The Importance of Being Earnest About An Unused Peugeot
Oscar Wilde once famously wrote: “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” We at DT don’t claim to know the price of everything, but we do understand the value in nothing…more specifically information missing from a car listing. When the one-owner Peugeot 404 story posted, one of DT’s extended staff just didn’t like what he saw…so a net was dragged over the world wide web to find the real story behind this oddly unused Frenchthing.
An old guy’s car, meticulously maintained, or at
least kept. Why didn’t he drive it? Listing says “Amazing time capsule! Purchased new by a now 83
year-old gentleman…” but declines to say he died in May, his prized possessions auctioned off in
October, (Peugeot listed via hemmings) and now flipped on eBay two weeks later. Yeah, he’s
83, now and forevermore. He worked for Bethlehem Steel,
and judging from the “unmarried” in the listing, and
sparse obit and condolences, kept to himself. *Poof*
goes the sexy librarian image. *Poof* the
leather-elbow-patched philosophy professor.
Now you get to see the plastic seat covers and grungy
rubber. But the real question that comes to mind is why would a 40 year old man park a Peugeot on his garage and let it rot? Sure, you could expect an 83 year old to let a car sit for a few years, but this was a car purchased by a 36 year old man and then parked in his garage four years and 37,000 miles later. What happened? The estate sale includes a 1986 Yamaha FJ 1200, a ride on mower, wood chipper, snow plow, Craftsman tools…this is not the type of man who leaves a car to sit untouched for 43 years…
The current seller picked it up for an undisclosed sum of money via the estate auction and the proceeded to fix the cracked
taillight and broken antenna. Plates were swapped and they fixed a ding on the hood… scratch that,
it’s mentioned, but the eBay photos sure do minimize it
compared to the old one.
The worlds of Oscar Wilde ring even more true: “And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything, and doesn’t know the market place of any single thing.”
I was so hoping for an answer. Instead, I find myself with more questions.
Think I saw this car on bring a trillion$ the other day and was wondering the same thing about its disuse…
Agreed. The condtion of his garage and the picture of the house tell of a man who was diligent in maintaining his stuff. With the internet you would think flippers would be less shalll we say obtuse in their descriptions. So easy to be found out. Ah well….Can't take it with you.. Mr. Petro took good care of the Peugot. Good for him
So, he bought the car new when he was 36. He drives it for 3 years or so and everything is great, but it's a Puegeot, and it's not running right, needs a tune up, tires, and brakes. His buddy has a great deal on a used Tempest so he buys that, runs it a few years, trades it in on a new Nova, etc. The Puegeot sits forgotten, in need of minor repair, for 10 years. At this point it's kinda retro-cool, and good for going out and picking up guys at "The Manger" in Bethlehem. He likes the Peugeot, but he can't be seen driving it to the steel mill, but it is still a fun car so every couple years he gets it road ready and drives it a couple times a summer. Eventually, he retires from the steel mill, buys a 1995 motor home with a 454, welds up a tow bar for the old Peugeot, and drags it behind the motor home a few times, but learns it's easier to just put a small motorcycle on a hitch carrier. At this point, the Peugeot is 30 years old and worth saving from a collector standpoint, so he does, until he croaks.
Well, it looks like the flipper spent some money on the interior. Unless they got it really cheap (the fault of the estate sellers), they picked the wrong model to flip. They aren't super valuable cars, even in this condition, and have a very small following. Still hasn't met the reserve price and the interior bill was already paid.
I believe an estate sale may exist when a person has no heirs and is going to become a "ward of the state", as in nursing care. Hummm. BTW – the "flipper" is himself a rarity, I've known him most of my life and know he's a genuinely honest individual. Note his 100% satisfaction level on EBay. I think perhaps someone is a tad misinformed, or trying too hard to be a pretend journalist, or maybe is simply jealous. OH, and about the interior, the leather seats were covered with "factory plastic seat covers" when it was bought at the estate sale, thus the wide variance in "before" and "after" photos.
With all due respect, these facts are easily ascertained, and doing so is by no means the exclusive domain of "real" journalists. The dots are easily connected: a Google search on "1965 Peugeot 404" turns up the Hemmings listing for the Dotta auction > the Dotta auction notice names the decedent > the obituary lists the specific date in May.
The photos on the auction site reveal the cracked taillight and other issues mentioned. The dent on the hood is most troubling, as it's plainly visible on the Dotta photos, but effectively obscured by the lighting and angles of the eBay photos. The rumpled seat covers give us an important gauge of how the car was used and maintained; the eBay seller lucked out big time by being able to peel away those years… or did he?
You can see how many questions the eBay listing raised here, on BaT, and elsewhere. The Internet conceals no secrets. If the eBay seller had done the legwork and found this car offline, then he could have preserved whatever mysteries he wanted. By buying it at a web-listed auction, it's public info all the way.
On the face of the eBay listing alone, the unanswered questions of sourcing and interventions probably dissuaded knowledgeable collectors. Connecting the dots to the prior auction–especially the photos–shines an unflattering light. Now it has the look of a clumsy 2-week rush to cash in.
As a serious observer of car selling, I believe he lost money both by trying to obscure the provenance and by making the minor fixes. A subset of car collectors and enthusiasts–the ones who spend the most–would have been much more interested in this car if it had been presented in "as found" condition.
—
Separately, as a matter of Internet etiquette, I urge you to think twice before making: tl;dr comments, as you clearly didn't look at the links in the posting; ad hominem attacks ("misinformed", "jealous"), as these raise hackles; and posting anonymously, which deflates credibility and makes dialog difficult (no one needs your real name, use a pseudonym).
I saw the ad in Hemmings and attended the auction. I wanted the Peugeot but it went for more than my limit. The owner, who was evidently a very strange man, would tow it to car shows. The tires looked like new, so I think he also drove it around the block. It is a beautiful flawless car, but very unsexy. The instruments look very delicate and are in an unattractive white plastic. Had it been a coupe, I would have bought it.
What did it sell for at auction, Chris?
$9.0, and it went today on eBay for $15.0, so he made $6.0 without investing a dime. It still doesn't run, and the gas tank is still detached. Hopefully the latest owner will fix it up.
Anyone who is/was serious about this car would do the same research or more. The more valuable the car, the deeper the research. Most will dig and keep whatever they find to themselves. Thanks for digging and sharing, its not only a time saver, its entertaining. I dig it when you share, man!
Congrats to anyone taking a chance on a non-running car and making $6k for having the cajones to get out their wallet write the check and then write the ad. BTW, I found nothing disparaging in any of this discussion, just a different point of view about full disclosure adding to credibility which should add to perceived value and higher bids.