Quote:
Originally Posted by gerkebi
(Post 2305950)
It's crazy...about two minutes after the son of a lovely older German couple north of Toronto listed 4 or 5 blurry shots of the thing, I got on the phone with them and ascertained that it was the real deal. I told them I'd be up with certified Canadian funds ASAP.
Turns out the older gentleman bought the thing back in '81, and soon after got a company car. He never really liked the 240D, so he parked it in his barn and basically forgot about it. His son never liked it either, and his grandson didn't want to drive it so they listed it. I bought it for $15,000 and, although a lot of money, never looked back.
I physically imported it back in '03 and waited until '06 to legally import it, because in Ohio there is much less paperwork for 25 year old cars. It was a snap to get an Ohio title.
The guys who have seen it will tell you it's downright spooky. The cosmoline is still in the engine bay on the body.
Truthfully, it's kind of dilemna. I'm scared to drive it, and it's the one car reknown for going hundreds of thousands of miles. I take it out once in a while for a car show (where it always wins a prize) or whatever just to keep all the systems working. It's kind of a legend in MBCA circles around here. I feel more like a custodian than an owner.
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In old car circles this car is called a Survivor.
I was the chief judge at the 2008 Ford Galaxie Nationals last Fall in Branson, MO. One of the classes was the Survivor class. It would AMAZE you to see some of the cars that folks considered to be a Survivor.
The value of a Survivor to the restorers is beyond a dollar price. For those who are into restoring cars to their original glory the presence of a Survivor is invaluable. A Survivor is where you go to see how the factory did it. For the old American Muscle Cars that people put tens of thousands of dollars into trying to make them original again, they want to duplicate the chalk marks that an inspector might have put underneath a fender well or somewhere.
Although it seems ridiculous to think of anyone doing such a restoration to one of our beloved 123's, the day will come when people will do it. At that time, your 4 digit mileage car will be a goldmine for these people.
My judging experience was at the NATIONALS, where you would expect the finest of the finest. The cars entered in the survivor class ranged from a few cars with 50,000 miles on them to one that had over 100,000 miles, but was still stock.
In the restored class were some meticulously restored cars that had, as far as we knew, ALL the correct markings, hose clamps and down to so many details that it came down to the fact that one of the meticulously restored beauties had an incorrect air filter element which allowed the other one to win. These cars could not be absolutely correctly judged because there were no true survivor cars to go by.
There will be a day, when people will be emailing you or asking on this site for pictures of different areas of your car or what lettering is on the power steering cap.
As you say, you are not the owner, you are the custodian. Who knows, there might be a day when I will be asking you to put on your shoes and go out to check something for me.
We appreciate your custodianship.
