Verifying Rare Vehicles for Investment Purchases

Buying Project Cars

Many people who have never purchased a vintage car before are now considering getting into the marketplace. The massive media coverage of vehicle auctions has alerted the public to the fact that vintage cars are a realistic investment.

Historically significant cars are always going to be the best investment, provided you buy them at a fair price. Prices can vary from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand based on the original package or options on the car. A 1959 Cadillac ElDorado Convertible may fetch $125,000.00 while a '59 Cadillac Series 62 can be purchased for under $10k.

So you have found a car you think will be a good investment. But how do you make sure you are getting what you pay for? When we do third party appraisals of vehicles there are some very specific things we look at. Here are a few of them listed below. Some of the items may seem like just good common sense, others are things perhaps you haven't thought of.

MOST importantly DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Before you go into the field to look at a possible buy make sure you have found out what the available options were and have a cheat sheet of option codes, data or cowl tag codes, etc. Also, make sure you have found out where the alternate locations are for the VIN code. Most cars have the VIN code in more than one location, and you will want to check all of the to make sure they match.

Then move onto the engine and components. Refer to your cheat sheet and check the engine codes, transmission codes and rear axel tag or codes. Make sure they are all correct for the vehicle. This might require some crawling around so wear something appropriate. Many components have date codes. This is important as well. Write down ... ...read the full guide >>>