testing the market -2002 ws6 trans-am, 6-speed SOM ext , camel interior 17,000 miles, unmodified whats it worth

 

If it's a very nice example, no scratches/dings/dents, tires in good shape, no curb rash on wheels, have service records, leather and interior is in very good shape, etc. I may be interested in it for around $16k.

That is if it has t-tops and is a very nice example.

 

Well there yea go that's what it's worth. All joking aside I would say $15k to $18k depending on what's on the market at that time. I don't think the ones I see sell actually go for $18k but that $17 to $18 range seems to be where I see them listed.

 

Last one I saw sold was on Ebay in heavy bidding last year. 20K miles and went over $20K. I was surprised. Could have been an automatic too!

I normally figure these 15% above a similar black/red WS6. So if a regular 2001/2002 M6 with 17K miles is $17K-$18K...this could fetch $19-$20K. It's not like they grow on trees. And probably the most sought after model out there. A similar 1999 Anniversary car would be in the $20's. And in my mind an SOM is certainly the equal of a CETA and not far behind a 1999 anniversary car. The 2 anniversary models are always on the market....SOMs only a fraction of that time.

I'd be happy too to buy an M6 SOM at $16K with fresh everything and in superb condition. We can dream can't we? The flipper dealers on Ebay hunt these down for mid/upper teens and try to get mid-20's. Whether they do or not is beyond my pay grade. There's never "enough" of these on the market...especially fairly priced, unmodified, and fully maintained. When searching the BST, WS6 SOM M6 comes up the most often....though black is pretty popular too. Not as many people are comfortable forking over the SOM premium.

 

Another 'high teens' price appraisal here as well but it's all in the details, from title, how many owners, maintenance, and of course condition, especially if it was not garaged.

 

I bought a '02 SOM WS6 convertible with a camel interior for 15k last year from this forum. It had 46k miles and is pretty nice. That being said, I think your coupe with low miles would be worth in the high teens and if I had the cash right now, I would be interested.

 

everyone,
thanks for the feedback, technically it my wife's car. She asked me to put some feelers out on value, she really likes the car, I'm not sure what she wants to do.
That being said, She is the second owner, we know the 1st owner and the history of the car, the car is very nice just 2 small paint blemishes and the ever mention door panel cracks, full documentation and history , bottom side of car is remarkable, never ever been on wet roads.
Other then needing the space we don't need to sale.
all that being said, i think she is to attached to the car to let it go for mid teens. maybe very high teens- low 20s. if she does decide to sell i will list here first

 

In my opinion, to get $20k with paint blemishes and door panel crack, you will have to find someone who wants that exact optioned car very badly. I don't think it would be terribly hard to find that person however, but I think you would have to sit on it a while.

 

I'll keep the couple of paint blemishes and door panel cracks on an unmodified car vs. a modded one any day. Can you even find an unmodded 17K mile WS6 without paint blemishes and door panel cracks starting? I guess if you never took your TTops off, never lowered the windows, and only drive on perfectly manicured roads at no more than 30 mph in non-varying temperatures you might be able to keep cracks from starting.

In my mind no 17K mile cars are void of paint blemishes whether its tiny chips, fender/quarter panel road rash, hairlines or hazy spots from washing/washing/buffing/polishing. And even taking car covers on and off will produce damage...exactly what you didn't plan to do. Any time you wash/wax your car you're probably putting tiny blemishes into the finish. In my mind it's essentially unavoidable.

My own car has 19K miles and I can list dozens of "paint flaws." There are some stone chips in the front and at least 2 spots that look to be where a buffer stayed too long (before my ownership). Any owner who has looked at their own car carefully should be able to spot the same things. Same comment for interior, undercarriages, wheels, etc. A bare minimum of flaws might be possible with a white gloved handled 0K-5K mile car. It would take extraordinary care from day of delivery, starting with not letting the dealership "prep" your car.

OP's car could be exceptional for 17K miles even with the flaws they mentioned. What's really rare is finding a seller who would would actually list ALL the flaws of their car. To 90% of potential buyers out there....those wouldn't even be flaws, nor would they even be noticed. I figure a list of my car's "flaws" would number in the 50-150 range. But, that's just me.

 

I agree with Firebrian regarding "paint blemishes". Only a true #1 condition car is entirely free from such issues, and those cars wouldn't have more than a handful of miles on a public roadway since assembly or complete rotisserie restoration, if even that. At 17k miles, some blemishes are to be expected. My 18k mile car is the same; if I wanted to be really picky, I could point out several small defects and tiny rock chips in plenty more than just two spots. And nobody has been more careful than me. You just can't totally avoid this stuff if the car is ever actually used on regular roadways.

The real question is, how bad are said blemishes? Definitions can range widely on something like this; more discriminating folks might consider a pinhead chip as a blemish, while someone else might not even notice this and call something larger, like a quarter-sized dent, a simple "blemish". And to Firebrian's point, I think a lot of sellers are afraid to point out the tiny issues, even if they see them, because to list them all would make an otherwise excellent car sound pretty much like junk to less discriminating shoppers who would assume that all those issues are easily noticeable. And then we have the folks who love to toss around the word "mint" (i.e. everything that is just slightly nicer than a car that's been sitting in a junk yard for four years is "mint"). For the record, if your car has more than ~3k miles, it's probably not mint. If it has more than 10k miles, it's certainly not mint. And using that term for unrestored cars with 50-100k miles is absolutely preposterous.

At the $20k and up price point for any 4th gen, I would expect a buyer who is going to examine the car very closely. That's big money for a 4th gen F-body at this point, and really only the nicest examples in the world should be taken seriously at that price and above. I wouldn't personally pay that kind of money for the OP's car, but there might be some SOM lovers who would pay close to that point if the car presents like a solid-to-strong #2 car in person.

 

I hear you RPMWS6 when it comes to listing "all" defects. Do you or don't you? On long distance sells I've informed potential buyers of EVERY flaw I was aware of. I don't want someone driving 2-6 hrs and then saying I wasted their time. In nearly every case, they declined to show up. No doubt I made the cars to appear as "junk."

One such example was a 1968 GTX 4 speed convertible. A potential buyer asked about rust in the frames convertible support stiffeners. I had never checked them so I couldn't honestly tell the guy it was rust free as I first indicated. With a 10 hour drive there couldn't be any questions. So I got under there and started poking around with a screwdriver...and found some "bondo" where sheet metal should have been. It took me a month to resolve those issues, including having a body shop weld in new metal. I even pulled out the interior to inspect all floor pans. Found only reddish surface rust but attended to every spot to ensure none would progress. That guy did eventually buy the car though. And I got a good lesson about the dealer/restorer who sold me the car about quick fixes and bondo...covered over with undercoating.

That car did have 50-100 flaws in my book, even for a 28 yr old "show" car with 54K miles where you don't judge as critically as say a garaged 17K fourth gen. It was still a strong #3 driver that did quite well on the Mopar regional show judging over 3 years. Pretty hard to call one of those a #2 unless they went through a complete restoration, or were original paint survivors with low miles.

 

I wouldn't go into excruciating details in a written ad, but when it comes to direct contact with an interested party I'd definitely want to be as detailed as possible (especially if it's long distance, like you said). But some of this is vehicle dependent. I wouldn't spend massive amounts of time covering every minor-to-micro flaw on a ~100k mile daily driver; there's just too much to cover one by one. If they ask for specifics in any area though, I'd be happy to cover it in detail. If I had to list every single flaw on my daily driven 110k mile '02 Z28 that I sold back in 2014, I'd *still* be writing the list today....lol.

On the other hand, if I was selling something like my '98 car I would be happy to go over anything and everything of which I'm aware, especially since pictures wouldn't really reveal any of the minor blemishes that the car does have. I guess I'd have to get a feel for the buyer as well, then give them a description that will be most accurately interpreted by such an individual. If I'm clearly speaking to someone who's familiar with points judged show vehicles, then I'd be able to go into much greater detail without the risk of making the car sound like garbage (i.e. folks like you and I already know that an 18k mile car isn't going to be concourse mint, so discussion of even a multitude of micro blemishes isn't necessarily a turn-off). If it's just a general enthusiast looking for a really nice driver, then they probably don't need to hear about *every* micro blemish since the car will likely appear as "perfect" to them (but I would still indicate that the car does have some minor flaws which are consistent with the mileage, and that I'm happy to give some examples or point them out during an inspection if they wish).

The older cars (e.g. stuff from the '70s or earlier) can be harder to describe. It's pretty tough to call any of them "rust free" unless they've had a nut-and-bolt rotisserie restoration. Many or most of them have had some panel smoothing with glazing putty, and plenty have at least some small amount of bondo (or remaining rust) in lieu of metal in the weakest spots, unless it's a really high end restoration or a super low mileage original that was kept in dry storage. What is hidden vs. what is simply unknown by the seller can be difficult to discern. I've found some small things with my '71 that I don't think the last owner even knew about, nothing too serious or unexpected for a car of this mileage (had 73k when I bought it - I suspect this to be fairly close to accurate), age, and level of restoration.

Of the last three special interest/collector cars I've sold, two went to local guys who already knew the cars and one went to a dealer. So I didn't really have to worry about describing them to strangers who hadn't seen them prior.