Living where I live I only have one Auto Appraiser in town. ($350 for an appraisal) I know we don't do this for the money but I feel he might have under valued my car as he came in 50% less in value than my '72 1.7.
I would like to know what the worlds foremost authority on 914's think. Afterward I will tell all what he appraised my car at and hopefully I can take this to him and have him re assess the value.
I'm just finishing a restoration and want to get my car insured before I store it for winter. Here is what the car has.
1973 2.0
2.0 engine and drive line from an original 38,000 mile car.( I have known this car since I was a kid) Engine compression tested at 135 psi(x4), then torn down and re sealed and gasket ed and painted GT red. (Ok I made the GT red thing up) Same with transmission.
Monza 4 pipe exhaust
Car - rotisserie restored - frame up similar to thread "Restoration From Hell"(will post my own thread later this winter.) including new frame rails, new floors new door sills and new sail panels.
GT FG Flares
Custom steel rockers
Custom rear wing
Custom Electric Mirrors
Custom gray and black interior including seats from 88 Corolla
SS inserts in dash and console.
Front and rear swaybars- OEM
New brakes - all around
New brake lines and hoses - all around
New brake, clutch and speedometer cables
New Tie rods and ball joints
New Shocks all around
5 bolt conversion
996 Rims and new tires
FG front and rear 916 kit with custom driving lights and grill
New carpet
New front and rear trunk gas shock kits
New signal lenses
Custom high mount rear brake light
Black painted aluminum trim
Momo Dino Steering wheel
Audi VDO Gauges
Alpine MP3 CD player
Excellent condition 38.000 mile(24 year indoor stored car) complete rubbers all around
(with the car I still have the complete original '75 38000 mile cherry interior)
I'm sure there is much more that I am lissing but you get the point.
What do you think?
BTW the pictures in the garage don't do it justice.

More

more

If my range is too much of a spread please post your value down below.
Thanks
Doug

Wow -- totally stock! $20k. A beautiful car.

If the car was 100% or close to stock/original, it would be easier to come up with a number. Alot of classic car auto insurance car companies in the USA do not require an apprasial for a stated value
policy. Not sure how it is by you. I would go that route and find a company that will give you a stated value that you both agree on. Very nicely done btw.

A beautiful looking car. I recently had my restoration appraised at 15,000. I had receipts at the time for a little over that for parts that I had bought to do everything. I decided to have standard insurance so I could drive the car anytime or anywhere I wanted to. I have replacement insurance for the appraised value.

By the way, I love your side mirrors, third brake light, and console. Could you share exactly what those are from? Thanks, JoeO

replacement cost

Amazingly I could return it to stock in a weekend for everything but the FG Flares and mirrors.

Honestly, from an appraisers stand point he is going to comein very low right now. Reasons why are:

- He works to protect the bank/ insurance Co's and they are very tight right now.
- Your car is very nice but not stock. Many times they view any alterations to a collector car to devalue the car.
- He doesn't really know what he is looking at.

Honestly the car is very well done and I think if you went to sell it you would most likely get over 12k for it. I am sure you have more than that into it but that's the way things go. I would go with a company like Hagerty where you can just tell them a value and your replacement cost that you want to be insured for.

I got the mirrors off a '95 Olds 88. (See my thread on fitting them on this site.)
The 3rd brake light is an $8 Ebay purchase from China (thread on that one too) Lots of fitting.
The console, bottom 1/2 came with the car and top 1/2 was bought off Ebay. They were an after market item.
Stainless Steel dash inserts, console inserts and targa wear bar were all once door kick plates that I got from a scrap yard a few years back. Even more fitting but worth it.

the car is very nice. But since its more modified, its gonna hold more value to someone that just love the car. Stock probably will make more money on average.


anyways, its still a very nice car

You've used the term "restored". It is NOT restored, it's rebuilt and modified to your personal tastes (not necessarily a bad thing, mind you). "Restored" means returned to its original configuration/condition. While you obviously have a LOT of time and effort into the project, it cannot ever be of as much actual market value as a car returned to it's stock configuration/condition. In the car evaluation business, as well as the car sales business, your car is considered "personalized". I know a guy whose cars were so personalized no car dealer would take any of them in trade (or even buy them outright), including a '91 C4, a '91 Westy (should have been worth more as a trade in than the C4!), and an '84 Corvette. I sold the Westy for him, and had a difficult time getting HALF what a stock one would have brought.

The Cap'n

show him the car that sold at barret jackson for $10k that maybe was not as nice as yours, and show him the contours car that just won the contest, beating 356s'. Maybe he'll see a better value. Id even show em the six that is trying to sell for $55k. Nice car.

If you will complete and post this 914 Condition Assessment we would know how to better value it. The value of these cars has mostly to do with condition.

http://members.rennlist.com/914_collectibles/914caf1.0.pdf

No amount of money could replace your efforts. I think a fair price for the car would be $10,000, but that may be hard to get in this economy.

I think that the spread in votes reflects the difficulty in valuing a customized car.

I think it's a very nice car, but it's not what I would build. It might be worth $20K to someone what had visions of building the same style of car. Someone else may see a car that, as nice as it is, needs a lot of work and parts to turn it back into a nice stock 914.

Here is my first car...stock 1.7. I wanted something more fun in this car but wasn't expecting his appraisal to be so low.

First, let me say that car looks very nice.

However, just as with the car I am building for myself, you have customized this to your own tastes. Particularly the non-stock interior. I am sure you spent a lot of money on that, but I would put it all at a negative. Basically I would subtract however much it would take to put the interior back to stock. It would be hard to put a value on the body unless I saw the quality of your "digging into hell" repair. But from what I see the body looks very nice. I think that Steel flares may either have no effect or a slightly positive effect. I personally think that FG flares subtract from the value of the car. The suspension freshinging and upgrades is a plus. I am also not a fan of the 916 look, but that is a personal preference.

I picked the 8-11k but would say it's 8k +/-. I know you had to have spent more than that on it. But I expect my car to be the same situation.

PS: Is it me, or does you car look to be riding high?

The car is riding high in the front, I still have an alignment to do and wheel spacers to put on.
I'm not worried about what I have into it because in true 914 fashion I shopped for deals and I won't loose any money on the car. The appraiser was impressed with the interior and said it only brought the value down by $500 to $700. It is sooo much more comfortable that I think it is worth it. I think any 914 driver who sits in it would be happy to pay par for it.

Cars like this in Canada typically go for about 25% more than their counterparts in the states. So keep that in mind of what other (US) peeps say.

Just looking at the pic's I'm going to say $17K replacement, but if you were out to sell it the market is soft and you might not get a whole lot over $10k. Just my "guess".

Your appraiser didn't work hard enough for that $350, it should of had at least 1.5hrs research time, photo's and write up another hour. Any less than that you're being ripped off IMO.
BTW in Ontario all you need to be called an "appraiser" is a business license and a bit of knowledge about cars.

My appraiser checks out my car, asks what I think it's worth, looks at papers I bring, does enough research to CYA, takes pics, and writes it up. $125

I know a guy who has a very collectible 911. He chose to totally modify it into a hard core racing platform with 3.8l 911 engine, full cage, racing fuel cell etc. etc. He has the car he wanted, but since all it has in common with the stock collectible car is the chassis, its no longer a "collectible" and now worth less than it would be with no mods. My guess is your car is in the $8-$11K range; i.e. I don't think you'll ever get back all you put into it UNLESS you find a buyer that totally "gets it".
If you're looking for an insurance value, as suggested earlier, I recommend you work with a specialty insurer such as Leland-West and arrive at a "stated" or "agreed" value that you both agree on.
P.S. I know I'll never get back all I have in my Subie conversion; I went into it fully aware of that.

I think that is an awesome looking car. I think a "fair" market (and insurance) value should be 12K.

Remember the guy that had the RayCo bodied car last month that most everybody laughed at because he wanted $25k for. He sold it for $18,5K and I think your car is much nicer.

T.C.

I was thinking the same thing. Here's the link to that thread. For appraisal purposes, this is a comparable car. I prefer the mods you have made, but that's not the issue. You're looking for sold cars with extensive modifications. Both cars even have 4 bangers.

RayCo car

BTW, nice job on the interior, looks comfy.

How tall are you? My guess, from looking at it, is that the seats are too high for me to fit comfortably in the car.

Does look like a very nice job, though.

I'm 5'11" and sit just fine. With the roof on I don't touch. I measured from the wind shield/roll bar (with a broom handle) to the seat top on both my cars and found these only sit about 1/2" higher.

Very nice car and great attention to detail. I'm sure many would love to have your car! Unfortunately, a major stumbling block to it's value right now is it is too mofified. I would also have to agree "restored" is also not the correct term if we're talking about value.

Many classic car insurances do not require appraisals as noted already, and I doubt you would have any problem insuring it for 10-15K. Selling it in today's market, is a another story.

Once again...very nicely done!

The appraiser probably lowballed you as much as he thought he could get away with. The value of car should be determined like this:

What is the car? What are equivalent prices for cars that have had this type of work done to them?

The individual ones (leeway here):

How much cost in metal?
How much would an average body shop charge w/out parts to fix the metal?
How much would it cost for an average body shop to paint the car?

=Equals you basic cost of the car

Here in the US (general):

Paint: $5000
Metal: $800-1000
Shop to put metal in: $1000-$7000 or more depending on the factor and the when they realize its a Porsche.

Rough Total: $10,800 (higher amount for the shop based in my local area)

The appraiser should of at least done enough homework to know how much it costs to paint and get metal restored.

The $10,800 should be the base at which he works off of.

How much for an engine rebuild?
How much for a transmission rebuild?
How much did it cost to bring the suspension back to equivalent standards for the car?
How much did it cost to bring the car back to standards concerning mechanical & safety issues?

That will probably be anywhere between $1,000-5,000 or more also depending on average shop prices.

With the custom interior work, you could easily lob off $1,500 on the selling price. It all depends on the buyer. Or it might add $1,500 in value.

A fair value for your car $13,500-14,000USD which would be 27,000-28,000 pounds in the UK.

Here is the deal. The way I looked at it, I hired the appraiser to work for me to protect my assets. (I got the feeling he thought he was trying to protect the Insurance companies assets)
Less than 1% of the populatuion would pay or even think that a Z1R Corvette is worth $100K, but that doesn't mean that some think it is worth it, or will pay that for it, thus making it worth $100K.

This appraiaser came in at about $8400 US.

I thought he should have come in at least $11,000 US or $14-$15K CAN. (Given the dollar was trading at .77 last week)
Looking at the poll results I see that over 40% believe it should be appraised at about $11K US or higher and almost 20% over $14K US.
I now feel justified that he might have under valued my car for Insurance replacement purposes.

I want to thank all for voting and posting.

Thanks
Doug

That price is ridiculously low. I am glad you were able to get some clarification here.

Most of you folks would know what I feel about this car. For that reason, did not vote. But.....

For a "personalized" 914, this is very nice. Though I only have superficial photos to draw from.

Let's be realistic here. This car, nice as it is, will never draw top dollar because it is too far from orignal. No, it can't be taken back to original in a weekend. I am not "dissing" your 914. You made your choices & did an excellent job, but it is a custom car.

As the years go by, the numbers of original 914's drop. That raises the values of the original/restored to original cars. Remember, they didn't make that many to start with!

Now, let's discuss insurance! You can get a stated value coverage from a number of sources. That doesn't translate into what your 914 is worth. And, it doesn't mean that you'll get the final coverage if it's demolished. Read the policy. There are many derivatives. Be careful.

Nice 914 - I like it!
Pat

No offense taken but, all but the fenders and mirrors can be unbolted and originals put back on, I believe, in a weekend. I am a bit of a stickler for originality. The only reason I decided to molest this car a bit was because it was a broken back poor specimen of a 914 when I bought it.
I have the original bumpers, painted and ready to replace if need be. I'm still not sure I like the 916's so I have both if I change my mind. The original dash is uncracked and the basket weave is still in great shape on the metal backing plate. I even left the upper dash vinyl black for contrast and if I wanted to replace all to original I wouldn't have to change that too. All the dash components on this car came off another car. The seats, out of an 88 Corolla, were mounted on original seat mounts and can come out of the car in 30 seconds. The original 38000 miles seats are in my attic with all the other original parts including unmolested door panels and back pad. All the bright aluminum trim is in a box in my attic.
If I chose to replace the mirrors, the holes could be patched and painted with minimal work compared to what has already been done. I did keep the old fenders but mostly because they were the only part of the car that had no rust. but I don't ever plan to put them back on. If I did that would be a few weekend work in itself.

BTW if you saw earlier in the thread, I do already have an all original '72 I use as a sunny day driver. I'm hoping to use this as my DD and bring the '72 up to show car state in the next year or so.
Thanks for looking Pat.

I just received my second appraisal.
FMV (Fair Market Value) $12,000 US.
Replacement Value - $18,000 US.
Much more inline with what I expected.
This is what I'll submit to my insurance company.
Thanks again to all that polled.

BTW I did provide the appraiser this web site for research purposes.

Yep....I wasn't to far off. Much more in line with Canadian $ values.