Lies, damned lies, and price guides, rant warning Options

[lapuwali]

There's a nice looking '70 914 on CL right now, and the guy is asking $6200 based on the NADA pricing information ($3500/$5775/$7500, low/med/high condition for a '70 /4), and his own (alas, rather inflated) idea of the condition of the car.

I feel for the guy, as I just (finally!) sold a very nice '67 912 that NADA lists at $7500/$8500/$11400 for low/med/high. The car was on the market for nearly a year, and I got zero interest at $8500, and the car finally sold for quite a bit less than the "low" price. People on this board have seen this car, and I'm sure they'd tell you it was at least a "medium" car in terms of condition. These numbers aren't too far off Bruce Anderson's published numbers in Excellence, either.

I've sold about 20 cars over the past 15 years, so I have some idea of how to handle the process, but I've never had to wait 10 months to sell one. I've also never had cases where people actually made offers, then backed out before they actually coughed up money, yet that happened three times with this car.

I'm thinking one reason the NADA data seems high for both the 912 and the 914 is that it's too high for California, which has so many cars to choose from. You can't give away a rust-free tub here, and I see runners for sale all the time for less than half of NADA's "low" price.

Maybe MY expectations are unrealistic, but I expect a $6K 1.7 to be absolutely perfect, with good wheels, chrome bumpers, and a real "needs nothing" car (which doesn't describe the advertised car).

And no arguments about how much it costs to restore a car. I KNOW how much it costs to restore a 914. I also know you never ever recover restoration costs when selling the end product.