The Official Cars Discount / Thrift & DIY Questions and Bragging Thread.

[Orgetorix]

@Nobleprofessor Very cool. We need a report on your trip to the BB clearance center, either in the thrift thread or the old BB Clearance Center thread.

 

[Nobleprofessor]



@Nobleprofessor Very cool. We need a report on your trip to the BB clearance center, either in the thrift thread or the old BB Clearance Center thread.

Just posted in the thrift brag thread.

 

[Thrift Vader]

Some pics from the Auction:






































Well, the Car Auction was a lot of fun. I did not buy a car. I wasn't planning to. But, my brother did buy one. On Thursday, we got to go to the Bidders preview. That entitled us to select our reserved seats along with beer and wine and 3 hours to look all 284 cars over. The main room had 40-45 cars in it and it was connected to a huge exhibition hall where the other cars were all displayed. There were 284 cars initially and 10-12 were added.

Nearly all the cars my brother was interested in were on the slate for Friday. We ended up deciding to go to the Brooks Brothers Clearance Center on Saturday. So, we saw all the cars on Friday and about 15 on Saturday.

I took some pictures. I could have taken hundreds, but we got caught up in really looking a few cars over thoroughly and I forgot about taking pics.

I will spoiler the pictures I took.
















































































My brother was interested in a 1975 Buick Lesabre Convertible, TWO 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Broughams, 1985 Camaro IROC Convertible, A 1977 Ford Thunderbird, An Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser Wagon, a Ford Country Squire Wagon, and a couple more that I don't remember.

He ended up buying this:





It is a 1977 Ford Thunderbird Town Landau with only 19,000 miles. The pictures do not do it justice. It was in SPECTACULAR condition. It would not have been my choice. But, it is a very nice car. This particular example was optioned out and had some pretty cool features including the Optional 400 engine.

I will do a better write up later. Just trying to catch up on everything.

That car is a beast. only hope it sees some miles.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

Pic of you and your "brother"

HA! That made me laugh.

Here we are for real:

My brother and I are the middle two:

 

[Thrift Vader]

The guy in the middle looks like he knows how to use the pimp mobile........

 

[Nobleprofessor]

The guy in the middle looks like he knows how to use the pimp mobile........

The skinny one? That's my brother. I'm the big guy. My brother also has a 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix that he got last year. It only has 40,000 miles and was Dana Mecum's own car. If you don't know who Dana Mecum is, I didn't used to know either. But, he has a huge car collection and operates Dana Mecum auctions that are apparently some of the biggest and best collector car auctions second only to Barret-Jackson. In addition to the Grand Prix and now the T-Bird, his daily driver is a 3 series convertible that is about 10 years old.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

More about the auction:

Because we were registered bidders, we had assigned seats. In the row in front of us was a well dressed man that was about 60 and two younger boys. One was about 25 and had on A LOT of make up and jewelry. After observing them all day, we were able to determine that the old man was the Sugar Daddy. He was the seller for quite a few cars. Sometimes when the bidding was slowing down, one of the bidders assistants would come over and talk to him quietly and then they would announce that the reserve was off. I lost track of how many he was selling. On Friday he bought at least 6 cars.

They came over and sat at the same table with all of us when we were having lunch. The guy with the make-up was asking whether he would be able to get a Bentley that was being auctioned because he was worried it would go over $200,000. The Sugar Daddy assured him he would get it for him and he was sure it wouldn't go that high.

Barry (from Storage Wars) was also there. I never saw him in the main room, but I saw him a few times outside talking to some people and then he drove off quickly in his Porsche.

On Friday night, Donald Trump had a rally at the Fairground where the Auction was held. When they put up the security barriers they kind of blocked all of us in. But, we were able to come and go by showing our bidder passes. I heard a few people talking about us and mentioning how our lanyards said VIP on them. They thought we were Trump donors (I AM NOT in case you were wondering).

I talked to several people that were staying at the same hotel as us that were buying cars or selling them.

On Friday, the Top selling car was a 1959 Chevy Impala with 11,000 miles. It was AMAZING and sold for $79,000. I talked to the guy that bought it the next morning at breakfast at the hotel. He said he bought it for a collector. He also said he had not told his client that he won it yet. He was going to give him the good news (that he won it) and the bad news (that he had to pay $79K for it).

Some of the cars were WAY too expensive and others seemed like an amazing deal.

There was a 1985 Cavalier Wagon (yes, really) with only 1200 miles on it. But, its a cavalier wagon! The auction ended over $10,000 but it did not meet the reserve. My brother was bidding on a Big Oldsmobile Station Wagon with the wood on the side and it ended up selling for $12,000! Seriously. It was very nice and had super low miles, but $12,000?

I don't know how much the Chevelle sold for. Another 70 Chevelle SS sold for over $40,000. But, it wasn't the LS6. I thought it would be the top selling car in terms of $. But, they also had a 2015 Rolls with only 1500 miles. So, it probably was the top dollar. But, they both sold on Saturday when I was at the BB Clearance Center. I am definitely considering going back to the Auction in June. It would be A LOT more fun if I can get some of my big cases settled, so I can actually consider buying a car.

The ONE car, I really think hard about buying was the 1990 Mercedes 300E with only 57,000 miles. But, it went for over $8,000 and I thought that was too high.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

More pics from the Car Auction:

A GORGEOUS 1959 Impala with only 11,000 miles (went for $79,000 plus to Auction fees)





More Cars, some I remember, some I don't



My brother in front a really cool AMC ambassador. It turns out, the car belonged to a friend of his. He found out his friend was going to be bidding on it by phone because he wanted it back! It only had 8,000 miles.





A 1975 Buick LeSabre Convertible. The last year for the Convertible.



1978 Thunderbird





1977 (?) Coupe Deville. It wasn't pink, but was an unusual color.



197X LTD. According to the seller they spent $30K doing a rotisserie restoration on this car. It sold for $6500. Why would anyone would restore a mid 70's LTD?



1964 Tempest (the first year of the GTO). In 64 GTO was an option package and the GTO became a stand alone model later. I seriously lusted after this car at the Auction. If I could have sold a kidney while I was there, I would have bought it!



1977 Buick Regal. It had really low miles, but it was a 77 Regal in yellow.







Big Ole Mid 70's Eldorado Convertible. it was actually a beautiful in person.





This was a gorgeous Cutlass Convertible.



Another super nice Cutlass Convertible and this was the SX (455 engine)





1974 El Camino



Late 70's Bonneville Coupe



Another one I would have sold a kidney for. 1968 Eldorado







Thunderbird
















1989 Fleetwood Brougham. One of the cars my brother was looking at. Unfortunately it went for $9500.



70 Deville Convertible



1979 Cadillac Eldorado Bairritz First year for this Body style and one of the best because it did NOT have the 4.1 engine. My brother bid on it, but it went too high.



Another picture of the 1968 Eldorado.



The IROC convertible my brother wanted to buy. But, we found several problems with it during the preview.





My brother in front of his new Thunderbird.

 

[Cj52racers]

Awesome write up noble! I've been to a few Mecum auctions up here in Indy and they're pretty incredible.

Thanks for the pics man!

 

[Nobleprofessor]



Awesome write up noble! I've been to a few Mecum auctions up here in Indy and they're pretty incredible.

Thanks for the pics man!

Thanks! Did you see the pics from both posts? I wish I could have taken more pics, I just got caught up in looking over the cars. There was actually 284+ cars that sold.


On another note, I have a mystery for all you car guys to solve.

I have two E38 BMW 740iL

One is a 2000 with 222,000 miles. The other is a 2001 with 123,000 miles. They are both the L versions (long wheel base). The 2001 is the Sport Model. So, it has the sport tuned suspension and it has the larger wheels and tires. They are the staggered 18 inch M-Pars.

Here's the mystery: The 2000 gets about 3 mpg better on the highway. On the same road at the same speed the 2000 will get about 26.5 mpg for a 300 mile trip to Oklahoma we make pretty frequently. The 2001 will get 23 mpg. The first time I noticed it I thought it was anomaly and maybe I just drove a little faster in the newer car. But, I have been able to repeat it several times. The 2000 gets consistently 3 mpg better than the newer one. This is very odd to me because I thought they would be about equal. In terms of money, it's a very small difference so in the grand scheme of things who cares. But, it still is a mystery.

Why would the car with 100,000 miles be MORE efficient? The 2000 also has the very thick security glass windows that are MUCH heavier than the windows in the 2001. AND the 2000 has a steel sunroof. Both of these would add weight.

The other difference between the two is that 2000 has 16 inch wheels.

So, why would the older car that is heavier with 100,000 miles more get better mileage than the newer lighter car?

 

[Thrift Vader]

Gear ratios?



And awesome write up. love the Tempest GTO. and the El Camino. some nice rides there.

congrats to your brother on the whip.

 

[Cj52racers]

Could be a couple of things at play here (disregarding any possible small seal leaks or anything like that). Bigger tires and wheels would have a little higher rotational mass and hurt MPG on acceleration. If the trip is mostly highway miles this would have a smallish effect though. Also a bigger contact patch, which may have a small fractionally higher rolling resistance. Now, I also don't know my early bmw sport packages, but if it is a steptronic car, did they have closer gear ratios?

 

[Sleeves345]

I'd parrot the question about gear ratios, and add a question regarding tuning. From year to year, OEMs will change tuning, slight engine revisions, etc. Did BMW change something for the 2001 model? Maybe the sport model has a slightly more aggressive tuning? If this is mostly a highway-mileage issue, the extra weight shouldn't be making that much of a difference. The wider/larger tires could be adding to rolling resistance and drag though. That's a possibility. If the wheels fit, maybe swap the smaller ones on and see what effect that has.

It could also just be bad luck. Even if the cars got identical mileage off the factory floor, a lot can happen in 100k miles. There might be some carbon buildup in the newer car that just never happened in the older one? Maybe it's starting to lose a gasket/seal somewhere? Did the 2000 get a tuneup that helped it out?

 

[zippyh]

The sport has a 3.15 rear end vs 2.92 in non sport.

 

[Nobleprofessor]

The sport has a 3.15 rear end vs 2.92 in non sport.

Actually in 2001 the Sport package was offered for the 740iL for the first time. But, it was not the same "sport" package as the shorter wheelbase (740i). On the L version, it didn't come with the steptronic transmission or the different rear end. So, it had the same rear end as the non-sport. In prior years, you couldn't get the Sport on the L. So, this is a one year only difference. It had the other sport package options such as Dynamic Stability control, and the EDC-Sport, as well as all the cosmetic differences (trim, wheels, etc) and a few other options.