Selling a Classic Car in Sacramento

[shanendoah]

I have a friend whose father just died. The only thing his father had that could remotely be considered an asset is a classic car he was fixing up. (I have pictures but don't know make/model/year.)

The outside of the car looks great, but apparently it has no interior, and I know nothing about the state of the engine.

My friend is currently in Sacramento trying to handle his father's estate, and I was wondering if anyone here knew someone in the area that might be able to help my friend out with an estimate, or even an idea of what he should be doing to sell the car. (My friend already has "one car too many" in his words, and has no desire to transport the classic car back up to the PNW.)

Anyway, if you have suggestions, I'd love to be able to pass them on.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

He might try looking into seeing if there are any Classic Car Clubs in the area. Two of my brothers were in Classics clubs (one still is) - and they and their friends/other members would buy vintage or classic year model cars to restore from the ground up (including paint/interior/upholstery & engine etc).

He might be able to find out names of clubs/contacts through body shops that do custom work or paint jobs on classic show cars, rods, etc.

He can also try advertising it for sale - in magazines such as "Auto Trader", etc. Best to include make/model/year of car, specs, and condition etc and asking price - along with pictures.

[Abby Normal]

We found ourselves in the same situation when FIL passed in the spring.  You can get a rough estimate off classiccars.com.  They also have a "for sale" list.  

[Tennesseer]

NorCal Car Culture

[shanendoah]

Thanks folks. I've passed the link on to my friend.

[tskeeter]

Dec 8, 2014 18:56:24 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

I have a friend whose father just died. The only thing his father had that could remotely be considered an asset is a classic car he was fixing up. (I have pictures but don't know make/model/year.)

The outside of the car looks great, but apparently it has no interior, and I know nothing about the state of the engine.

My friend is currently in Sacramento trying to handle his father's estate, and I was wondering if anyone here knew someone in the area that might be able to help my friend out with an estimate, or even an idea of what he should be doing to sell the car. (My friend already has "one car too many" in his words, and has no desire to transport the classic car back up to the PNW.)

Anyway, if you have suggestions, I'd love to be able to pass them on.

The first thing I'd probably do is look for auto appraisers in the phone book or on the internet.

The second thing I'd do is run ads in the local auto trader for the project car.  And, I'd expand my advertizing to include the Reno area.  Reno is the home of Hot August Nights, a 7,000 car, week long festival of collector and muscle cars.  Reno is heaven for car guys and gals and there are a lot of them in Reno.  Just in our 400 home neighborhood there are at least 60 collector and classic cars.

In case you are thinking that Reno is too far from Sacramento, get this.  When I sold the Camry, a guy came over from Sacramento and bought it.  A Camry, not a collector car.  Car guys will go a long way to get a collector car, so for a Reno guy to go to Sacramento to buy a project car would be nothing.     

[shanendoah]

tskeeter - both the friend and I grew up in Reno, so VERY familiar with Hot August Nights. The real problem is, he's is Sacramento for just this week, then he needs to get back to Seattle and his job.

[tskeeter]

Dec 9, 2014 19:28:39 GMT -5 shanendoah said:

tskeeter - both the friend and I grew up in Reno, so VERY familiar with Hot August Nights. The real problem is, he's is Sacramento for just this week, then he needs to get back to Seattle and his job.

If he has to get rid of the car in a week, then my suggestion would be to call a junk yard and have them come and get the car.  It's unlikely that you could sell a project car in a week.  And it's unlikely that most people's project cars are worth a lot of money.  (Most of them are $100K cars only after you've put about $150K into restoring them.)  So, even finding someone to appraise the car in the current condition may be more effort and expense than it is worth for someone on a tight deadline.