It's a nice car. Not worth $9,300 to me.
It seems that a classification system would be appropriate. I suggest the following:
Original: Essentially running, unrestored survivors. Complete in every regard including the wear, rust, and patina that come with age and use. No work done other than scheduled maintenance or repair/replacement of a wear/consumable item. Collision damage ok if repair followed by extended licensed use. VIN, body tag, and build sheet present and matching the car in every regard.
Restored: This car is essentially what rolled off the factory line on a "good" day. VIN, body tag, and build sheet present and matching the car in every regard. This should be an "investment quality" car for the B-J types. (If someone gets sued over mis-representing a car, these should be the cars.)
Everything else: (aka Caveat Emptor)
Subcategories of this are:
Over-restored: Includes things like painted undercarriage, installed, correct options not supported by documentation, etc. A casual observer would consider these cars to be restored.
Mis-restored: This subcategory would include any car whose installed or deleted equipment does not match the build sheet. e.g. A car with a radio delete plate, but the build sheet shows a radio having been installed. A casual observer would consider these cars to be restored.
Clones & Tribute cars: Complete, license-able (except competition models), running cars with good paint and interior, accessories in working order. Mis-matching or missing VIN, body tag, build sheet. Solid workmanship throughout.
Daily Drivers: Cars that are restored and/or repaired to a point where they could be used on a daily basis by the average driver. A casual observer would probably regard these cars as un-restored to a factory new condition.
Project cars: Cars that are actively being worked on to bring them to safe operating condition. Works-in-progress. The owner has some knowledge of what works, doesn't, rust, missing, etc and is following a plan of action to bring the car to at least a Daily Driver status.
Salvage/Abandoned: Just sitting there rusting.
All but project cars & salvage cars have "good" titles. If they do have a title the new owner can work with, that is a selling point for the car.
For this, or any classification system to work, the seller and the buyer have to have integrity. The seller has to properly classify his offering and the buyer has to understand what they are getting in the purchase in order to avoid disappointment later. Distinctions need to be made among completely "correct" vehicles, operational vehicles, and non-operational vehicles. Representing a car as correct or operational when it is not is unscrupulous.
Comparative terms used to describe a vehicle need to be fleshed out. "A little rust" means something different to a person in the desert southwest than in northern Wisconsin. A picture clearly showing the rust or a description such as "There is a rust hole in the fender well opening large enough to stick a pencil through" is more easily understood than just "a little rust"
There is nothing inherently wrong with having a vehicle in any of these classifications. Sometimes a car may appear to qualify to fit multiple categories. If so, then pick the one that most accurately describes the car. When I bought the Dart, it was a project car, (A dealer had owned it and done a little work, but the brakes didn't work and the car had been at least partially submerged.) The Demon was an abandoned car. (The person I got it from had it beside his house, but other than breaking the steering coupling had done no work on it. One tire would not hold air more than a couple of minutes. There was no engine, transmission, or title.) Now, the Dart is a daily driver and the Demon is a tribute car. If I had wanted to mis-restore or over-restore either car, I could have chosen to do so. If and when I decide to sell one of mine, I'm going to use the guidelines I've suggested. That said, it is still the buyers responsibility to be as informed as possible so they have realistic expectations of the purchase. This is not buyer beware, it is buyer be informed.
IMO the more likely a vehicle has been "gone through" the more suspicious I am likely to be. I'm also more suspicious of sellers who seem to have the resources to "go through" the car. Cars that would be classified as over-restored or mis-restored would raise more suspicion. As a seller, I'm more likely to be instructive in my answers to questions from one who wants to know-it-all than one who already does. Ultimately, a car is worth the consideration it takes for ownership to change for that particular buyer and seller under those particular circumstances.
That said, I'm off the soap box. :cheers:
