You can't put a price on love, but let's say that love has a 6 cylinder 225 in it...

June 18, 2007 12:40 PM

How much do I charge for my lovingly restored 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger with a salvage title?

So about four years back, I got a 1970 Dodge Swinger on the Craigslist for about 1500 bucks I think. My plan? Put in like 2 or 3 grand tops and just enjoy the car I'd been lusting after since I was nine.

That plan lasted all of about a week. Then came the first front end work. And the brake booster. And several alternators. But, like some mad scientist villian, I just couldn't accept my plan was the wrong one. So I kept pouring money, and time, and lost girlfriends, and money, and bus rides to my mechanic and money into the thing. How much? Today, I'm looking at, conservatively, somewhere over 20 grand.

When you factor in a remanufactured engine, a transmission and the fact that I can do NO labor on my own (and have to pay my mechanic) it all makes perfect sense. It doesn't make it less idiotic, but at least the math comes out right.

Cut to the holidays of 2005. My car was parked on the street in Koreatown. A drunken kid whacked into my beloved car and took off. I got my money from his insurance company eventually. If you want the full story, click the link.

The Full Story

But the upshot is I got what I asked for, and then some. But, in exchange, they were going to "total" the car. Which meant, from this point on, it was going to be a salvage title. I realize I should have fought it but I was riding the bus in LA due to lack of transport. A metro line that smells like badger pee will skew anyone's judgment over time.

The upside is that I ended up fixing - to get said title - a bunch of stuff that I would never have done otherwise. The downside? After completely restoring the car to a level that I never dreamed possible, it's worth, I think a lot less than I hoped for in terms of resale.

Which brings us to today.

I never thought I'd get tired of the preferential treatment afforded by mexican valets to my swinger. Or the lusty looks of rockabilly chicks. Or how every guy over 45 would give me that look of admiration for driving his favorite car of his teen years.

And yet, in the face of the lack of AC in a sweltering Valley summer looming in LA, I've had to rethink my car dream. This weekend my drum brakes started pulling again, a belt started whinnying that it was time to be replaced and my brake pedal started coming up to higher level demanding re-adjustment.

Put plain, I don't think this is gonna work as a daily driver anymore. It is simply not worth the sacrifice when I have to drive as much as I do in LA. And, for the record, it pains me to actually admit this.

I'm not at the income or parking space level where I can keep a second car. So it's time to get rid of the swinger. Sadly. And the million dollar question?

What do I charge for it?

It's an LA car so it's practically rust free. There was a minor accident but all it did was take off the rear valance. I have receipts for over 20 grand worth of work and parts including, but not limited to, a whole new front end, new paint, new interior, new 225 6-cylinder engine, new tranny, matching hubcaps that cost me a few bucks and months of my life on ebay.

In fact about the only things that are original are the differential and the frame with the serial numbers that are registered "SALVAGE" up in Sacramento.

Unfortunately it's that latter thing that's gonna kill some of the value.

So that all being said, what's the price I should throw at this thing? And where do I put the ad? Hemmings? Craigslist? Ebay? The LA times? A consignment lot? Where does one sell a classic car these days? And what's my best pitch for the car when I do get interested buyers?

posted by rileyray3000 to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

6 cylinder engine? OUCH!!!!

that'll hurt for shizzle

i rarely see people get the money they put in back on these cars, unless they're somehow really rare or exceptional
posted by Salvatorparadise at 1:00 PM on June 18, 2007

So, in CA, when an insurance company totals your car, you get the check and you keep the car??? That's sort of sweet, depending on the car. Or was the deal something more like "We'll cut you a check for up to xx% of the value if you want to keep the car and repair it, otherwise we total it and take it"? I did a deal like that on my truck once.

With a salvage title, about the only way you're ever going to get any good money out of the car, I'm afraid, is if you happen to catch the eye of the one buyer out there who wants to do some custom resto work on the thing, drop a hemi into it, and sell it as a "fantasy" restoration at Barrett-Jackson, or some other car-porn event. And, even then, you will never make back anything close to what you put into it.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:20 PM on June 18, 2007

Yeah you DO get to keep the car, but they get some 300 dollar fee back from the money allocated. I think it was a disuse charge thing. I'd have to look over the paperwork.

But that said, I don't imagine I'll get anywhere near the money I put in. I just want to know what to baseline the price as.

RR-
posted by rileyray3000 at 1:23 PM on June 18, 2007

God I'd give my soul and the left arm of my best friend to drive the 1970 (maybe 1971) Swinger I had when I was 18 years old. My first car, bought used in 1981 for $400. Slant-six, 120k on the engine when I bought it and I drove it for almost 6 years. Got rid of it only because the front and rear end was held together by duct tape. Actually the seats were all duct-tape too come to think of it. Slant-six engines are bullet proof.

My Mom owned a Dart (1970? but a three-on-the-tree and much larger than the one I owned) - and we got into an accident. She pulled into a rural 2-lane highway and broad-sided a small Toyota. I kid you not, that hit peeled the entire driver's side panels off that car and sent them flying like leaves across the road. The damage to my Mom's car? Nothing. Scrapes in the bumper. No joke. It was like a tank. The responding officer to the scene offered my Mom like $2000 for the car so he could give it to his teenage daughter. True story.

I cant say the value of such a vehicle. Perhaps it's all nostalgia but I'd think there are folks who would gladly pay premium for that restored version.
posted by elendil71 at 2:55 PM on June 18, 2007

Salvatorparadise writes "6 cylinder engine? OUCH!!!!

"that'll hurt for shizzle"

It's the quintessential Dart engine. Personally I don't think the salvage mark is going to hurt the value much. It's not a numbers matching low mileage trailer queen instead a well loved survivor. However it seems unlikely that you'll ever get 20K out of it unless a Dart features prominentaly in the next "Cars" movie. To get maximum return you'll need to fix the couple minor problems it now has.

If I was you and you truely love the car minus it's 55/50 A/C I'd just pop an aftermarket A/C in the thing and keep enjoying the car of my dreams.
posted by Mitheral at 3:09 PM on June 18, 2007

The AC is only half of it. It's the small mechanical problems that keep cropping up. I just can't use it as my daily driver in Los Angeles anymore.

So, ballpark, what would you ask for this car right now? What's the range?
posted by rileyray3000 at 5:01 PM on June 18, 2007

Non numbers matching, 1970 Dart 2 dr, 6 cyl., salvage title daily driver with minor problems? $3000 obo.
posted by paulsc at 5:36 PM on June 18, 2007

My sister's first car was a Dart...she got broadsided by a Mack truck in a rotary, and aside from some whiplash was fine.

I would direct you to contact my father, but unfortunately, he just restored a '68 Dart (not the one my sister used to drive) so I don't think he needs another one. If you want I could ask him what he would expect to pay for what you have.
posted by nekton at 1:24 PM on June 26, 2007