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Disappointing Day


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Many here know my dream car would be a 1970 or 1971 Monte 402 4-Speed.  Nothing against those who would prefer an SS454 but I just can’t understand why Chevrolet didn’t produce a Monte SS with a manual transmission so my preference would be a 402 4-Speed over an SS454. 

A number of years ago I met a guy who had one.  Almost immediately we became Car Guy Friends.   I always told him that if he ever decided to sell that car to please let me know.  A few years later he called me and said he had cancer and needed to sell all of his cars so his wife would not have to deal with selling them after he is gone.  He asked me to help him sell them.  At the time I did not have enough money to purchase the 71 402 4-Speed but I was able to hook him up with someone to purchase one of his Chevelle's and I sent him 3 people who were interested in the Monte.  Two of those three people called me and told me that he would not sell him the 402 4-speed.  When I called him, he said he didn't want to sell it to them because he knew I wanted it and would hold onto it a little longer.

A year later I ran into him at a cruise and he had his Monte there.  I told him at the time I was ready to buy the Monte if he still wanted to sell it.  He told me that it turned out he did not have cancer but knew I was still interested in his car and I would be the first person he would call if he decided to sell it.  Time passed and I didn’t run into him at cruises and suspected things had gone bad for him and pretty much gave up on seeing the 402 4-Speed ever again

A couple years after I retired in 2013 I took a part time job at Home Depot to stay active and one day he came into the store and we renewed our friendship and he told me he still had the Monte.  The last time I saw him he did not look good at all.  He told me that he had been diagnosed with mouth cancer but they felt they were going to be able to get him through the treatments.

Fast Forward to this past week.  I got an email from his wife that he had gone in to the hospital for a heart valve replacement and while in the recovery room he had a heart attack passed away a week later in the ICU.  She said Brian had mentioned me often and trusted me and she needed to sell his 4 remaining cars and asked if I could help her assess a value on them.  Some of our members here know the rest of this story because I contacted a number of people from the club to see if between me researching the values of his cars on line and our members input I was able to get a rough value for his 4 cars. 

The 4 cars are:

- 71 350 3-speed on the floor bucket seats and console Chevelle Convertible 43,000 miles,

- 1980 350 4-Speed El Camino,

- 1977 400 engine and 4-speed Pontiac Trans Am 54,000 miles,

- 1971 402 4-Speed Monte Carlo 65,000k miles

 

Thanks to all who gave me information I would be able to provide to his widow.  Last night our granddaughter and I went to look at the cars in person so I could look them over and give her an honest value as best I could.

 

His widow told me she had already gotten an appraisal from a guy who is a dealer and he was giving her an offer to buy all 4 of the cars but his appraisal was considerable amount below her husbands estimated value of the cars.  I told her to please not tell me what he was offering for each of the cars until I could look at them.  The reason, I told her, that I did not want to be influenced by his appraisal and I wanted to show her the values I had come up with from my research on the 4 vehicles prior to her telling me the appraiser’s value.

 

As it turned out the appraiser’s values on 3 of the 4 cars was very low but the one car the appraisers value was way too high on was the 71 Monte 402 4-speed..  This is where my disappointed day came into play. As I gave her the approximate value on each of the other 3 cars first I was glad to hear what he was offering for each of the other cars was too low it was my hope that his offer on the Monte was below what it was worth so I figured I would be able to buy it myself

 

I was very upfront with her on each of the cars, including the Monte and I told her that while I would love to own the Monte, not only because it is my “Dream Car” but also because it was a her husbands favorite of the 4 cars, but I told her that with the appraiser being $10,000 to $12,000 over the estimated value of the car that there was no way I could come up with that kind of money for the Monte.  I did tell her that if the deal with the other guy would fall through that she should please call me. 

 

I would love to own the car but I could never compete with a millionaire collector/dealer willing to over pay for the car by that much.   Thanks for listening/reading my disappointing day post.

 

rob

 

 

 

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Hi Rob,

This is the blue on blue bench seat car with rear SS treatment? I still have photos from when he purchased it on e-bay.

Curious what value the dealer placed on it. Would you PM me? It was a great looking car, with build sheet ( I still have photo of that too!) it had some pretty interesting options. I do recall "ballpark" what he paid on e-bay back then. It seemed like quite a bit back then, but would be a great buy today.

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That's quite a story with a disappointing outcome for you, Rob.  That lady should dump that dealer or at least get another dealer to appraise them.  If she really wanted to honor her late husband's wishes, she would sell you the Monte for a reasonable price and get rid of the other three any way she can.  Maybe you could offer to advertise the other three locally or even nationally on Craigslist or eBay to help her sell them in consideration for letting you buy the Monte at your appraisal price.

I had a similar experience when my wife's uncle passed suddenly of a stroke several years ago.  I had helped him build a complete record with individual photos and appraisal prices on his large gun collection easily worth $45K.  I foolishly provided those detailed records to his worthless son-in-law thinking we could discuss it and I could make him an offer.  Instead, without my knowledge, he loaded up all the guns and a huge gun safe and took them to a dealer who offered him a take-it-or-leave-it $15K when I would have written him a check for $25K on the spot. I immediately went to the dealer to buy the only rifle I wanted for my collection but he was asking more than new retail price so I passed with nothing to show for my work and no keepsake from my uncle's collection.  Some people are just greedy, thoughtless and heartless, I guess.

I hope something still works out for you as I share your love of big block 4-speed Montes, as you would know.

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1 hour ago, 1970mcss said:

Rob, you could advertise the cars here and maybe find buyers. I would also like to know the price on the four speed. Not that I would overpay. 

At this point in time she is planning to hire a professional appraiser to appraise all 4 of the cars.  The value her husband placed on the Monte was $40,000 plus which it isn't  worth.

rob

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15 hours ago, Rob Peters said:

At this point in time she is planning to hire a professional appraiser to appraise all 4 of the cars.  The value her husband placed on the Monte was $40,000 plus which it isn't  worth.

rob

Oh, sure, her husband placed a "value" of $40K+ on his favorite classic car ... dream on.  What will the market actually bear?  I can't believe a "professional appraiser" will come up with anything north of $30K, if that.  We're talking LS3 here, not LS6 ...  

Just stay in touch with the wife and try to learn what the appraiser comes up with car by car.  I'm betting the original dealer low-balled her on the other three in order to offer her a big price for the Monte (maybe he knew her husband's expectation).  Doubt he would be willing to do anything but a package deal.  Keep your powder dry and reason with the wife after she has a more realistic appraisal ... this might come back your way after all - I hope so.  Good luck!

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11 hours ago, MCfan said:

Oh, sure, her husband placed a "value" of $40K+ on his favorite classic car ... dream on.  What will the market actually bear?  I can't believe a "professional appraiser" will come up with anything north of $30K, if that.  We're talking LS3 here, not LS6 ...  

Just stay in touch with the wife and try to learn what the appraiser comes up with car by car.  I'm betting the original dealer low-balled her on the other three in order to offer her a big price for the Monte (maybe he knew her husband's expectation).  Doubt he would be willing to do anything but a package deal.  Keep your powder dry and reason with the wife after she has a more realistic appraisal ... this might come back your way after all - I hope so.  Good luck!

Dennis, I agree with you.  I really can't see an appraiser coming up near what he felt the Monte was worth.  Keep your fingers crossed.  After looking at the car I do feel it is in better condition than I remembered and my wife and I have been talking and I do believe it may be worth more than I originally thought.  There are a few things it needs if I buy it.  It has an after market intake, carb and air cleaner which I would want to bring back to original.  It also has an electronic ignition module on the passenger fender which I would like to take back to stock... Those who know me are award I am a "Stock" preferred owner.  I know none of these things are major at this point.  At this point in time it is not a lost dream.  I am willing to go higher than what I told her so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

rob

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5 hours ago, 420ponies said:

Rob,Try to keep in touch with the widow. She knows you would really appreciate the value way more then the next owner would know. He'll, I'm interested in the Chevrolet convertible myself.post-259-0-06116300-1484180397_thumb.jpg

Jim, at this point in time the dealer is thinking $10K on the rag top.  It does need a lot of work.  I am not sure if it is an original manual on the floor.  The reason I say that is it is a 3-speed and I had never seen a chevelle with 3 speed on the floor.  It has some rust issues on the fenders, doors and quarters.  Not sure if they would all need to be replaced but they need work.  I felt on the inside of the rear fender lips and I could not tell if they had been worked but they did not feel horrible.  Being a Chevelle ragtop I know it does up the value.  If you are serious I will be able to bring that up to her.  I know a couple people in the club that may also be interested in it.

rob

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18 minutes ago, 1970mcss said:

What does the trans am look like? Condition? Money?

Since she is going to have a professional appraiser give a value on it I have no idea what that number will be.  The condition is what I would consider good from what I can see.  He had it described as a "Bandit" style but it is not a bandit trans am, it does not have t-tops but it is I think a Pontiac 400 with a manual 4-speed.  I know of at least one or two other members interested in it. We will have to wait for the appraiser to give a value on it and go from there.

rob

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  • 2 weeks later...

Waiting for her to get the professional appraisal on all of the cars before we know anything.  I have been back over to her house again and I talked with her and her brother in law, mostly regarding the Chevelle (in reality Malibu) Convertible.  I took another look at the Monte and it has boxed rear control arms and the shock protector plates.  It also has a rear window defogger and an 8-track radio.  If I remember correctly I think it has power windows and power door locks.  I also looked at the shifter and it is a Muncie.  

As I said, I have to wait for the results of the appraisal's on all of the cars to come back.

rob

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  • 1 month later...

For those who have been following this I am very disappointed to tell you that this car will not be mine.  They got back to me with what the appraiser said.  The appraiser came in with a value of up to $37,000 on this car.  While I know it is a rare car and in good condition, based upon what I know about these cars and what a couple members here on the site who I contacted and gave a good description of the car to I feel the value this appraiser came up with it way too high. 

I was willing to go well over the value, the the club members I spoke with from here in the club had given me, because I was looking at this car as an investment knowing the value would more than likely only go up.  As I said, this is an unrestored car with the original vinyl roof, original interior and some other items that would need to be addressed.  The tires on the car are date coded from 1993 so on top of the purchase price the buyer would need to invest over $1000 in new tires.  The car has been repainted, a section of the original vinyl roof in the rear corner has puckered and pulled away from below the trim.  The interior is original and while it looks to be in decent shape I am sure soon there could start to appear some dry rot issues due to the age of the interior and it having been originally a Texas car.

It is equipped with Air Conditioning but I am not sure if it works.  It also has the air ride suspension but it is not working at this time.  The vacuum line is not hooked up to the compressor on the drivers wheel well and the original shocks have been replaced with standard shocks.

Like I said it is a nice car and I was willing to pay more than what I feel it is currently worth but I feel the appraiser's value is too high and would never pay that much.  

That said, if anyone here would be willing to pay $37,000 for this car let me know and I will share what I know about the car with you.

rob

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1 hour ago, Andy's Auto said:

Not wanting to stir anything, but on what world is a number 3 Monte worth $37k? Not this one.

The appraiser rated the car as a number 2.

rob

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21 hours ago, cny first gen 71 said:

Rob dont give up on it, make her your offer and when she dont sell it your first in line. Good to see the values getting up there anyhow. You can delete the post I put in the wrong post if you want to.

I agree, Make her your best offer and see if it sticks. Would love to see a few pictures to see what you're dealing with

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Rob,sorry to hear this about the first car you'd love to own. Maybe she'll look at it in our perspective. I bet the convertible is upwards for 20,000. I'd let her sit it out and see where the market is. Seems this appraising thing is getting way out of hand.post-259-0-61935100-1474727657_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

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