Re: IML: 1980's Imps - LAST ONE -

["John Harvey" <50scars@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I knew a guy who got one of the "last 200 Cadillac Eldorado convertibles". 
He paid a rather stiff premium to the sticker price back then.  He trailered 
the car home, filled everything to the point where the lubricants spilled 
out, put it into one of those storage bags, lifted it off the tires, reduced 
pressure in the tires, put in several dessicant bags, evacuated the air, 
purged it with nitrogen, and let it sit there.  He told me he was going to 
make a financial killing in about 20 years when he had a perfectly new 
untouched car.   He read about the idea in something like Business Week. At 
the time,  I tried to tell him that the only way the car would be worth 
anything would be to keep it running, and drive it a little frequently, and 
occasionally a lot.  He died in 1996.  The car was still in the bag, because 
the price never got up to what he paid back in 1976.  When his son and I 
opened the bag, all of the soft trim just crumbled. The top fell in a cloud 
of dust when we opened a door.  The leather interior turned to powder, the 
carpets were threads, steeped in dust. The engine was siezed, the 
transmission fluid was in the bottom of the bag and it needed new seals. 
All of the belts and hoses were like rocks that broke when you touched them. 
All of the little motors that ran the seats, windows, top, etc had to be 
redone.  It needed a new wiring harness.  The son put over $20,000 into 
putting it back together, which is more than it was worth back then.   I 
just looked at my Old Cars Price Guide and it says the car in #1 condition 
is $24,000, with a 15% premium for the Bicentenial Edition, which this one 
is.
   The moral of my rant is Automobiles are designed to be driven.  To 
maintain your value, drive it carefully, and enjoy it, because the value is 
in the ability to use it.  Of course there are exceptions, but those are for 
people who have so much money that living expenses are incidental to using 
the stuff to keep score with the kind of toys you can accumulate. All of us 
for whom $20,000 is real money, and over $100,000 is a house, or atleast a 
significant portion of one, if we don't have equity in one that has 
appreciated shockingly over the years, enjoy the use of yur car.  It is 
unlikely to fund your retirement in a style you would love to become 
accustomed to. 



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