R4Sedan
Larry
It is a pretty nice looking car, but priced too high.
What do you think of this '74 Dart Sport for sale?
- Thread starter TRWRacing
- Start date
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These guys are on my route. I stop in once a month or so and look over their selection. Some are pretty nice, some need a little closer look before buying. But there's a market for what they sell. Buyers will find a Chevelle like they had in High School, buy it and have fun. Who cares if it isn't perfect. Used Cars Greene IA | Used Cars & Trucks IA | Coyote Classics
Not perfect is one thing. None of my cars are perfect and I couldn't care less. But complete misrepresentation is another. If you pay $7k for a '74 Dart Sport that isn't perfect but looks good no harm, no foul. If you pay $15k and find out it's a cheap flip job with a sketchy VIN, rattle canned over rust bottom, and 1/2" thick bondo under an el-cheapo paint job it's a whole different story. And if you pay $21.5 for the car in question, well, that's just a scam I don't care how nice the car is. Yeah, the buyer should know better and do their research, but if they don't it still doesn't make it right to bend them over a barrel. If you know anything about cars at all it's down right immoral to ask $21.5 for that car, regardless of whether or not someone is dumb enough to pay it.
And yes, it's a little personal for me. See this car? As it sits in this picture, it needs full quarters, rear frame rails, part of the left front frame rail sectioned out, about 25% of its floor and firewall replaced, as well as significant structural repair work on the hardtop. Obvious right? No? Looks pretty decent doesn't it?
How about now? Maybe not so great?
Now? That light spot is sun shining through from the inside.
Maybe now it's obvious how bad this is? This is the same car.
You can't see this from the inside, even with the headliner out, because the inner side of the structure is fine. Or from the outside with the drip rail trim and window channel in. I had no idea it was there until a couple weeks ago, after I put over 60k miles on the car in the last 8 years using it as my daily driver for most of that time. And I've been working on cars my whole life. Fooled me and good. But the window channel had been off before, so you better believe the guys that painted this car knew it was there. They put the window channel right back in and taped around it. Same guys that didn't even primer the car before painting topcoat, applied bondo straight over rust, and knew it would last just long enough before the paint fell off to sell it. I didn't even get hammered the worst on this deal, I saw it in person and knew it had issues. I overlooked some of what I saw because the price was right, E-bodies are hard to find, and it was my first musclecar era Mopar so honestly I missed a bunch of things I didn't know to look for. The poor guy that bought it off the internet and had it shipped cross country really got hammered. But he was smart enough to sell it before he looked very far into it. He realized he got screwed because it wasn't what he paid for and decided to offload it to me. I just thought it had a cheap paint job and a little more bondo than it should, and I was just looking for a driver so that was ok. Well, even for what I paid for this car I could have gotten something that didn't need several thousand dollars of structural repair. Fortunately I can do it myself, but for a lot of people this would be a total loss. I don't know how I didn't pop the windows out of it driving like I have.
fratzog lover
Well-Known Member
I had a similar experience with a dart I bought from a classic car dealer in Michigan.
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That's where stuff like that happens. Some crappy shop that flips cars makes a bondo sculpture and sprays a butt load of cheap paint over it, then sells the car at an auction for a "too cheap for what it looks like" price to a classic car dealer. The dealer buys it because it looks good and it's cheap, then jacks up the price to make their profit. The classic car dealer usually isn't a real car guy, just a used car salesman, and even if they were real car guys it's not profitable for them to look too deeply into the cars they sell so they sell a car they really don't know all that much about. Good from far, far from good, no warranty expressed or implied.
And of course they put it on the internet and take pictures of it in great light from 20 feet away, so it looks like a great deal. Depending on how many tricks the hack-job flip shop knows, and how much of a disaster the original car was before the flip started, it might not even look awful in person unless you really do a detailed inspection. And I mean crawl under the car, take a magnet or even better a paint gauge to it, peel back the carpet and trunk mats, etc. But even doing those things some stuff is hard to find. B/E bodies are the worst for hiding rust under their stainless trim. In some cases, like my car, there's no way to see it unless you start pulling trim pieces, which isn't something most sellers will let you do.
So where does that leave the buyer? You have to look for the tricks. Like the 100% rattle can black out on the bottom of the car. The rivets on the VIN tag. The edge of the paint around the trim to see if the car was painted with any of the trim on and taped instead of removed. That kind of crap. And if you see it, you have to just walk away. They're not all as bad as mine for sure, I've got an extreme case on several levels. But if someone is willing to take those shortcuts you have to assume the car is a POS, or run the risk of finding a lot more problems later. It's buyer beware. In this case, even from 20 foot away tiny internet pictures, there are issues visible with that Dart Sport, and not small ones.
Ben Drinkin
Hey bartender!
Even at 21K, that car is a steal!!! Based on 'Parts for Sale' ads, There's easily twice that in parts! The full vinyl top trim alone is worth a mint!!
plumkrazee70
Well-Known Member
I hope this was a joke. I have half vinyl top trim for a 73+ duster and couldn't give it away.
Marcohotrod
Well-Known Member
ah the good old days, sold my 1974 Dart 360HP Sport, second owner, 727, original paint, 321 suregrip, highback buckets, console shifter, fold down rear seat! ran 14.7 @ 95 stock, in 1984 for $1500.
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