Reviews, opinions and market analysis of classic cars we can all afford

Part XI: 2. Craigslist

Craigslist.com is a car classifieds powerhouse, it holds the number 2 spot on my list of 10 ten places to find affordable classic cars. If you’re patient and review the site you’re liable to find some of the best deals on affordable classic cars that are close to home so you can go look at them, buy them and not have to worry about shipping your new acquisition, after all, shipping just adds to the ultimate price of your car.

Porsche 911 For Sale on Craigslist

I strongly believe that if you’re in a major city in the U.S. there must be one example of just about every car within a few hundred miles of you. It might take a long time for a Euro spec Mercedes-Benz 500SL with a manual transmission from the mid 80s to appear for sale, but when it does, it will probably show up on Craigslist first.

Craigslist is easy and free for people trying to sell a car. When someone passes away and a family member has to clean out the garage, that old 1962 MGA MKII that’s been under the painting tarp with years worth of cardboard boxes stacked on top of it will probably end up on the local Craigslist site. A lot of cars that show up on Craigslist are uncovered, non-running, borderline barn finds that someone is just looking to get rid of. It’s these sorts of opportunities I like to watch for.

If you can buy the car cheap enough you can put some work into it and have a nice little driver, but be careful! If too much work is needed, or if the work is beyond your expertise or budget you should walk away, or buy the car cheap enough so you can part it out if you’re interested in that sort of thing. Don’t think buying a $700 car and spending every night for the next 2 months picking parts off of it and putting them on eBay is a great revenue stream.

In most cases, depending upon what you’re parting out, you will end up earning far less than minimum wage after you calculate the hours you’ve put into the project and at some point you’ll have to have whatever’s left hauled away to the junk yard if you can’t sell a car that’s been picked clean of all the good bits.

Craigslist makes it very easy to list cars for sale, they don’t ask for a lot of specs or details. This makes it somewhat difficult to search for specific cars, years, or models you might be interested in. You’re pretty much at the mercy of the titles people create for their ads.

I end up using as few words as I can when I search for classic cars on eBay. If I want to look at Porsche 911s from 1978 – 1983 range, the 3-liter SC cars, I only type “Porsche 911” in the search box. Of course I have to sift through all the Porsche 911 ads, from all the years, and here in the twin cities there are pages of them, but I won’t miss any listings.

Local MGB listings with Fiat and Triumph ads mixed in.

If I’m looking for an MGB I am going to search using the keyword “MG” and see what comes up. Sure, there will be some MGAs and maybe even one of those hideous MG TD replicas built from a Volkswagen Beetle, but at least you’ll see what’s out there in your area. You’ll probably get hits on a couple of Triumphs from those folks who list their Spitfire like this; ”1974 Triumph Spitfire, great condition, not MGB, not Alfa Romeo” A listing like this will show up for anyone searching for Triumphs, MGBs, or Alfa Romeos because the listing title includes all of those words. A little annoying to people searching for MGBs I guess, but the seller will get more search hits on their listings as a result. Maybe the guy who had his heart set on an MGB might actually buy his Triumph.

I live in a place where cars rust a lot, where it’s cold for 6-7 months out of the year, there are fewer fun convertibles in this part of the country, and certainly fewer rust free cars in the upper mid west, that’s why I often visit other Craigslist markets if I ‘m looking for a perfect car or one I’m willing to pay to ship.

Craigslist Los Angeles and San Francisco are both great. There are often rare cars for sale on these sites, and there always seem to be more listings for specialty classic cars. California has always been a car lover’s paradise with a big population. A lot of interesting cars were sent out to California in the 50s and 60s, so when a garage in southern California is cleaned out there is a good chance there could be something cool lurking in the shadows.

Just 5 Fiat listings on Craigslist in Minneapolis.

18 Fiat listings on Craigslist SF Bay Area.

While it might take a little extra effort, the pictures aren’t always the best, and it’s impossible to carry out a surgical search like you can do on eBay, Craigslist is a great place to find your next affordable classic car. You can usually find good cars close to home for sale by motivated sellers. If the stars align and you do your due diligence it’s probably one of the best places to find your next affordable classic car.

Part X:  3. Driving Back Roads on the Weekends

Sometimes we have to look for an excuse to take our affordable classics out on the weekends. Our next best place to find an affordable classic car might not be the most efficient, but it may just be the most fun.

VW bus along Route 66 near Seligman, AZ

The drive to the coffee shop or bookstore is never long enough, for me anyway, when I’m in my weekend fun car. One of the most fun ways to enjoy your car is taking it out onto rural back roads with twists and turns, a 55 mile per hour speed limit, and perhaps a good lunch option an hour or so away that you can loosely use as your destination or reason for the drive.

While out on drives like these keep your eyes open for cars parked in the front yards of farm houses with plywood signs leaning up against cars with “4 SALE” painted on them. Some great deals can be found like this, if you’re lucky enough to drive past something that interests you.

During the summers I drive from the Twin Cities down to Road America, a wonderful road racing circuit about an hour north of Milwaukee in Elkhart Lake, WI. I have to cross most of Wisconsin on two lane roads as there is no good interstate route from west to east that gets me to the track. Along this drive I’ve seen some cars worth stopping for. I saw a Volkswagen Beetle, just a standard sedan from the mid 70s, for “$800 obo” painted on the sign leaning against it.

It made me wish I was driving a pick up truck with an empty trailer behind me. The car was orange, one of my favorite period colors for those cars. It was in decent shape, from 20 feet anyway. I couldn’t see any rust, although one would have to assume there was some lurking in the floor boards. The point is, with $800 obo on the sign, you’ve got to think the guy would have given it to me for $500 if I were to take it out of his front yard for him. If he wouldn’t want to take just $500 for it, maybe I could get his wife involved, you know she’d take $500 for it just to make it disappear. At the very least it would have been a fun project to clean up and sell back in the cities where a much larger, urban population could be reached for the sale.

On that same drive over the past few years I’ve seen mostly American cars on the side of the road for sale. Old Ford Mustangs, Corvettes, tons of Camaros in various stages of disassembly, on blocks, with weeds growing up around them. I saw a Porsche 944 Turbo two years ago. Sure, that car probably needed a new turbo and tons of other things, but if you can buy these cars cheap enough, put them on a trailer and take them back to a city you can put them on Craigslist and reach a large audience, or, depending upon the car, put it on eBay and put it out on the national market.

"4 Sale" A potential street rod project along Route 66 in Missouri.

I drove Old Route 66 from Illinois to L.A. a few years ago in a Volkswagen Westfalia, and I have never seen more cool cars just sitting out in fields, parked next to old garages, behind barns. I saw something worth stopping for every day I was on the road during that trip. I’d love to do it again someday with a car trailer.

A lot of the cars you may find this way could have real issues, they could have been seriously neglected, they could be rusty if they’ve been sitting behind the barn for a long time, but there are cars worth pulling out of such circumstances. If you get lucky you might get a look inside a barn or two and see something that might really be worth picking up.

While it isn’t the fastest way to find your next affordable classic, if you keep your eyes peeled while you’re driving the back roads and you get lucky, you could find an incredible deal on a car you wouldn’t have expected to find out in the middle of no where. If you don’t find anything… it was just a nice afternoon lunch at the end of a fun drive. Be sure to take a different way home so you can drive a new route and increase your chances of coming across something interesting parked on the side of the road.

Part IX:  4. Local, Free, Car Classified Magazines

These car classified publications are often overlooked as one of the best places to find affordable classic cars as people walk out of the grocery store. I’m talking about those weekly publications printed on low quality newsprint with blurry photos, typos in the descriptions, full of used car classifieds from local car dealers, franchised dealers all the way down to the bottom feeder dirt lots. Despite their shortcomings, these publications do sometimes contain ads for those affordable classic cars you wouldn’t expect to see in such a publication.

Late model Mercedes-Benz SL, worth a look.

Franchised dealers or run of the mill used car lots get all sorts of trade-ins. These dealers rarely pay much for an older car. Many times they don’t take into account the potential collectibility of a car when putting a price on someone’s trade in. They don’t want to overpay, they’d like to give the customer a safe trade-in value for a car they probably don’t really want anyway. High volume dealers don’t want to be slowed down by “just another old car” and therefore generally offer really low trade-in numbers so they can quickly flip the car without worrying about losing any money on the transaction.

Classic BMW 6 Series, bad wheels, but cheap.

This dynamic opens doors for the savvy buyer who understands these older affordable classic cars. I might be using the term “classic” loosely here. Let’s just say cars with character, special attributes or qualities that might make them good weekend drivers or club cars. There is a lot of junk to sort through in these publications before you find anything remotely interesting. I usually find one to three potentially interesting cars per issue of this sort of publication. It’s this kind of publication where I found the ad for the 1976 BMW 2002 I have been writing about in the Affordable Classic Tales section of the blog.

If you find something interesting you can usually approach a dealer for such a car with a low offer, I mean, go really low, chances are they didn’t pay much for the car. If you’re serious about a particular car be prepared to back up your offer and really be prepared to buy the car if they’ll sell it for your price. A high volume dealer doesn’t want their time wasted, they’d often rather do without any headaches that might arise from selling that 10, 15, or 20 year old car… the needs it may have, the thin market such a car might trade in. Tell them you’ll take it off their hands right then and there, as it is.

Classic VW Beetle Convertible among regular used cars.

Surely they’ll counter your offer, they have to on principle. Go back and forth a couple of times and you’ll quickly be able to tell if they own the car cheap enough to sell it to you for your price. If you have to, give them your phone number and tell them to give you a call if they decide later they want to take your offer. If they actually let you drive away you know you’re offer is too low.

These days, the only way you can leave a dealership without the car you want is if your offer to buy the car is truly a number they cannot live with. Circle back to the dealership if they haven’t called you in 15 minutes and ask them, “Honestly, what will you take for me to get this off your lot right now?”. The next number they give you will be the bottom line number and you can be sure you’re getting it for as low a price as you can. At this point… if you’ve come back a second time, and they’ve given you the bottom line number, on principle, you have to buy the car. If you don’t, you’re just wasting the dealer’s time and your own time kicking tires.

Franchised car dealers put huge amounts of money into advertising their cars for sale. These free publications that are at the exits of grocery and convenience stores are easy to pick up and easy to flip through, sift through the junk to encounter a few gems. Find out from the store manager when the new issues are distributed and swing by to pick them up early. Odd ball trade ins and cars dealers are looking to move quickly are precisely the kinds of affordable classic cars I personally love looking for. They don’t want the hassle of another old car, I don’t want to pay too much. I’m there to make their life easy, they’re looking to move an old car, if done correctly, everybody wins.

Part VIII:  5. Marque and Model Specific Websites

We’ve clearly established the fact that the “world wide interweb” has changed our lives forever. Can you even remember what the world was like without it? The car hobby was quite different pre internet. Enthusiasts interacted with each other on a much more local level in general, and when it was time to buy or sell a car you were pretty much at the mercy of print publications, most of which reached fairly local or regional audiences.

Thanks to the internet, car hobbyists from all over the country, and world for that matter, can get together in forums and discuss their cars. Every one of these forums I’ve ever had a look at seems to have a classified or for sale area. Like car club publications, these sorts of classifieds are posted and viewed by enthusiasts actively seeking something specific. The fact that they’re web based means things move quickly, postings are added easily and often, and you can react to them quickly, that’s what makes them the fifth best place to find an affordable classic car.

Web forums exist for just about every car you can imagine. Whether the forum is more broad, geared towards a particular manufacturer, or a specific model, every car seems to have some sort of following. As they say, “there is an ass for every seat” and so too does there seem to be a place on the web for all of those people to discuss the modifications they’ve made to their cars, what’s wrong with their cars, what’s right, and questions about what they should do to fix the most recent problem that’s come up.

Forums, the good ones, can be great places to meet other people that share your passion for a particular car, but perhaps even more importantly, a great place to ask questions and learn about your car, how to fix something if it goes wrong. I’ve been quite impressed with a few forums that I signed up with, here are some I’ve found especially good.

Benzworld.org Classifieds

Benzworld.org is a very comprehensive Mercedes-Benz enthusiast website with forum sub categories for most Mercedes-Benz models. It’s an extensive site with a general For Sale section, but I’ve noticed some of the specific model areas seem to have their own classified sections, so it’s worth a look around the site to make sure you’ve seen everything there is to see. Whether you’re looking for a whole car or a replacement sun visor for a car you’ve already got, classifieds on benzworld.org are a good place to look. Today alone, more than 20 classifieds were posted on the benzworld.org general classified section. I’m sure within each category there are many more, that’s real activity, no stale classifieds here.

Vintage air cooled Volkswagens, TheSamba.org

I came across the best Volkswagen enthusiast site I’ve ever found some years ago when I was looking for a used Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia camper. The Samba.com is an extensive Volkswagen site with forums covering every air cooled Volkswagen ever made. The forums on this site are very active and are moderated by some pretty knowledgeable folks. The classifieds on this site are just as impressive. There are separate categories for all sorts of Volkswagens and new listings appear daily. Today, for example, seven new Vanagon listings were posted. It’s a great place to meet those people who have 12 Volkswagens in their backyard who have decided it’s finally time to sell some of them off. There are always good deals, and interesting cars, at The Samba. Vintage Volkswagens will rarely ever win a drag race, but there are some interesting cars that can be a lot of fun. They’re easy to work on and, relatively speaking, pretty easy on the pocket book.

North American MGB Register, everything B.

When it comes to affordable British sports cars it’s tough to beat the MGB. Between roadsters and GTs, 4 cylinder cars and V8s, there were more than half a million MGBs built between mid 1962 and 1980. These are great entry level sports cars that offer more fun than their often small price tag would have you believe. The North American MGB Register (namgbr.org) is a website where owners can sign up and register their car, so other hobbyists can keep track of them I suppose. There is a similar site for the MGA, the North American MGA Register (NAMGAR). There are the typical forums with guys talking about their cars in way too much detail…but these are the same guys that will come to your rescue when your car won’t start or when you turn on the lights and the windshield wipers go on. They have a classifieds section where you can find complete cars or the most seemingly insignificant part for your car. Many of the folks on these registries have two, three, or five and a half MGs. These members are generally in tune with the market and are realistic when it comes to their selling prices.

Mazda RX7, all generations, all years.

When it comes to more modern affordable classics the Mazda RX7 has always interested me. Unconventional rotary engine and unique styling it’s been a cool machine through all of its design changes and different iterations. RX7Club.com is a solid RX7 resource for RX7 owners and enthusiasts. This site splits up the categories between the different generations of RX7s as you would expect. The classifieds are fairly extensive. It looks to me that you may have to sort through quite a few highly modified and non stock cars to get to the good, original stuff, but it is an active community with quite a bit of action on the different forums.

A great Alfa Romeo Resource.

The last website I will mention specifically is the Alfa Bulletin Board (Alfabb.com), a site dedicated to the wonderful cars from Milano, Alfa Romeo. This is a huge Alfa community, as a result, there are lots of good classifieds here. There is something about Alfisti, not unlike MG owners, they can never seem to make due with just one car. At the same time, they can never seem to work on all of their projects very effectively either, so perhaps that’s why there is such a good classified section here. In future articles I plan to review two Alfa Romeo models in particular, the Spider Veloce and the GT V6, both are pretty exotic machines that can be purchased pretty cheap these days. Of course, a cheap purchase price doesn’t mean they’re cheap cars, the purchase price is often merely the price of admission. Good ones are out there, and I think the Alfa Bulletin Board is a good place to find them.

Enthusiast forums exist for just about every make and model of affordable classic car, I’ve simply mentioned a few that I visit regularly. All of these sites will have classifieds sections where these die hard enthusiasts advertise entire cars or parts for them. Unusual model variants often appear on sites such as these. If you’re looking for something specific don’t just look through the classifieds and see if it appears, be sure you throw your hat in the ring and post a “Wanted to Buy” message to the classifieds section. Let people know what you’re looking for. Don’t be shy, folks on these sites are generally happy to help someone looking for a car like theirs. It is important to read the rules of each forum, and be sure to read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section to see if your question has been answered before, you want to be taken seriously. If you follow their rules and read for a while before you write… like listening for a while before you talk, you’ll be welcomed with open arms and you may just find that affordable classic car you’ve been looking for in their classified section.

Part VII:  6. Market Letters

The Market Letter is probably the most unique place to find an affordable classic. These publications are generally only known to true insiders of a particular make or model. The expertise and niche nature of these publications really set them apart from other classified sources or your run of the mill newsstand publications. These publications are essentially publications full of classifieds of a particular make or model of car often mixed with specific market analysis and model information.

The Porsche Market Letter

The expertise with which these sorts of publications are put together has no equal. The people who write, assemble and publish these pieces are the true experts in their fields. I am most familiar with two publications in particular. The first is the Porsche Market Letter, boasting close to 1000 Porsche classifieds per issue (printed every two months). The Porsche Market Letter is clearly the publication to look at if you’re serious about a Porsche of any type. Have a look at their extensive website for more information.

SL Market Letter

The second publication is the even more specific SL Market Letter. This publication is, as its name implies, specific to the Mercedes-Benz SL, from the 300SLs of the 1950s to the newest, modern SLs, they’re all covered. The SL Market Letter also includes classifieds and market analysis of other Mercedes-Benz models, typically the most collectible models, coupes and specialty sedans. As the SL Market website subscription page states:

“Keep in mind that it would take many magazines, newspapers, and internet-searching hours to gather the “sense of the market” found in ONE issue of the SL Market Letter.”

I would have to agree, the depth of knowledge this publication taps into is vast. Publisher John Olson is also the author and publisher of  “The SL Experience – Five Decades of the Mercedes-Benz SL”. If you’re looking for a collectible Mercedes-Benz there’s no doubt it’s worth subscribing to the SL Market Letter, some wonderful examples show up each month, many of them meeting our “affordable classics” criteria. You can visit the SL Market Letter website for more information or for a look at several sample issues.

Market letters are specialty publications produced for the most serious enthusiasts, collectors and investors and that’s exactly why you should be looking at them as one of the best sources for your next affordable classic. The information contained in these publications can serve you well even after you’ve obtained your affordable classic. While more expensive than a subscription to Hemmings Motor News or Auto Trader Classics market letters reside on an entirely different level in terms of expertise of specific makes and models. In the end, what’s finding the RIGHT car worth to you?

Part VI:  7. Marque Club Publications

I’ve always believed that joining the car club for the specific make of car you have is a good idea, for a number of reasons. National car clubs are the keepers of the flame for specific car makes. Most have significant histories going back many years, founded by the first enthusiasts who decided to organize, formalizing their passion for their cars. Clubs and their members are probably the best resources available to find a good car, learn more about a car you’ve got, or sell your car when the time comes.

Clubs generally have well developed publications, individual magazines dedicated to that particular marque. These publications chronicle the happenings of individual chapters and the national body. They include things like event reports, car shows, technical articles explaining particular models or mechanical aspects of individual cars or their components. All of these publications include classified sections where members can list cars for sale.

I’m familiar with several of these publications, specifically The Mercedes-Benz Club of America’s (MBCA) “The Star”, the Porsche Club of America’s (PCA) “Panorama”, and the BMW Car Club of America’s (BMWCCA) “Roundel”. The classifieds in the back of each are full of excellent, well cared for examples of classics… some affordable, others, not so much.

While I believe these publications can be a decent place to find an affordable classic, I also think that the club members listing their cars often think too much of their cars and put huge sale prices on them. It’s probably safe to say that cars owned by club members have been fastidiously maintained and cared for, wiped down with a soft cloth often no doubt, but be careful to not overpay just because someone thinks their 1969 Porsche 912 is the finest example on the planet.

I was looking through the classifieds in a recent issue of “The Star” and saw some very high prices and phrases like “Best in the U.S.”, “Mint”, “Excellent Condition”. I’m sure a lot of these cars are in great shape… but best in the U.S.? Going back and looking at the previous issue, and the issue before that, I saw the same car, same description, same insane price. The Star is published every two months… so this guy has listed his car for six months with no takers (It’s a 1976 450SLC, the coupe will never have the appeal of the roadsters). I’m sure it’s a fine car, but the market doesn’t seem to think it’s worth the $17,000 he’s asking for it even if with its 58,000 original miles.

Classifieds in these publications can be a great place to find some of the lowest mileage and nicest cars of their kind in the country, obsessed over by true marque enthusiasts, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your due diligence and try to get a great deal. If you’re going to pay up for a great car, make sure the seller can produce records, receipts and documentation for any work they’re claiming has been done to the car.

I think joining the local chapter of any national marque car club is a great idea. It will put you in touch with people who share your passion. It will open up opportunities for social events as well as track events were you can learn to drive your car to the limit of its ability… or at least to the limit of your ability. You’ll automatically start receiving the club’s national magazine and you’ll have access to quality classifieds and be privy to inside information regarding the marque. If you do join a club, make sure all the people in your local club know if you’re looking for something specific. One of them just might know where to find that BMW 3.0 CS project you’ve been looking for!

Part III: BMW 2002 For Sale $1450 OBO – Test Drive and Brief Negotiations

At this point any smart car guy will tell you I’ve got two strikes against me in this transaction… 1) rusty car 2) sell it for a profit. Those two things just don’t work together… but what if I can get it for 700 bucks how bad can I lose?  I begin to pick the poor old car apart in my head. The mirrors are nice, chrome, those are worth something. A dash with no cracks, definitely worth something, the glass is good, I could sell that etc. etc. Forget the time and bloody knuckles it might take to pick it apart, take pictures and list everything on eBay. Maybe I’d just try to sell the whole car. Let me see if I can buy it first.

Probably okay if I can get it really cheap.

Chris pulled in as I was closing the trunk of the car. He got out of late 80s Volkswagen Jetta with a two tone custom paint job. He was a portly guy in his late twenties.

“Hi, you’re the guy who called about that yesterday?” he asked me pointing at the BMW.

“Yeah” I answered.

“Why don’t you take it for a drive and see what you think, it runs a little rough, but it drives fine” he insisted, “get your speed up so you can get up the hill there and onto the road” he added. There was a slight grade from the lot to the road, snow on the ground, rear wheel drive.

So I got in and started it up again and engaged first gear, the clutch felt fine. I pulled up the rise, spun the tires a little and got out onto the 55 mph two lane county road. What a great way to die, flipping end over end in an old BMW as the rear wheels crash through the rusty trunk shock towers on a snow covered road. There wasn’t really much snow on the main road.

The car actually drove fine. I was careful with it, the engine pulled well, it shifted up through the gears nicely. I went about a half mile down the road and went to turn around in a gas station. There was some grinding on the stick as I downshifted from third to second gear… synchro is shot… strike three for this little car… it will need a transmission rebuild probably sooner than later to really make it right.

I enjoyed driving it, the view out of the car was incredible, no blind spots anywhere, it was like driving a greenhouse. It steered like a go kart and even though I wasn’t going very fast in the turns in did pretty well, save for some creaking from the rear shocks… cracking rusty metal in the trunk probably.

When I got back to the lot I parked the car and went inside. Chris was sitting behind the desk with his entourage around him talking about cars.

“What did you think?” he asked.

“It’s all right I guess,” I tried to sound very uninterested, “but it’s got some real needs” I said.

“Yeah, there’s something wrong with that carb I think, that’s what’s makin’ it run rough” he shrugged.

“The shock towers are totally rusted through in the trunk, I mean it would cost thousands of dollars to have new metal welded in there” I said.

“It wouldn’t be that much, I got a quote from a welder in town that said he could do it for about eight hundred bucks” he insisted.

Bullshit I thought, no way. Maybe some guy he knows would get in there and weld something for eight hundred bucks, but that won’t fix the problem. To do it right you need to cut out the bad panels, buy good ones from a dismantler in Arizona or California who has panels that have never been rusty and have them welded in, painted, etc. etc. You can go buy a great driver 2002 for what all of that would cost and save yourself the headaches, not to mention the crunchy transmission. I figured the engine idle could probably be put right with a simple carb adjustment.

I just kept quiet for a minute, the guys standing around talked about a guy they knew who could probably fix the shock towers. Chris stood up and walked out from behind the desk and looked out the small window in the door out to the car on the lot. The guys who had been standing around meandered back to the garage area, we were alone.

“Look man,” I began “it’s November, there’s snow on the ground, that car’s probably going to sit there until the spring. What’s the least you’ll take for it if I drive it out of here right now?”

His brow ruffled, he turned to see where the other guys were, he thought for maybe five seconds and looked me right in the eyes.

“Seven Hundred bucks.”

Part II: BMW 2002 For Sale $1450 OBO – Mixed Emotions

It was a cold Saturday morning in late November. I took my driver’s license out of my wallet and put it in my pocket and headed to the bank. I went in and withdrew the $700. I didn’t want any credit cards, my ATM card, anything that might tempt me to get more money if my $700 idea didn’t work. I just had my license and seven one hundred dollar bills.

Not bad from 20 feet.

It was a gravel car lot about 30 miles west of Minneapolis, on the side of a rural county road. Just 30 miles outside the city and nothing but cornfields and a car lot. There were some old Volkswagen Golfs, an Audi or two from the early nineties, high miles, all used up for $5000. The car looked great as I pulled in. Metallic blue was always a good color for 2002s and 3.0CS BMWs. All the chrome trim bits seemed to be there, the chrome bumpers were in good shape, it had a sunroof, collector plates, there wasn’t any visible rust from 20 feet… it had about 4 inches of snow on it.

I parked my car and got out to have a closer look. The badges looked good, I peeked inside. The seats were tired, in need of restuffing, the dash was perfect, no cracks, it had a cool aftermarket Momo steering wheel, it looked good enough. I walked towards the cinder block building that housed the sales office and garage. Inside there were a few guys in there mid twenties standing around a desk, just hanging out.

“Hi, I’m here to have a look at the BMW” I announced.

“Uh, yeah, Chris isn’t here right now, you’ll need to talk to him about it, he should be here soon. I’ll get you the key” one of the guys piped up.

He got the key and gave it to me. “You can go out and have a look at it, Chris should be here in a little while.”

I walked outside, pretty giddy inside really, just at the prospect of the whole thing. I brushed the snow off the car. The paint looked really good until I got to the leading edge of the hood… some big rust bubbles on the front edge and front of the hood, I’m talking like 6” across 4” wide rust bubbles. I got inside, it smelled fine, I pulled up the carpet, no rust in the floors. I started it right up with the door open looking for smoke out the back, none. That was good. It did idle rough and at very low RPMs, it barely stayed running without a little gas, chuga, chuga, chuga, the RPMs bounced around but when I revved it lightly and kept the RPMs at about a constant 2800 it sounded fine. I shut it off and popped the hood.

Big surface rust bubbles on front of hood.

When I opened the hood I realized it had a Weber downdraft carburetor. That’s cool, a very common aftermarket upgrade for 2002s. There wasn’t any rust to speak of in the engine bay, a little dirty maybe, but nothing bad. There weren’t any of the manufacturer labels or stickers in the engine bay either though. 2002s have a black label with the official paint color printed on it in the engine compartment in addition to a variety of other labels. Those weren’t present. I had a look in the front wheel wells, behind the tires were baby blue and yellow Billstein shocks, another good thing.

Engine bay was okay, Weber carb.

I walked towards the back of the car looking down the doors as I went. There were a few rust bubbles at the bottom of the doors, almost under the car, nothing crazy from where I was, but some bubbles. I got to the trunk, remembering what I had read a week earlier, I opened the trunk and saw it… foot long rust cracks right across the shock towers with rusty water stains coming down from them like dried blood coming out of an old, nasty wound. In my heart of hearts I guess I expected it, but hey the original spare and jack were in there, that’s good, right?

Completely rusted out shock towers, not uncommon in a BMW 2002.

So what was in front of me? What was this car’s story? It looked to me to be a car that someone probably spent a lot of money on about five or seven years earlier. The carb could have been put on then, definitely new paint, new Billstein shocks all the way around, who knows what else, but it looks like it had been parked outside or somewhere with plenty of moisture because it was a rust bucket rotting from the inside out. It looked great from 20 feet, but those are always the most dangerous “affordable classics” because in the end, they’re anything but affordable.

Maybe I should have given the keys back and hopped in my car right then… BUT… I’m a hopeless car guy and I figured if I could just buy it cheap enough I’d be alright. My strategy changed right then, from looking for a fun weekend car to work on and drive in the Summer to a car I would buy really cheap and sell on eBay for a hefty profit! Right?

Part I: BMW 2002 For Sale $1450 OBO – A Diamond in the Rough?

The BMW 2002 has interested me since I was a kid growing up in Cincinnati. My brother would crane his neck and point them out to me as we drove by Just Blau Mit Weiss, a local BMW repair shop that wasn’t far from our house, it’s still there, in a different location, but they’re still in business in Cincinnati.

They’d have a bunch of BMWs parked outside and there would always be a few 2002s. There was always a 2002 racing car or two outside as well, with numbers on the side, we always thought they were cool. It’s the car that started it all, the first sports sedan BMW made that paved the way for the 3 series cars that have been the standard by which all others are measured for the past 30 years. They’d always interested me, but I’d never been serious about getting one.

I was at the grocery store one night and, as usual, I picked up the three different free local used car publications by the door on my way out. I was flipping through them at home… the usual stuff, late model cars, three, four, five year old used domestics, ads from most of the local franchised dealers. Then I turned the page and saw it: 1976 BMW 2002, good condition, manual trans, runs rough, $1450 OBO.

There was a phone number and website listed, it was at a small used car lot in west of Minneapolis that specializes in late model Volkswagens. Huh, that would be cool I thought, that sounds cheap, I wonder what I could really buy it for? I love seeing “OBO” after a price in a classified. I went on eBay to see what they were going for. I saw non running parts cars for more than $1500, it seemed like a good deal, what if I could buy it for $1000?

That night I got online and had a look at the BMW 2002 buyer’s guide at bimmers.com “watch out for rust, especially shock tower rust in the trunk” was the most important lesson I think I took away from that read. Rust (trying to repair it) is the best way to absolutely bury yourself in a classic car project. I didn’t think too much about the car after that night.

A week went by, coming out of the grocery store again, I picked up the next week’s used car ads, flipping through, there was the 2002, still for sale $1450 OBO. I had to at least call, right? So I called the place on Friday afternoon.

“Yeah, it’s a blue ’76, it’s in good shape, runs a little rough though, I don’t know what’s wrong with it, it’s a nice little car” the young guy on the phone sounded like he was reciting the classified.

I spent the rest of Friday afternoon wrestling with all the usual questions that arise when such an opportunity pops up out of nowhere… Should I buy this car?  How much should I pay? What if it’s junk? Can I get my money back if I need to sell it? One of the key questions was already answered… Where will I store it?

My company was subleasing warehouse space from a trucking company, those guys would let me park it in their warehouse for free. I was single at the time, so I didn’t have to sell the idea to a significant other… it was about the money, how cheap could I get it? I decided Friday night that I would take out $700 from my checking account Saturday morning, go out to have a look at the car, if I could buy it for $700 and not a penny more I’d do it. I mean, I could part it out on eBay for more than that, right?

Part V:  8. Auto Trader & Auto Trader Classics (print and online)

These are two solid publications that also boast equally complete online versions. Auto Trader covers cars from 1981 to present, Auto Trader Classics covers mainly cars 1980 and older. The national market is well represented with these two. A good mix of private party and dealer ads show up here, as a result there are some real bargains to be had.

Great for paging through in bed.

Auto Trader Classics has come a long way from its “Old Car Trader” roots. The print publication got a serious facelift with more color photos and some full color glossy pages as opposed to the old days when it was all black and white newsprint. Both publications have their own websites which are powerful tools to conduct comprehensive, local or national searches for specific cars.

Image rich, lots of color.

While I like to buy the occasional print copy of Auto Trader Classics at the bookstore to browse through in bed at night, it’s clear that the website is the place to be. New listings are added all the time, everyday. The print version comes out once a month. It’s nice to page through sometimes, but if you’re serious about finding a car, you’ve got to be on the website and you’ve got to be fast. You’ve got to see the new listings before the next guy if you want to swoop in and take advantage of the best deals on the best cars.

The wave of the present, and future.

The thing that separates Auto Trader Classics from Hemmings Motor News for me, because they are similar in many respects, is the fact that Auto Trader Classics is so much more image based, especially the print version. Every classified in auto Trader Classics is accompanied with a photo, that’s what they’re all about. Online is pretty much the same way, the only ads without photos seem to be some of the newer ads that might be waiting for a photo submission.

Auto Trader Classics is where you’ll find the old cars, 1950s, 60s, 70s. The regular Auto Trader is full of modern everyday drivers and specialty cars. It can be a good place to find a deal, an older classic listed there may fall through the cracks. If you’re looking for modern classics, say a 1986 Corvette or mid 80s Alfa Romeo Spider, Auto Trader is the place to look if you want an early 70s Vette it’s Auto Trader Classics.

There seems to be about an equal amount of dealer listings and private listings in Auto Trader Classics. You’ve got everything from the big vintage car dealers with large inventories and very expensive cars, to the one man show with a dealer’s license and a couple of cars for sale, all the way down to the guy in your neighborhood listing his car on the national market.

While browsing listings online what inevitably happens is that I click on a particular car listed by a dealer, there is a link to that dealer’s website which I click and I’m on a dealer’s website that I didn’t know about previously. Maybe I find myself looking at a car that I had no intention of looking at. In short, searching Auto Trader Classics has introduced me to many classic car dealers that I didn’t know about before. I’ve bookmarked their websites and find myself visiting their sites regularly.

Just searching these classifieds has expanded my knowledge and understanding of the larger collector car market and the players, big and small, in the car hobby. This is an added benefit of most of the sources on this top ten list. In the end it’s all networking, the more people in the hobby you get to know the more fun you’ll have, the more opportunities to buy and sell cars will come up.