For sale: Classic Car, Never Saw Snow or Rain……

By Mark Weisseg

You see them all the time on line. Classic cars that are sitting in a field, sun shining on them and the ad. proceeds to tell you all the attributes of the car. They use words like, rare, 1 of…, never been in the rain, never saw snow, non smoker owned, and so on.

Look closely at the picture. Yes, you see a Plymouth Superbird, outside in the snow and yes, there are chains on the rear tires. Oh my Gosh, someone wake me up from this nightmare. You see, for those of us over the age of fifty and lived in any type of snow belt the cars of yesteryear had .. Gasp, snow tires. Gulp. And to make matters worse some folks even had to strap on tire chains to get from point A to point B. It happened and it happened a lot.

I remember. Studding snow tires by hand as a young man. Customers lined up to have us install the studded snow tires every fall only to take them off by April 1st every year.

The purpose of this horror picture is to remind you young men and women that unless that car was built and driven in California all its life it may have been driven in the snow. That means salt, gravel. Or even sand was used on the roads for traction. Now the California people are smug because they don’t have snow. But they do. Drive north of San Fran and yes we can ski.

Just a reminder that your classic car that you love and cherish was more than likely the family trickster at some point. The trunk was full of stuff from Zayre’s, the floor had French fries on them, and more than likely someone took a puff of something at some point. Just because today the fourth owner painted it and put new carpet and seats in it and declares it a rare object you must have, there is generally no way you know what that car went through 45 years ago. Oh, and one last thing to ruin your week. I dare you to ask your local water authority what chemicals they use to make your water drinkable. Did you know there are traces of Arsenic in your drinking water? Plus, other chemicals you cannot pronounce let alone understand. You need to be a chemist to understand what they use but my point is that if you wash your classic car with the hose you are using traces of chemicals that left alone would kill you.

So lastly, please be careful and let the car sell itself. You don’t need to charm us with big claims. If the car is good enough, it will sell itself.

 

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