1969 Coronet Wagon

1969 Dodge Coronet 500 Wagon

Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 16-18, 2017

Photo – Mecum

This style of station wagon was really the last hurrah for the classic, huge American Family Truckster. In another decade or so minivans would be the vehicle of choice for families and behemoths like this were relegated to the scrap heap. Luckily, someone saved this big boxy family hauler.

Dodge’s 1969 four-door model lineup included the Coronet and the Polara/Monaco. Four-door Coronets were available in base Deluxe trim, mid-level 440 trim, or as a top-trim 500. This nine-passenger Coronet 500 Wagon was the best Coronet family carrier you could buy. It’s powered by a 6.3-liter V-8 making 300 horsepower. Only 991 of these were even sold in 1969, making this extremely rare today. The original base price was $3,392. You can read more about it here and see more from Mecum in Vegas here.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $13,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Kissimmee 2018, $19,800.

Chrysler New Yorker T&C

1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country

Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 16-18, 2017

Photo – Mecum

The first two generations of the Chrysler Town & Country were woodies. The last year for those was 1950 and for the 1951 model year, the name was applied to Chrysler’s station wagons (and would continue on their wagons through 1988 before becoming a minivan in 1990).

Chrysler’s 1953 model offerings included the six-cylinder Windsor and the eight-cylinder New Yorker. This car is powered by the New Yorker’s 5.4-liter V-8 making 180 horsepower. Only 1,399 of these were built in 1953 and they cost $4,077 when new. Read more about this one here.

Update: Sold $48,000

Three Decades of American Wagons

Three Decades of American Wagons

Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 16-18, 2017


1948 Buick Super Estate Wagon

Photo – Mecum

The Buick Super was first introduced in 1940 and it only lasted a little over a year before the war broke out, though an upgraded 1942 model was brought to market. This model was built through 1948, which makes this car from the final year of manufacture for that series. The Super was Buick’s mid-level model for ’48 and four body styles were offered, with the Wagon you see here being the rarest.

The Model 59 was actually the “Estate Wagon” and it featured this beautiful woodwork from Ionia. It’s powered by a 5.2-liter V-8 making 115 horsepower. It’s a wonderful car sporting a 20+ year old restoration and a prime example of functional post-war Americana: a V-8 woody wagon. Only 2,018 of these were built. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $26,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Kissimmee 2018, $29,700.


1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country

Photo – Mecum

The first two generations of the Chrysler Town & Country were woodies. The last year for those was 1950 and for the 1951 model year, the name was applied to Chrysler’s station wagons (and would continue on their wagons through 1988 before becoming a minivan in 1990).

Chrysler’s 1953 model offerings included the six-cylinder Windsor and the eight-cylinder New Yorker. This car is powered by the New Yorker’s 5.4-liter V-8 making 180 horsepower. Only 1,399 of these were built in 1953 and they cost $4,077 when new. Read more about this one here.

Update: Sold $48,000


1969 Dodge Coronet 500 Wagon

Photo – Mecum

This style of station wagon was really the last hurrah for the classic, huge American Family Truckster. In another decade or so minivans would be the vehicle of choice for families and behemoths like this were relegated to the scrap heap. Luckily, someone saved this big boxy family hauler.

Dodge’s 1969 four-door model lineup included the Coronet and the Polara/Monaco. Four-door Coronets were available in base Deluxe trim, mid-level 440 trim, or as a top-trim 500. This nine-passenger Coronet 500 Wagon was the best Coronet family carrier you could buy. It’s powered by a 6.3-liter V-8 making 300 horsepower. Only 991 of these were even sold in 1969, making this extremely rare today. The original base price was $3,392. You can read more about it here and see more from Mecum in Vegas here.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $13,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Kissimmee 2018, $19,800.

1948 Buick Super Estate Wagon

1948 Buick Super Estate Wagon

Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 16-18, 2017

 Photo – Mecum

The Buick Super was first introduced in 1940 and it only lasted a little over a year before the war broke out, though an upgraded 1942 model was brought to market. This model was built through 1948, which makes this car from the final year of manufacture for that series. The Super was Buick’s mid-level model for ’48 and four body styles were offered, with the Wagon you see here being the rarest.

The Model 59 was actually the “Estate Wagon” and it featured this beautiful woodwork from Ionia. It’s powered by a 5.2-liter V-8 making 115 horsepower. It’s a wonderful car sporting a 20+ year old restoration and a prime example of functional post-war Americana: a V-8 woody wagon. Only 2,018 of these were built. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $26,000.

Update: Sold, Mecum Kissimmee 2018, $29,700.

October 2017 Auction Highlights, Pt. II

We’re leading off with another Bonhams sale. This one, The Zoute Sale, was held in Belgium. The top sale was the Mercedes-Maybach G650 Landaulet for $1,404,840 (and the Aston Martin DB AR1 failed to meet its reserve). We’ll give Most Interesting to this 1928 Rally ABC Sports that sold for $168,288. Click here for more results.

Photo – Bonhams

Next up, another sale from Mecum, this time from Chicago. The top sale here was a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427/400 Convertible that brought $115,000.

Photo – Mecum

A previously-featured Stellite sold here for a frustrating $3,500 (frustrating because I should’ve bought it. Attention new owner: I’ve give you $4,500 for it). Click here for everything else.

Artcurial held an all-Mercedes-Benz sale (or at least, an all-Daimler AG sale) at the Mercedes-Benz Center in Rueil-Malmaison, France. The ’68 600 Pullman Limousine we featured failed to sell. The top sale was this 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster for $1,670,228. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Artcurial

Next up, Brightwells’ Modern Classics sale. We featured an Evante Mk II that failed to sell. The top sale was this 1987 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth for $51,304. All of their other lots can be found here.

Photo – Brightwells

Finally, Silverstone Auctions’ Porsche sale. We didn’t get to feature anything from this sale, but this 1998 Porsche 911 Turbo S brought the most money: $333,913. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

October 2017 Auction Highlights

Welcome to October, though we’re starting in September with Mecum’s Louisville sale. We didn’t get to feature anything from this one, but this 1968 Shelby GT500 was the top sale, bringing $90,500. Click here to see what else sold.

Photo – Mecum

Onward to Bonhams’ sale at the Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia. This is always a good one, and their top sale here was $1,001,000 paid for this 1913 Rolls-Royce 40/50HP Silver Ghost London-to-Edinburgh Sports Tourer by Reuters.

Photo – Bonhams

We featured a number of cars from this sale and some of those failed to sell, including this Stearns-Knight, the Mobile Steam car, and a previously-featured Humber. The Stoddard-Dayton Raceabout sold for $106,700 and the 1917 Mack C-Cab truck was a steal at $8,800 (because that’s probably about what the paint on it cost). Click here for everything else.

RM Sotheby’s was also in Pennsylvania in October, in Hershey to be exact. Sadly the most interesting car of the entire auction, the Gasmobile, was withdrawn (as was the Derby). The top sale was this 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow for $2,310,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Some big dollar feature cars included the Belgian-bodied Duesenberg for $1,485,000, the other Duesenberg for $549,000, the White Yellowstone Bus for $165,000, and the Stearns-Knight Touring for $132,000.

Other feature cars that sold included a pair of Stanleys, with the older one bringing $55,000 and the newer one $36,300. The Moon Roadster sold for $66,000. The Apperson Touring sold for $24,750 and the Sears Motor Buggy $35,200. Click here for complete results.

How about some results from Coys? This 1926 Bugatti Type 37 was the top seller at their Blenheim Palace sale back in July. It brought about $968,950. We didn’t feature anything from this sale but you can see more from it here.

Photo – Coys

Finally, Motostalgia’s McPherson Collection sale in Texas. We featured a Zimmer Quicksilver that ended up selling for $15,400. The top sale was this 1958 Facel Vega FVS Series 4 for $190,000. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Motostalgia

September 2017 Auction Results, Pt. II

We’re back, this time starting with Mecum’s Dallas sale. The top sale was this 2006 Ford GT for $270,000.

Photo – Mecum

We featured a big Cadillac from this sale and it sold for $130,000. Check out everything else that sold (or didn’t) here.

Bonhams held their Chantilly sale in Paris in September and the top sale was this pretty 1953 Aston Martin DB2 Vantage Cabriolet for $485,415.

Photo – Bonhams

A previously-featured Horch failed to find a new buyer at this sale, but the Frazer Nash Shelsley did, selling for $242,707. And that crazy Ferrari 328 Conciso sold for $138,690. Click here for more results.

Let’s go to Italy for RM Sotheby’s all-Ferrari sale held at Ferrari. Ferrari actually auctioned off some stuff they had lying around (like a LaFerrari Prototype and a wind tunnel model of their newest model). The top sale was actually a 2017 LaFerrari Aperta – a car I was excited to feature, but Ferrari didn’t release what it was going to look like until right before the sale, so there weren’t any available photos. It brought an eye-watering $9,947,425. To be fair though, it was sold to benefit charity, so someone probably bought a nice, big tax write-off (depending on where the buyer was from).

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Two cars sold at this auction that we’d featured: a 195 Inter (for $1,078,636) and a one-off 250 Europa by Vignale for $3,440,850. Click here for complete results.

Moving on to Historics at Brooklands September sale, we’ll find that the Allard M-Type we featured sold for $29,097. The top sale was this 1966 Maserati Sebring Series II for $364,284. Click here for more results.

Photo – Historics at Brooklands

Finally, the Aguttes sale held at Montlhéry. The Georges Irat Cabriolet we featured failed to sell, but this 2003 Maserati 4200 Trofeo brought more money than anything else – $324,471. Click here for the rest of the results.

Photo – Aguttes

Cadillac V-12 Phaeton

1934 Cadillac V-12 Series 370D All-Weather Phaeton by Fleetwood

Offered by Mecum | Dallas, Texas | September 6-9, 2017

Photo – Mecum

Mecum has actually sold this car (at least) twice before. They sold it out of a collection in 2012 for $200,000 and in Houston 2014 for $165,000. And they’re offering it again, this time in Dallas. We’ll see what it brings, but it makes you wonder why no one wants to continue to own this gorgeous four-door V-12 convertible.

The Series 370D was the 1934 version of Cadillac’s V-12 model that dated back to the 1931 370A. The 370B was for 1932, the 370C for 1933, and the 370D was for ’34. Actually, they sold the 370D again in 1935… low sales counts probably contributed to G.M. not slightly re-engineering an “E” variant. Twelve cylinder Cadillacs could be had through 1937.

That luscious, silky-smooth V-12 is a 6.0-liter unit that makes 133 horsepower. This car rides on the 146 inch wheelbase and the body is by Fleetwood, which by this point was a GM subsidiary. This is quite a rare body style, with only three examples built. V-12 Caddys from 1934 and 1935 are very rare in general, with only 1,098 examples built between the two years in total. Based on previous sales history of this chassis, it will likely sell for about $150,000, if the owner doesn’t have too high a reserve on it. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Mecum’s auction lineup.

S/N: 570370D

Engine: 4100303

Update: Sold $130,000.

Update: Not sold, Mecum Las Vegas 2018, high bid of $115,000.

Update: Not sold, RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island 2019.

August 2017 Auction Results

We start off August with a leftover from July, Silverstone Auctions’ Silverstone Classic Sale. The top sale was a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona that previously belonged to Elton John. It sold for $723,956.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Both of our feature cars sold with the low-mileage Lotus Carlton selling for $94,557 and the Renault 5 Turbo $97,512. More results can be found here.

Brightwells held a Modern Classic sale in August on the eve of everything that happened half a world away in California. The Marlin Makaira failed to sell but this 2013 Audi RS6 Avant was the top sale at $61,540. Click here for everything else.

Photo – Brightwells

Moving to California we have Mecum’s Monterey sale. We’ll start by saying that this previously-featured Duesenberg failed to sell. The overall top seller of this auction was this 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari for $3,450,000. The Koenigsegg we featured still brought a lot, but not quite as much, at $2,600,000. And the Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse was third at $2,350,000. The regular Veyron failed to sell.

Photo – Mecum

The Maserati MC12 Corsa (like a previously-featured Aston Martin Vulcan) could’ve been a million dollar sale, but it failed to meet its reserve. To round out our feature cars, the Shelby Series II Prototype also failed to sell. You can see Mecum’s complete result list here.

Now on to Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach sale. The Porsche 917K we featured sold for $14,080,000 – and, remarkably, it just missed being the top sale, which went to this 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB/C that brought $14,520,000.

Photo – Gooding & Company

There were a couple of no-sales among our feature cars, including the Ferrari wagon, the Arnott-Climax, the Mercedes-Benz S-Type and the Alfa 33 TT 12. The Maserati A6G/54 sold for $4,400,000. A previously-featured Fiat 8V Elaborata sold here for $1,485,000.

Other sales included the Gardner Roadster for $132,000, the OSCA 1600 GT for $341,000, the Wolfe Touring for $49,500. You can see more results here.

We’ll have more Pebble Beach results in a few weeks, but for now we’ll wrap it up with RM Sotheby’s sale in Monterey. The top sale here was the Aston Martin DBR1 for a record $22,550,000. Two other Astons that we’ve featured sold here as well, a DB4GT (for $6,765,000) and a Group C AMR1 (for $616,000).

Just like at Gooding’s sale, a Mercedes S-Type failed to sell, as did the Voisin C28. For Most Interesting, we’re going with this mean looking 1930 Bentley 6½-Litre Speed Six Sportsman’s Saloon by Corsica that brought $3,410,000.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Other million dollar sales included the Maserati 5000 GT by Michelotti for $1,017,500 (the other Maserati, the 3500 GT, brought $605,000). There were at least four million-dollar Ferraris: the 121 LM sold for $5,720,000, the 342 America $2,255,000, the 500/735 Mondial $3,850,000, and the 212 Export $4,500,000.

Other big money Italian cars included the Lamborghini Concept S ($1,320,000) and the Abarth 1100 Sport ($891,000).

There were three previously-featured cars that sold here, including this Duesenberg for $1,430,000, this Oldsmobile Autocrat for $605,000, and this four-door Rolls-Royce convertible $385,000. Whew. Check out everything else here.

July 2017 Auction Highlights

July was a lull in the auction world between a packed June and an always-huge August. We start this with H&H Classics at the Imperial War Museum. The top seller at this sale was this 1929 Bugatti Type 44 Saloon by Vanvooren that brought $258,555.

Photo – H&H Classics

The Adams Roadster we featured sold, bringing $22,900 (you can see all of the results here). And we’ll stay in the U.K. for the first half of Silverstone Auctions’ two-parter, the Classic Race Car Sale. The Tojeiro-JAP failed to meet it’s reserve, but the top sale was this $295,492 1990 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Works Rally Car. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Next up, Mecum’s Harrisburg sale. A previously-featured Stutz failed to sell at this auction. The top sale was this 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird for $415,000.

Photo – Mecum

The Hertz Rent-a-Racer Shelby we featured sold for $120,000. Complete results can be found here.

Let’s jump back to June to cover Russo & Steele’s Newport Beach auction. The top sale there was $292,600 for this 2006 Ford GT.

Photo – Russo & Steele

The Fiat 1200 TV we featured failed to sell. Check here for more results.

Here we go… the first of the Pebble Beach sales: Bonhams in Carmel. The top sale, as predicted, was the single-owner McLaren F1 we featured that ended up bringing an astonishing $15,620,000. The 1904 Premier we featured blasted past its estimate, selling for $341,000. A couple of no-sales included the Maserati Mistral, Ferrari 312 F1 car, the Lotus Indy car and a previously-featured 1904 Humber.

We’ll give Most Interesting to this 1957 BMW 503 Cabriolet by Bertone that we really wanted to feature but ran out of time. It sold for $583,000.

Photo – Bonhams

A rare model of Horch we featured a long time ago while it was for sale at a dealership sold at this auction for $102,300. Click here for more from Bonhams.