1975 x19 for sale, not mine. But look what the rest of the world thinks!

Chris Obert

Chris Obert

autocrosser, X driver
I was at the Imola Mostra Scambio last weekend. As always, if it was from an Italian car, motorcycle, or bicycle, it was there among the close to 1,000 vendors.
If you can find it...

And I can attest that even in 2.5 days, you can't see it all!

But there was a 1975 X19 there. It had a huge crowd around it, and was one of the most popular cars being offered on Saturday. I took a few pictures...

(Image shack is down, so hopefully someone can make the inserted pictures work, or ask me and I'll send them)

leftfront_zps1c0e811d.jpg


Yes, he wants Euro 6,500.00. At today's exchange rate that's US $8789.95...​


leftfront_zps1c0e811d.jpg

left front. Nice wheels!


rightrear_zps886c5c41.jpg

right rear, note the 1974 trim...


badge_zps93190502.jpg

notice the bondo lifting in the repair under the grill!


interior_zpsbc7399b1.jpg

inside looked OK, the seats are just reupholstered, the dash has cracks, and was missing a chunk in front of the passenger...


engine_zps5731a379.jpg

He claims it's the original 1300 engine... I noticed that the heater is by passed, I hope he also plugged the line so it won't overheat!

So, why am I posting this?
The asking price. Everyone was excited, and thought it was inexpensive. I would be surprised if one of the Italians in the crowd didn't buy it!
Only here in North America are these cars not expensive...

I would have a hard time selling a car in this condition in the North American market for $8,500.00. And I know from experience that better cars won't even begin to pull half this.

Things may be changing, all we have to do is catch up!

Chris Obert
 
Sounds great.

Unfortunately the links you provided require an AOL login to even view while editing, so they won't work.
 
I usually upload my pictures to my facebook page, then I copy and paste them here. After that, I erase them from facebook. Presto.:wink2:
 
a couple of reasons for this. There were a lot of these (most of them in fact) that came to America so that will drive price down. Also condition. in Europe the Rust is a bigger challenge than here in the states. So finding a clean one is next to impossible. And with the way their laws are there I am sure keeping one of these on the road is much more time and money consuming. Hence a Crappy X with an UNO Turbo engine sold for less than 200 bucks yesterday in England on eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111172335636?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Yet a perfect X is commanding an 11k asking price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231041743922?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Point is the same..


................ Condition
VALUE = _______________/ Location.

.............. Presentation

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:
 
That car in the UK which reached only £109 had no turbo fitted; the guy had no idea if it ran, and he'd removed the front and rear wings (fenders). He also said "No stupid questions about how old the engine and gearbox are... I simply do not know". In my opinion it went for a fair price. It's a UK car, and therefore it's quite likely the shell needs welding, not to mention at least 4 new panels.

The other car (the red/metallic gunmetal 1984 VS) is now sold. Not sure if the seller got his full £7k asking price, but cars in that kind of condition here in the UK are very rare, and the history of that car was highly detailed, so I'd say worth every penny to someone who can and will treasure it.
 
I think the saturation of the X in the US market continues to be the biggest pricing factor and not sure we will ever see any more significant price point changes in our lifetime.
Museum quality Xs like that UK ad still bring in the 9-12k mark.
Excellent middle tier cars still just a matter of timing and finding the right buyer looking at that time no matter how well presented it is.

UK values are even lower than the US by far on what is seen on eBay. I remember drooling over Tiff's well sorted Uno turbo wishing it was over here when he was selling.

Italy I believe kept minimal (the least) X1/9s with the majority being exported and this shows with the FS ads with much larger asking price tag climbs over the past 5 years.
Around 30 cars asking over $8500 :eyepop:

http://veicoli.autoscout24.it/?vis=...e=N,U&um=True&sort=price&pool=1&zipc=I&desc=0

But I see the same cars listed for months & months going on a year still for sale. So not sure that many are actually selling for that price.

Most new blood getting into the X world want a cheap fun cool sports car they can work on themselves w/o being afraid to. That won't change until the saturation dries up. Maybe eventually it will.

But until it does I think most of us are fine with that...and just my opinion :)
 
I think that 1984 X belongs in my garage...

But like all pipe dreams, they never happen.
Surely is a worthy contender though! :woot: :nod:
 
Can someone please explain to me...

Chris Obert said:
Things may be changing, all we have to do is catch up!
Click to expand...

Why rising prices would be good for anyone but the vendors? I am posing this as a serious question.

Most of us have our cars because we love them, not because we view them as any type of investment. So I would say for at least 90% of the X owners out there, it means higher parts prices, higher insurance prices, and so on.

And it's bad news for 100% of potential X owners out there, especially the younger crowd (which looking at our group photo's, we need some of!) who might be attracted to the car because of its excellent value for the dollar.

Enlighten me please. :confused:

Edit: Having thought about it a bit more, I'm thinking it might not be that good for our vendors either. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bagging on our vendors, I'm glad they provide what they do. But it seems to me that if Fiat prices rose to the level of, say, Porsche prices, a whole lot of Fiat people might recognize that, for the same money, they could have a Porsche (or insert your car brand here) with more power, better engineering, or whatever, and leave Fiats behind. Which would not help our vendors.

Pete
 
Rising prices would not hurt vendors at all.. I have a buddy that buys Ferrari Testarosas with needs for 25 to 30 grand and parts them out getting over 100,000 dollars in parts out of each car.

Its a simple question of math. The more expensive the better. Plus so much of the usable items we get for these cars are not expensive in car world to begin with.. Where else can you buy a brake rotor for 17 bucks or a Clutch for 40. :eyepop:
 
I think you missed my point about the vendors...

jjay911 said:
Rising prices would not hurt vendors at all.. I have a buddy that buys Ferrari Testarosas with needs for 25 to 30 grand and parts them out getting over 100,000 dollars in parts out of each car.

Its a simple question of math. The more expensive the better. Plus so much of the usable items we get for these cars are not expensive in car world to begin with.. Where else can you buy a brake rotor for 17 bucks or a Clutch for 40. :eyepop:
Click to expand...

which was specifically this - it's no secret that Fiat people are in the hobby because the bang for buck ratio is great (trying to find a nice way to say we're, uh, frugal here). If that bang for the buck diminishes, then that will hurt vendor sales. Sure they may make more money per part, but they will sell less parts.

Pete
 
rising X values = healthier vendor offerings

I've seen this already happen within some of my own ventures... as the price of the car rises, so does the availability of new and reproduction parts because if the typical owner will spend more on the car, and chances are he/she will likey pay more for restoration and maintenance.

The down side is, the existing owners who like the car for it's price/value relationship will "cash out", making a return on what was once their cheap hobby, and newer more affluent buyers will look to spend more on the beasts since to them they have a higher value.
 
zonker said:
I've seen this already happen within some of my own ventures... as the price of the car rises, so does the availability of new and reproduction parts because if the typical owner will spend more on the car, and chances are he/she will likey pay more for restoration and maintenance.

The down side is, the existing owners who like the car for it's price/value relationship will "cash out", making a return on what was once their cheap hobby, and newer more affluent buyers will look to spend more on the beasts since to them they have a higher value.
Click to expand...

+1
 
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