Quote:
Originally Posted by STLUCIE
Hi Bill, The inner workings of who promised whom, storage issues, etc. aren't my concern. BTW, the car was not inoperable from 1980 to 2018. During that time period it had a spun bearing repaired and was given a paint job.
The adverse party is alleging that this car, in good working order, wasn't worth nearly as much as either a raced Cobra, a wide hip or a 289. This is what I'm either going to agree with or dispute. From what I have learned from various sources, raced cars (289s) may be worth a little more, wide-hipped models are not worth more and non-raced 289s are worth less.
|
A car raced vs a car not raced, in original Cobra circles depends on where it was raced, who sponsored the car, and who the drivers were. Additionally, where the car(s) in question finished in those races. Then we can go for the originality of the car, and all of it's components. Repaints can hurt the value of the car, missing major original components can and due hurt the value of a car not raced. Originality is key when it comes to the top value of a car with no race history, as the car in question apparently is. Is the original date coded, drivetrain intact? What about all the minor items like hoses, belts, dated hose clamps, suspension pieces, etc and so forth? What about the repaint, was the car stripped to bare metal and properly prepped and repainted, yup, you guessed it, another ding to the valuation of the car. Modifications from stock, another ding in valuation. As stated earlier, each car is valued on it's own, against itself, so using any other car for a valuation of what is, or what is not, is like asking what shade of blue the sky is over my head vs over your head, 100's, if not 1,000's of miles away from each other. So far, I've yet to see anything that can quantify the value of the car in question, at the time it was placed into storage, vs the cars value now, which quite frankly, appears to be the only real motivation of you as the poster, to get involved. Are you an interested 3rd party in the case for one side or the other? Or perhaps just a keyboard jockey hoping to "break the case wide open with your skills of deduction" using what is posted here by others as your "own exhaustive research". No offense, but those of us who have been around here for the last 20+ years, have seen it before.
So, value now, vs value then, and whether there was a verbal agreement to store the car for a set time period, at which time, if a fee was not paid, or another term between the two brothers was not met, the car could be sold. Or again, perhaps the idea of a duplicate title being presented to the brother of the old owner is the nail on the head. As time goes by, memories become foggy, and items thought to be fact, may not always be the case. Fast forward to now, and greed has sadly thrown into the mix....Greed and someone, perhaps a relative, guiding the wife of the dearly departed down a path that she should never have followed. He said, she said, they said, all irrelevant as the husband has departed this world, and any conversations he had with his brother are now consider hearsay, unless of course there is something in writing that you failed to previously mention. Again, all for the courts and attorneys to opine , all while billing their clients with glee.
Bill S.