Value of '74 2.0?, What's it worth? Options

[BillC]

I may go look at a 1974 914 2.0 on Saturday. It's in kind of rough shape, and was wondering what y'all thought about it.

I've seen some fair-to-poor quality photos. The car has peeling clearcoat on the trunk lid, so it has been repainted at some point. It has some rust showing in the front trunk and the owner says there's a few rust holes under the driver's seat. The battery tray is rather rusty too, but no idea on the hellhole (probably not good, considering the tray's condition).

It appears to have the appearance package and the performance package. The pictures show vinyl on the sail panels and the COA says it came with sway bars.

The car hasn't run in 4 years. He says it was running fine and then just quit on the highway. He thinks it just needs a new fuel pump, but he really doesn't seem to know and doesn't appear to have any interest in fixing it. I'm guessing that if it was just the fuel pump, he probably would have had it fixed by now. The tires look old, and I'm sure the brakes need going-through too.

It has been stored in a parking garage for the last four years. So, not directly exposed to the weather, but not really protected either.

What do y'all think it might actually be worth? He's asking $8000, but that seems rather optimistic. I'd like to get a reasonable idea of the value before I go look at it.

Thanks!

[BillC]

So I went to go see this car a couple of weekends ago. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to y'all.

The car is in sad shape. There's a pile of rust on the floor under the right long, and the floorpan is all rotted out in that corner. The car is starting to sag there, as you can see in the pic of the right door gap (or lack thereof). The interior is in pretty good shape, but rather dirty. Still has all the stock fuel injection, and it is a 2.0. Didn't check if it was the original engine, though. Surface rust in both trunks. The rear trunk floor pan is wrinkled; at some point the car was hit from behind and the tail light panel was replaced, but not the floor. I pointed it out to Ray, and his response was that it must have happened before he got the car from his uncle. One of the hinges for the engine cover has broken loose, so he had to go find a screwdriver to get the cover open (to pry it out from under the rear trunk lid).

Even though Ray's ad says the car stopped running just a couple of years ago, it turns out to be at least 4 years since it last ran.

I asked Ray if anyone else had come to look at it, and he said a guy from Colorado had stopped in and "tried to lowball" him, so he "chased the guy off". I finally got Ray to tell me how much the "lowball" offer was, and he said $5K. My first thought was that Ray made a huge mistake by not taking that offer, because he's quite unlikely to get a better one, at least not in the next 10 years....

I told him that y'all thought the car as it sat might be worth $3-4K, and that it would only be worth his asking price if it was running and drivable. His response was that if it was running and drivable, he'd be asking a whole lot more! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

I left without making an offer. He tried to get me to make one, but I told him that he'd think any offer I made would be another lowball. Truth is, it's way more project than I'm looking for right now, and I don't have a safe place to store it until I'm ready. Plus, it's waaaaaay overpriced and he's delusional about its value.

The car is sitting in an underground garage, so it is protected from the weather. If anyone wants his contact info, his ad is in the back of Panorama. Or, I can PM it to you. Just don't get your hopes up too high.