos that are still in the U.S. that are available to ship overseas. I would not be surprised, however, if all the cars shown are already in Scandinavia and readily accessible to the new fans of American cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skyking Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 There's a beautiful 1970 Rebel Machine for 247.000 kr...I wonder what that is in US money.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idle Swede Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Approx. $34.500 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idle Swede Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 All the cars are in the US or England and are for sale to Scandinavian buyers. Price reflects total cost in Sweden which includes shipping & import dutys + approx. 50% profit to seller hence the high prices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Skyking Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 Thanks Idle, not really a bad price for such a rare car.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_MrEarl Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 So Idle,why don't you become their USA sales rep. Let me know the story on the 48 Roadmaster convertible, 49 Roadmaster Riviera and the 1950 Super convertible if you do. Anybody know where any of these cars are in the US. Especially the 49 Roadmaster and the 50 Super? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guffin Posted January 17, 2004 Share Posted January 17, 2004 The exchange rates for $ and skr are in small letters below the price. As many cars have been advertised for a long time, the exchange rate varies between 7.75 to 10 kr for a USD. Today the rate is 7.40 kr for a $.I decided to import a car from USA three years ago. I had to pay 10.40 kr for a dollar at that time. The car, a Buick 32-87 can be seen on the AACA Photo Pages. I bought the car only on description and photos. I decided to do that because the seller was director in one of the BCA chapters. The seller was honest but unfortunately not technical. The car had problems he did not know about. However, he sent me all the motor part I needed and now it is running fine.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NTX5467 Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Centurion is highly correct regarding the prevalence of American vehciles in European countries. There are more there than many suspect, from what I've seen. Some were assembled over there too, either in plants or from "knock down chassis" kits. GM had some kind of assembly plant in Belgium in the 1960s too.In the later 1980s, the Mopar club I'm involved with was having their annual car show event. One of our officers got a call from a gentleman from Sweden that was in the area, wanting to know about the show and where and when it was. He did come to the show with several of his friends from Sweden. What they did was buy American cars, import them to Sweden, do a full restoration AND convert them to right hand drive. When done, they are probably better than when they were new and still left hand drive. He had pictures of the converted instrument panel and it was flawless in detail and finish. They were proficient with metal work so they could make "mirror images" of sorts for the metal stampings of the instrument panel. The later model plastic instrument panels were easier to do, they said. Still, quite a bit of work and obviously the resale price of the restored "Euro" model made it financially worthwhile. They were also buying some Dodge pickups to take over there too.I'm not sure if most of the Buicks over there are left hand drive or not, but this particular group of Swedes changed everything over in their restoration process. I also recall several articles in "The Bugle", over the years, on European Buicks and also British Buicks. From my casual observation, other than Chevrolet, Buick seemed to be the "export" division of General Motors. In one of Pat Brooks' recent articles on his "trail" experiences, he even found a pretty nice Buick in a place you would not have ever expected to find a Buick.Considering the added duty taxes for a European citizen to purchase a new American made vehicle, plus other costs of getting it there, the basic stateside cost of the vehicle would be doubled (or more!). I recall an article in a "1963 Ford Buyer's Guide" on how exclusive it was to own a new 1963 Thunderbird in Switzerland (the country used in the particular article) and how well the heater worked in the cold winter compared to other European vehicles of the time. Back then, not that many European cars were quite as comfort oriented as USA products were or performed quite as well as a larger American V-8 did.Just some thoughts,NTX5467 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leif Holmberg Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Take a look at E-Bay on Buick for exampel,and you can see the same cars there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guffin Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Most cars, produced and imported to Sweden, had the wheel to the left although we were driving on the left side of the road until 1968 I think this was the case for all the Nordic countries and Germany. After 1968 we are driving on the right side of the road as in most other countries except England, Japan and a few other.There was no regulation on the position of the wheel but most British cars imported to Sweden had the wheel to the left. Only privately imported British cars had the wheel to the right.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idle Swede Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 Nobody in his right mind would convert to righthand drive in Sweden. It would lower the price 30%-50%. Maybe the gentleman that came to your show sold cars to England which then would make some sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Centurion Posted January 18, 2004 Share Posted January 18, 2004 I remember an article about Sweden's switch-over to driving on the right side of the road. It appeared in the "Weekly Reader" that we read in our elementary school classes, and I was thinking that this occurred in about 1962 when I was in the 3rd grade.Regarding assembly of Buick kits in Belgium, there was a beautiful green '58 Century 2-door Riviera displayed in Flint that had been assembled in Belgium. This was one of two '58's shipped from The Netherlands to New Jersey, then driven to Flint. (The other was a '58 Caballero wagon that the Dutch buyer had located in Colorado or New Mexico.) I've also heard of a '59 LeSabre sedan in England that was built in Belgium and had a factory-installed sunroof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idle Swede Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Brian,The switch took place on Sunday September 3, 1967.The attachment is a picture of the switch taken at Kungsgatan, (Kingsstreet) downtown Stockholm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Idle Swede Posted January 19, 2004 Share Posted January 19, 2004 Sorry about the attachment, I have it saved without jpg. so it can't be loaded. I can e-mail it should anyone be interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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