Bob Preston

The information I provided is from The Studebaker Avanti Production Data book which was compiled by the Studebaker National Museum Archives. The book contains photographs of internal documents one of which contains the information I shared. The first black Avanti was 63R-1013. The first grey Avanti was 63R-2122. There were also 32, 1964 Avanti’s painted black.

Black was offered as a standard color from the beginning of production. Some time between November of 1962 and January of 1963 black was replaced by gray. Black remained available as a special order color.

Hagerty just put out a short list of affordable vehicles with 300hp. The Avanti II made the list. They included median prices for #2 and #3 cars.

There’s a black 1963 R1 for sale at Harwood Motors in Cleveland Ohio for $30K.

There’s a decent looking 63 R2 (3479) at Worldwide Vintage Autos in Denver for $32K.

Actually, I can and I did. The evidence is pretty solid to support my statements about declining values in the classic car market. There are certainly exceptions, but they are very few.

I certainly respect the experience and knowledge of a former classic car appraiser. It is their job to determine a fair market value for a vehicle without bias. Individual objectives also come in to play. It may be beneficial, in some cases, to sell the car in a timely fashion and move on to the next project rather than wait months or years trying to get top dollar for the car. Like it or not, classic car prices are in decline and have been for several years. A quick sale at a reasonable price may be the prudent option. In your example of ask for X and anticipate Y, when Y doesn’t hit the table then one may need to consider that Y is still too high of a price. Otherwise , the inevitable outcome is having a collection of items that have perceived values which exceed reasonable market values.

$25-30K is in alignment with actual selling prices for cars in a similar condition. Declining prices are quite the trend across the board for many classic cars. From what I’ve seen, there’s a minority of sellers who price their cars reasonably.

I’d recommend having them include photos of any used parts as well. This step may help you avoid a situation where you have to return unacceptable items and eat a 15% restocking fee. Also, nail down shipping costs. I paid about $60 to have some rusty parts shipped to me, but only $16 to have them returned. Maybe also ask the question “Would you put these parts on your car?”

Have you traced the wires? Does the light illuminate? Could be part of an alarm system.

Somebody may have changed it. The design isn’t brilliant because it’s sucking in hot air from deep within the engine compartment. If the whole affair was flipped to put the intake in front, it would be sucking in cooler air.

63R-3168 is listed by Hagerty in a no reserve auction in Phoenix, AZ. It’s a white/black R1 with some interesting history.

Understood. Thanks for providing photos of the invoices. I had a similar experience with the vendor that sends out the printed invoice. Haven’t ordered from the vendor that uses the hand written one. Both were easy to identify. While I won’t say that I’d never order from either of them, or the other one that sent unacceptable parts, those 3 are now the last 3 that will be given an opportunity to earn my business. As fate would have it, those 3 are the closest to my location in Michigan. However, I’ve received parts in a more timely fashion from Arizona and Florida.

Would you care to share which supplier sent the dried out, rusty parts? I’ve recently ordered from 5 different suppliers in Indiana, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Massachusetts plus a few miscellaneous items from the local NAPA. One sent unacceptable rusty components (brake discs) that were returned for a refund, less shipping and a 15% restocking fee. Another sent worn, corroded parts (control arm bushings) and incorrect parts (stabilizer bushings). So far I’m just eating the cost of those parts. Ordered from another supplier and the parts are new and correct. In fact the stabilizer bushings are marked USA.

Hemmings. There’s also a ‘63 R1 that just listed for $32,500. It says “all original” but the 2-tone rear seats, pin stripes, gauge console and radio suggest otherwise.

While our cars have some peculiarities, they don’t require a specialist for most work, including an engine and/or transmission rebuild. I’d seek out a reputable shop for the engine rebuild and see if they might recommend a good mechanic.

Thanks. I have a truck on consignment and they add a flat $3900 to the price the seller wants out of the vehicle plus they charge a couple hundred to run the ad and store the vehicle for up to 4 months. That amount is pushing 25% of the price I’d like to get, which I believe has made the price too high, thus no buyer. Once the contract is up I’ll look for a consigner that charges the 12.5% fee which would be closer to $2000. Of course for someone selling a $100,000 car the fee is less than 4%.

Brad Bez 573-318-8948. What sort of work are you looking to have done?

It’s possible that he has already done this. We really don’t know that much about his doings.

Too bad there’s no mention of the vehicles history in the description. What sort of commission or fees do they charge to consign?

Gateway Classic Cars in San Antonio just listed a Red ‘89 convertible for $26,000.

R4179 is listed as a 1964 R2 and is up on a no reserve auction for 5 more days, current bid is $5000. It’s being sold by the original owner who bought it in 1965. There’s another R2 in Beverly Hills that’s listed as an R1 for $17,500.

My opinion of the platforms that you’ve mentioned is that you’ll likely get fair market value from each one. Pick one, sell it and donate the proceeds. If your objective is to maximize the dollar amount of the donation, you may want to consider working with one of the organizations to include the vehicle as part of a fundraiser. Frequently at these events participants will pay considerably more than what the item is actually worth because they know the money is going to a good cause. Essentially, they’re making a donation and getting something in return. Alternatively, you could simply donate the car, take any applicable tax deductions, and avoid the whole process of selling.

Recently, I’ve seen a few price reductions on Avanti’s that have been on the market for quite awhile. The one I looked at last October in Ohio has dropped $5K from $54,900 to $49,900. At the time the seller said there was no room for negotiations because he didn’t want to sell the car. An R1 that I’d inquired about just dropped from $43K to $39K. This isn’t unusual, since a seller typically wants to get as much as possible and a buyer isn’t likely to offer more than the asking price, so starting a high, but reasonable price is to be expected. I do believe that there’s some spaghetti being thrown at the wall and this could be driven by the possibility that the sellers saw a single car sell for a handsome price and they’ve priced theirs similarly. As an example, the seller of the one in Connecticut specifically mentioned one that had sold for $57K and his is priced at $58K, even though the car most recently sold for $37,500 and is a $45K-$48K car at best. He has a multi-million dollar car collection and a $50K car is little more than a rounding error in the big picture, but his asking price is preventing car from being sold, driven and seen.

I wrote it. The entire post was about information that I read on another forum (see paragraph 1). I felt the information was relevant to this discussion so I shared some of what was said on that forum. Is that clear?