<VV> 1969 Corvair on Detroit Craigslist

[peter koehler]

As they say, "Pictures can be deceiving". I have been 
following the '69 Monza coupe on Craigslist since the 
first week in November when it first appeared with a $5000 
asking price. I wasn't interested at that price, but it 
looked good in the pictures. Just after Thanksgiving my 
buddy Pete Cimbala called me and mentioned that the same 
'69 was now offered at $2500 and the owner was moving 
soon. I thought about it and re-visited the Craigslist ad. 
It sure looked good in the (same) pictures. Yesterday the 
car was reduced down to only $1500. The engine was 
supposedly rebuilt. Car only shows 38,000 on the clock. It 
was repainted a while back and garaged since. The 
transmission was leaking and that is why the car was 
parked. The seller was about to move out of the house last 
night and even offered to have the car towed up to 100 
miles for free! The story sounds good here, doesn't it? 
And it still looked good in the pictures. So I called my 
buddy Clark Hartzel who lives just a few miles from where 
this car was garaged. Clark offered to go check it out and 
arrange for the purchase for me if the car what it was 
purported to be in the ads and pictures.

Well, it wasn't a very good deal even at $1500. Rust was 
the problem. Earl Scheib could have done a better 
re-paint. The interior was trashed. The "rebuilt" engine 
hadn't run in two years and looked like it would make 
complaints before running again. And so on. And so on. 
Clark figured it was worth maybe $500 in parts but wisely 
did not make the offer.

Oh well, late model Corvairs are nice - but they are much 
too modern for me! - Caveman Pete