Here's what the Westfalia looked like before they "restored" it... https://apvintagemotors.com/1990-por...-28677/6796254

 

I'm actually a fan too. It is a little Ronald McDonald but those particular shades of yellow and red kinda work for me.

That one is a "birth year" car for me so I was actually looking pretty hard at it. Then I realized I couldn't afford any more cars after my wife eventually divorces me for buying things like that. But I do like its uniqueness.

 

That car is local to me and I saw it when it was in the shop for some mechanical work. While I don’t mind the interior tartan color and it could have been nice if used sparingly, it is difficult to look at it the way it is. And that’s just the interior…

 

Did you see my other post? Here's the car before the "restoration" I find it odd that the engine got more dirty since the "engine out service" listed was done prior to the current owner... https://apvintagemotors.com/1990-por...-28677/6796254

 

Maybe I'm missing it, but the mileage in your pre-"restoration" link shows 68,979, and now on BaT the mileage is 69,642.

 

Oops, I stand corrected! I'm old, what can I say. At any rate, in my eyes that car was ruined so it could be listed on BAT.

 

I gave the listing a cursory once over though as polarizing as it may be I feel a bit of what they were going for (they just went a bit too far for my stomach with the plaid). Had they done a (even slightly) more subtle plaid I might like the look. I am not a fan of very low or slammed suspensions and have a strong preference for ROW normal ride height. I prefer stock black trim and body paint headlight surrounds though I don't find what they did objectionable. I suspect it will do ok in the auction though I tend to think they spent money narrowing the market and hurting their sale.

Speaking of spending money and to what end this sale https://bringatrailer.com/listing/19...ra-4-coupe-10/ certainly did not go as the seller had hoped. I truly thought the seller was totally shooting himself in the foot with all of his desperate sounding remarks in the comments. He seemed to chime in almost every other post and repeating what a great job they did and hurry up and bid on my car. I was thinking the car would have done much better if he stuck to just prompt replies to questions.

 

Touting the Westfalia as "The next best thing to a Singer" tells all you need to know, lol. BAT has turned into one of those used car lots in the shady part of town.

Agreed. It also seems odd to me that this car needed a rebuild after averaging 2k miles per year since it was born.

 

Too many people (including some here) are looking at these cars as strictly investments, since when did cars ever become that? I've always looked at them as money pits, but those comments on that sale have people perplexed one could take a loss... Seems puzzling and eye opening to today's mindset.

 

I think it's safe to say if you lose money on a 964 these days, you overpaid, lol.

 

The market will see another resurgence in tangible items escalating in value. The uber rich need places to put their money and cars, watches and art are some we are seeing huge increases in values.

These IMO are not investments and shouldn't be considered one. But times have changed. They aren't money pits if they keep going up in value.

More than half these came with the ringless engine. If they were treated well they lasted for 50-60k miles if not a lot less. The design of the heads and cylinders was changed to eliminate the warping of the heads and breaking of the head studs by mid year 91. The need for donors for back dates and other car projects has seen these rise more than most. Even people I know who paid double market and had to put a ton into their cars they bought pre covide are realizing some minor gains by now.

 

The red '90 with 48k miles probably would have done $100k with leaks and all. I'm not sure what made them think they could get $130k+ for it.

 

I have a ringless motor with a found broken stud on cylinder 3. IMO I'd rather the ringless motor as I'm still gonna use the car for the foreseeable future (obviously not beating on it), as my feelings are there's 4 studs per cylinder, this is the middle (which is also odd why middle cylinders break, maybe heat??) and worst case, if there was some movement, you don't have to worry about a ring moving and smashing things on the heads/jugs.....Though at that point I'm sure it would make some noise... It also makes me feel better until I can swallow the cost of having to build a new piece. I've already picked up some Xtreme cylinder heads, hoping to pair w/ some 3.8 pistons/jugs, and custom cams. Weird though they don't rely on a gasket at all, although it is naturally aspirated too so no real worry of lifting the heads I guess.

 

I'm going to guess they didn't think they could get 130+ for it. They bought it for ~88k plus fees, and it turned out that it needed more work that they had guesstimated once they got it to Becks. So by this point it's just a case of minimizing losses - just like any business does. Had the repair bill been much smaller then maybe they would have made a small profit. Considering the number of cars they sell they can take a few $20k hits a year.

They just sold a 300SL roadster for $900k, have a 300SL Gullwing at $1.3m+ with 7 days to go, a 993 Turbo S at $500+, and a Dino at $500+. So.......... I think they are doing OK

 

Lol, cool story but I've never met a car dealer that was OK with losing that kind of money on a car deal and that includes many successful ones.

Nobody said they couldn't handle it. I think it's more likely they see all of these hoopties sell for $100k+ and figured a low mileage car like this with a fresh engine could easily go big.

It will be interesting to see what the "Singer Clone" sells for, haha.