I think Chris is much more knowledgeable than I in all aspects of the e9 so I would hesitate to in any way argue with his valuation below. The reason I would come in lower on most of the lines is that- for better or worse- I have had some experience with Mustangs, Porsches and, well just a "dogs breakfast" of cars and I really feel that the driving experience and the owning experience is where the value in these cars lies. So when we talk about a "solid driver" that to me would indicate a car with its suspension, steering, brakes, etc, all either up-graded or renewed. In such a case the prices mentioned by Chris would probably hold up as I think the parts alone under my car probably ran about 10K. From my experience-limited- what I find is that if one of these e9's has not been "restored" then the suspension etc has not been touched- thus my lower valuation:
Rusty Parts Car with good parts $5K
(in this case it's easy to make a judgment- what would the parts sell for on the forum)- that's simple math: could one make a profit for their time dismantling the parts AND provide a valuable service to other enthusiasts without taking advantage.
Rusty Parts Car with excellent parts $10K
(in this case it's easy to make a judgment- what would the parts sell for on the forum)- that's simple math: could one make a profit for their time dismantling the parts AND provide a valuable service to other enthusiasts without taking advantage.
Driver with repairable rust that needs everything $20K
The reason I feel this is too high is that to put it into "solid driving condition" it would take probably 10K in parts and a 6-10K paint job plus whatever structural repair was necessary. And I'm not counting labor-so assuming someone else does the job you would end up with a "Restored car with recent paint and interior, VG condition". To make it worth $45K you would have to start with a much lower starting price- IMO-
Driver with little rust but needs paint and interior $25K
OK, agreed, but I think there would be 10K in "under-car" work necessary to make this price work. Bringing the sales price to 15K
Solid chassis needing only paint and interior $30K
Paint 10K, interior 3K, undercar renew 5K (we're starting with a more solid car). We're up to 50K and we have not done the 5 speed conversion on any of these. I think we need to start much lower.
Restored car with older repaint, decent interior $35K
This might be close but it would depend on how "restored" it is-or was- since the repaint was older. I think you could start at 35Kbut work down for any parts that were not replaced or renewed- even the bloody headlights will set you back a couple hundred dollars.
Restored car with recent paint and interior, VG condition $45K and up
This sounds close, probably a very good price provided everything was done correctly. It's really hard to nail down the term "restored".
Restored car with excellent paint and interior, engine upgrades, needs nothing, $60K and up
The category above and this category might need to be combined and put at 45-60K because the 15K difference would be in the extent of the restoration, ie- rotisserie or less.
Concours coupe $80K and up!
I would believe this! And if I had the money I would like to buy one
Summery: these cars are very hard to "e-Valuate" because we don't (yet) have a standard for what everything means. I hope to be of some use to the forum by at least putting together a guide that can be refined by our members. I wish I could devote more time to it so please be patient with me. I have lots of solid examples and I do want to make this a guide that is easy to upgrade as "time-value" starts to play a bigger part.
Hoping not to sound like someone who thinks he knows more than he does.
Peter
