<VV> A/C Corsas

[Bill Elliott]

> 
>Craig opines:
>Don't forget that GM sold dealer kits that installed factory air parts too. Do those conversions have no value? Does a "rescued" A/C system carfully installed have no value? While decoding body tags is very informative and fun, I strongly object to the total dismissal of a car that doesn't have the dammed "E" on the body tag.  It's still what it is; an A/C Corsa convertible. Maybe it doesn't have 100% authenticity, but it still has very high value and serves to preserve the marque.  In the muscle car scene (think BB Camaros and the like) "Tribute" cars bring very high prices too because buyers respect the difficulty of assembling all the right pieces in the original way - the car DOES have high value even if it is a "made up" car.  I'm also involved in the NCRS ('65 FI) and maintain a registry of them. There's a huge (as in tidal) negative reaction to "numbers" and all the associated fakery. Many, if not most of the "numbers matching" cars don't really have the original compo
> nents - there are just vendors out there that have made a business of making items with numbers or renumbering stuff, and others charge to "authenticate" them.  In the Corvette hobby (which started all this stuff) folks have discovered that worrying about numbers has SUCKED THE FUN OUT of the Corvette hobby.  Please don't take Corvairs down this bridgeless road to...
>Craig Nicol
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Of course a Corsa vert with AC added is worth more than an otherwise 
identical Corsa vert without it, but the rarity and really high value 
DOES come from the numbers. The person that's willing to pay the extreme 
dollars for a certain car is going to be educated enough to know what to 
look for... and why would you expect them to pay something similar for 
something not so rare.

The only reason those tribute vehicles make so much money is that the 
real thing makes several time more. It's all relative. A completely fake 
(but well done) Ferrari GTO is going to bring more than a concours 
Stinger... but still only a small percentage of a real Ferrari GTO.

A Stinger "tribute" car carries only a fraction of the value of the real 
thing... This is not an opinion, this is an appraisal of the market. A 
'71 GTO Judge convertible (tribute) carries very little value over a 
non-Judge vert... while the real thing is worth several times either. At 
Carlisle and Hershey, "tribute" Hemi Cudas and Challengers could be had 
for less than $50k... know what a real one is worth?

While worrying about the numbers may very well suck the fun out of a 
marque, don't forget it's also what sucks the money in.

Bill