On Jan 24, 2005, at 6:59 AM, Rob P wrote:
> Was the large number of Scandanavian Imperials the result of some kind
> of dealer network? I'm wondering if that many people would want to go
> through the whole shipping hassle.
Nope - It was a concerted effort by about forty dishonest scumbags on
the West Coast (that I know of) competing against each other in the
late 1980's to empty the USA of guitars, jukeboxes, cars, motorcycles,
kitchenware and ANYTHING else they could get their hands on. I'll call
'em "Coyotes". They stole, lied, cheated, falsified paperwork, broke
laws on both sides of the oceans, and bent every rule that they could,
until the governments got wise, changed the laws and shut them down.
In the 1980's, Reaganomics turned the U.S. dollar into toilet paper
(it's happening again in the current decade), so newly-wealthy folks in
Europe, Japan and South America made it plain that they wanted to get
the trappings of American Happy Days that were denied to their cultures
in the reconstruction after World War II. They didn't want to go
through the steps to get the stuff themselves - Too much work.
So, the old-car market developed into a Wild West posse of men (all of
them male) that came to the USA with six-month Visitor's Visas. They
would take orders overseas for what was wanted - Muscle-cars,
tailfinned convertibles, limos, shipments of car-parts, whatever.
They'd individually rent big ranches and other storage-areas for the
full year, spending half of their year here, and half over there.
They would hire folks to scout through every street in major cities on
the west coast, looking for open garage-doors, car-shows, parking-lots
and other gathering-places for cars, reporting back so that they could
leap into action ahead of the competition. They subscribed to the Auto
Trader magazines at the most-expensive rate, thereby gaining a few
day's advantage over the average person who would pick up the latest
issue at the local market. They would arrive at 6AM of the first day
the car was for sale, and by the time the average buyer knew the car
existed, it was LONG gone. The Coyotes knew their car business, history
and overseas profitability MUCH better than 99% of the dumb, trusting
car hobbyists. We were such innocent lambs compared to them.
If a car was found, and there was an attempt to obtain the car legally,
then the Coyote would wheel and deal mercilessly, pointing out the
flaws in the car, dropping the price down to a few hundred. When the
deal was struck, then a roll of hundred-dollar bills would come out, a
mere few would be peeled off, and the car was onto the car-carrier
within a few minutes. It would be hustled off to the Long Beach port
that very same day, if possible, and if not, then stored at the ranch
until enough of a group was gathered. A shipment of 300 cars was the
average per ship.
It was usually easier to just steal the damn things - Less trouble all
around. NOBODY in positions of authority cared about old cars - they
were just expendable gas hogs back then. Paperwork could be forged in
an instant, and nobody followed up on the owner's behalf, or gave a
rat's ass.
On a busy weekend, then hundreds of cars would arrive at the Long Beach
port (right by the Queen Mary). The cars would be loaded two to a
container, with extra parts packed around them. VERY few of these cars
were legally written up - Too costly, and the point was to maximize
profits. The California Department of Motor Vehicles didn't CARE about
legality of anything headed out, as long as there was some semblance of
proper forms being properly filled out, and somebody's ass was covered.
The moment the boat left the pier with hundreds of cars, then those
cars vanished from anyone's concern. Miraculously, they ALL had
immaculate paperwork when they arrived at the other shore.
The car that was worth $450 to some foolish 25-year-old in the early
1980's could be sold overseas in 1988 for tens of thousands of dollars,
and the Coyotes did NOT want anybody to know this. The competition
between them was fierce. Subterfuge and discretion were their best
tools - The sneaky approach maximized profits. The oddly-accented
stranger who would sidle up to you at a car show and would try to buy
your car didn't want you to know that he already had a buyer overseas,
and he'd do or say ANYTHING at all to make you feel warm and trusting.
You were his meat, and your trusting, car-hobbyist philosophy made you
a plump target.
After a while, a few folks high up in the government got wind of the
scam, and the problem that they perceived was that the governments on
both sides weren't getting enough of a cut of the action. BIG money was
flying around, so new laws would start to appear, charging big tariffs
for entire cars. So... Coyotes would just pull the engine, store the
body and the engine in separate ship containers, and list both items as
"Spare Parts". Totally legal, and profits zoomed again.
The governments kept shifting the laws around to try and skim more and
more of the cream, and the supply of old, desirable cars was nearly
dried up by 1990, anyway. If you see a tailfinned Imperial
convertible, limo or coupe in the USA in 2005, it's because somebody
was too stubborn in the 1980's to sell it (and Greed was Very Good back
then), or too secretive to place their car where it could be snagged
from the alley behind the house at 3AM.
In the boom-boom Coyote market, nobody wanted four-doors, trucks or
most wagons, period. Economy cars were trash to them - they wanted
FLASHY stuff over in Scandinavia, Buick Rivieras in Brazil, and 1959
Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz's in Japan (to store up on blocks in
warehouses, inside plastic bags filled with nitrogen gas) as
investments guaranteed to appreciate in value.
This is why the photos of car-shows in Finland or Sweden show more
tailfinned convertibles in one place than ANYWHERE else on earth.
Statewide Imperial meets in the USA can't gather a fraction of those
numbers.
This is also why young car-nuts here are driving Honda Civics with
coffee-can exhausts. If there were still any groovy old American cars
left, they'd have gotten them from Dad, or from the old lady at the end
of the street. These emblems of our cultural patrimony been vacuumed
out of the country, and what used to be a hobby for any fool who loved
'em has transmuted into a very wealthy investor's game.
The average young car-nut has never, ever seen a car like yours outside
of a book, and probably never will. The San Diego Automotive Museum has
been open for twenty or so years, and has only featured ONE tailfinned
convertible in all of that time - a '57 Chevy convertible. There are
still a lot of those around, because the owners in the 80's felt they
were too "valuable", and the extra cost to get them would have been bad
for maximum overseas profits.
The Coyotes are long-gone, vanished with the market forces that created
a need for them. The massive numbers of cars they sucked out of the USA
are now in the hands of folks who love them the same way that we do
over here. A few still make it overseas (and some even come back), but
the transfer cost is high. It does no good to whine about how things
have changed - They changed, and so must we.
Being a car-nut is not as easy as it used to be, back when I first got
into the hobby in 1981. I created this mailing-list and website as a
way for Imperial lovers all over the planet to gather together... To
help each other deal with keeping, enjoying and fixing up our beloved,
rare and extraordinary Imperials. Yes, some nice, inexpensive (and
sometimes free) things went away, but we replaced them with a stronger
sense of community, and many mutual benefits. We're a force to be
reckoned with, as we never have been before the Internet.
I can live with that.
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