On the shiping away of British cars thread:
Yea, we have been shipping away alot of our cars, and some of the best at
that, over the last decade. There are many reasons and you listers have
covered many of them. The market in the US sucks! The older folks don't
feel like building anymore and keep the best one and sell off the the
marginal and project cars. Middle agers have houses to fix, kids to put
through college, and sport utility and minivan payments to make, not to
mention the investments to monitor so they don't become paupers when they
get older. The young people have little money and generally have been
programed away from ANYTHING "OLD" by television advertizing and the
ability to buy anything new with easy to make monthly payments. We have
developed into a mean society with little appreciation of the past. 'Tis a
sorry state of affairs but we have no one to blame but ourselves because
while this was happening WE were under the hood changing head gaskets and
syncing carbs. Now we, as a nation, have been reduced to listening to
antagonistic, often incorrect mindless right-wing, whining talk radio,
forming millitias and blaming the government for all our woes! I could go
on and on and on . . . . . . . . . .
A few years ago I was faced with having to do some work on my house and was
unable to get a home improvement loan and had to sell my second owner 1950
MGTD. I was sick about it! Friends in the motor trade told me that my car
was worth as much in pounds as it was in dollars which meant about 50%
more. This pissed me off! A friend said he had a friend that was looking
for a TD and we got together and I sold him the car for $9000 and arranged
to have a mutual friend deliver the car from LA to San Francisco. I get to
buy the car back if the new owner wants to sell. I could have gotton more
overseas but after all the tyre kicking and wheeling and dealing was over
and the dealer commision was paid I might have made $500-$1,000 more. Now I
can see my old flame at the Palo Alto Britmeet each year and know someday
that I might be able to buy it back. I think that makes me feel better
about selling it. On the other hand,
My wife's '73 MGB was an all original second owner 125,000 car that was in
excelent condition BUT had been used as a daily driver for years and was
evenly wearing out from end to end. After the third time it was flatbedded
back to Venice from the Valley, we started to get the idea that Nigel the
mechanic was seeing more of it than we were, The wife started using MY old
Nova for transport and I started using our aging Minor pickup while Nigel
replaced this and that on the B. We started to think about selling the old
girl (the MG, not the wife!). Being a local Britiron Guru, of sorts, meant
that if I sold it locally, I would end up apologizing for its wear and end
up fixing it or be percieved as a rip-off asshole. An Austrailian who was
finding cars for a restoration shop just outside of Amsterdam was
advertizing in the LA Times. He never even drove the car but saw its rust
and damage free, original paint body and said that it would be torn down
and rebuilt anyhow. He paid me $2,500 for it and off it went! There are
still plenty of Bs around and nobody was going to call me from Holland and
bitch that I sold them a piece of junk!
What does this all mean? Reading this has kept a bunch of you away from the
damn talk radio for at least five minutes and hopefully made your life a
bit richer and kept your blood pressure lower a while longer. There are few
solutions, only observations and there are no simple answers for the
complicated problems in life. Life is like driving your LBC in commute
traffic - try to be happy and stay out of everybody's way. See you on the
Funway! Rick Feibusch
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