RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

It must be, you did a pretty good job of that yourself.

Low miles doesn't always mean excellent condition. One of the cars I looked at before buying my latest Z28 was an '01 SS with 16K miles. This was in september '04. The owner raved about it over the phone words like "mint, showroom new, perfect" were tossed around like there was no tomorrow. Now of course condition evaluation can be subjective, but in person the car was no better than fair to maybe good condition in my eyes. Greater than expected interior wear, damage on both front and rear bumpers from low speed impacts (probably parking on the street), pretty bad curb rash on the right front wheel, obvious winter/salt exposure, etc. This guy was the second owner, had zero paperwork on the car and to top it off after driving the car I could tell it needed a trans mount and at the very least an alignment. There is no way I would have paid anything near what the car might be offically worth because I didn't want to be bothered with fixing all that cosmetic crap.

My point was and still is that I'd much rather pay a little more than book value for a truly excellent condition & winter free documented original owner car than get a 'good deal' on something in pretty rough shape.

Maybe it's different in your area but I just don't see killer deals like an '01 Trans Am with 15K miles that fits my definition of excellent shape selling around Chicagoland for $15K. I looked at tons of these cars between September of '04 and December of '04 and never came across those kind of deals. Of course Chicago winters are the usual reason why so many of these cars are in poor shape around here....

I just don't want to be bothered with restoring a car that isn't even a decade old yet, and beleive me I've seen a few LS1 cars listed for sale that claim to be "mint" that look like they need a restoration, even some lower mileage ones. People use the word 'Mint' waaaaaaay too loosely, IMO.

BlueSix

I never overlooked anything. You are valuing these cars thousands over what they will really sell for. The only '98 that would be worth over $10K is a bright purple metallic T/A, or a WS6 Formula. And as for the 2001's for 15K....let's assume something real quick. In reality on car's this new, age determines price before mileage (unless we are talking about very high miles). A 2001 that was leased in Jan, 2001 for 4 years would be turned in this month, or purchased for it's residual value. The residual on these car's was NEVER above 50%, so i'll use that for reference. So a trans am that was $26,000 4 years ago, is now worth $13,000 per GM. Now that would be assuming a 48K miles lease. Even for a 15-20K mile car the price would still be in the 15-16K range. You're also the kind of person that would pay $33K for a new GTO if that's what you were looking for, aren't you.

I'm not saying you shouldn't pay what you want to for a car...i just wish more people like you had been around last year when i sold my 2002 WS6.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I just have to plain disagree on this one. Not much else can be said there.


You are overlooking quite a large detail in fact; I just did a quick search on autotrader for within 50 miles of chicagoland for '01 Trans Ams. I found 18 cars. There was not a SINGLE one listed for less than $16900, and the one that was $16.9K had 42K miles. Average price was $21K, and there was not a single base T/A with anywhere near 15K miles that listed for less than $20K. Keep in mind that this is also the "cheap" season for performance cars in IL, and I have learned from experiance that most of those cars won't even come close to excellent condition. Granted, these are just asking prices that can be negotiated down, but that is subject to quite a bit of speculation depending on the circumstance/condition so I won't even bother to debate that angle.

Your price estimations are just plain incorrect for certain areas from what I've personally seen while shopping myself.

Blue Book, Black Book, or any other pricing guide is not the Bible, and they don't always accuratly represent the true open market prices when shopping for *actual/true* excellent condition, fully documented, unmolested, original owner, no snow/rain, popular cars that are no longer built. Again, local weather patterns have a lot to do with how exclusive a non-winter/salt car actually is.


Why would I do that? GTOs are being sold brand new on dealers lots for a lot less than that. The difference with F-bodies is, your only option is to buy used (with a few rare exceptions), and if you want a really nice one you're going to have to be willing to pay a little more than "offical" value or hope and pray that you find an insane deal that might force you to drive hundereds of miles to close on. I personally don't have time to drive all over the country looking for a car, and after many months of looking I never happened across any insanly low prices on cars that were in the condition I demanded.

I'm honestly sorry that you couldn't get top dollar out of you car, but that doesn't mean that other's haven't and don't. This I also know from first hand experiance, both buying and selling.

BlueSix

I did get top dollar out of my car. I considered $19K for an '02 WS6 w/42K miles top dollar for trade in. i knew the car wasn't worth what i needed to get out of it. Sure if i had waited around long enough i could have gotten 21K from a private sale, but i didn't have that kind of time.

I do see what you are saying about the really nice cars. Believe me i do. I just think that if you are going to go all out and buy an excellent condition car that you should go as new as possible. I would venture to say right now that a perfect condition 2002 WS6, with say 2500 miles could sell for as much as 24K. I'd pay that much for it. However i cannot justify spending the 15-16K some people in this thread are saying they would for a '98 WS6, regardless of its condition. That is unless it's one of the ultra rare BMP cars.

BlueSix

And the cars that i was finding in the mid teens last year were not near chicago. They were cars i was going to have to travel for. But at that time, for the right deal, i was willing to travel.

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you did do great on your trade.

I get your point as well, I think we are just coming at this topic from different views. I can understand how you say that you'd want the newest one possibile, many people feel the same. Personally, I had a different agenda. I wanted to spend no more than a certain amount and I knew that I would likely never get an '02 in the sort of condition I was looking for at that price, at that time. Condition and mileage within my price range were far more important to me than age. Not to mention the fact that there are some things I personally like better about the '98s than the '02s but that is totally subjective of course.

What it really comes down to is personal preferance, just like everything else in this hobby. Different people place value on different aspects of a car, and no one is really right or wrong, because it is all subjective.

And I do agree than the *average* '98 WS6 is not worth $16K, but if i were in the market still I wouldn't be looking for anything even close to "average".

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I can understand that, prices are high in areas like Chicago. I was trying to stick to that area though because the original topic author listed his location as Chicago as well (my town boarders Chicago to the north).

BlueSix

I agree that we are just coming at this from different points of view.

Don't think that i was just hating on the '98 either. i have a soft spot for NBM '98 T/A's, had mine never been t-boned i'd still be driving it today.