Dale --
I agree with Martin that there's no advantage to buying a car from a
dealer or on eBay. Might well be a sandtrap.
I would suggest the following general course of action:
Identify a local shop that does work on British cars, and talk to
them about evaluating a car for you. For a hundred bucks (ballpark),
they should be able to give a car a good going-over, and tell you
whether it's worth what you're thinking about paying, as well as what
needs to be done or might need to be done soon. If you don't like
the shop, try to find another.
Don't underestimate what they can find out by driving it a bit and
putting it up on a rack and poking and prodding, if they know what
they're doing and what they're looking for.
Next, yes, watch the newspaper classifieds. They're a good source of
good cars.
If/when you find one you like, test drive it, but don't buy it before
having it checked out by the shop you've identified. If the owner
refuses to allow this, they may have something to hide (floors made
of plywood come to mind!). They may understandably be nervous, and
wish for some sort of security arrangement (i.e. you leave your
Volvo/BMW/Taurus/whatever there while the Triumph gets its checkup)..
I don't think that's entirely unreasonable.
Hemmings might be a good source for a car, in the same vein as
newspaper ads - it's just that it's nationwide. Look for nearby cars
and try to make similar arrangements for a checkup.
Finally, take into consideration what needs to be done to the car and
make a fair offer. Realize that they're asking more than they may
accept, and also that you're going to pay more for a car than needs
less work.
The market value of a car is a difficult thing to pin down - it's
really what you're willing to pay. If you wind up with a great car
that you feel you paid a reasonable price for, well, then that's that!
Good luck!
Dan
>Good Afternoon, All,
>After spending several weeks looking around, I have come up with a question
>concerning the purchase of an older Triumph. I wanted to try to take
>advantage of the collective wisdom of this list.
>From what I can see there are basically three venues for purchasing and
>older Triumph (or any "collectible" for that matter.) These are:
> 1. From a private owner - this is generally someone in
> the "local area."
> 2. From a private owner - can be from Hemmings, eBay, or
> other similar venues
> 3. From established dealers
>
>My question is, which way to go. I am looking for a car that is basically
>"restored". I am not looking for hi scoring concours car... just a car that
>may need some minimal work to complete. This is due to time constraints on
>my part. Between family and work, I do not have a great deal of free time.
>However, I am looking for car that can be a daily driver (makes a later
>model TR6 or Spitfire likely.) It looks like the dealers get some clean
>cars, but the price sure seems higher. I am nervous about anything off of
>eBay. Hemmings I do not have enough info to make a fair assessment. Local
>area, at least I can go touch, feel, smell, drive the car. Any feedback
>would be appreciated.
>
>Regards,
>Dale Neidhammer Silicon Metrics Inc.
>Senior Applications Engineer (512) 651-1474
>dneid@siliconmetrics.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dan Buettner mailto:danb@thelittlemacshop.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
///
/// triumphs@autox.team.net mailing list
///
|