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Buying Your First Classic Car

By Dan Fen

Buying your first classic car may be one of the biggest purchases of your life. It is nothing like buying a daily transportation vehicle, and can be overwhelming for many first time buyers. Between juggling your budget, your time, your space, your mechanical abilities, and future plans with the car, you have a lot of decisions to make.

Your first decision of course is deciding what model and year you want. Although this decision may seem easy, once you dig down into finances and other variables, this decision can stop dead in its tracks. What you want and what you can afford may be two different numbers far apart. You need to look online and check other resources for current going prices of the classic car(s) you are interested in, and see if it fits your budget. If your goal is to have a fully restored piece of driving art, you need to take this into consideration. Restoration prices can be expensive, especially if you do not do it yourself. If you do the restoration work yourself, you can be looking at a lot of your valuable time being used. If you are not interested in having your newly bought classic car up on blocks for several years, you may want to factor in the cost of buying a fully restored car, which of course will up the cost of any car you purchase.

Another excellent idea for anyone buying a classic car, whether it is your first or tenth, is to visit a local car club. Here you will meet people that already own the car you want, and you can learn valuable tips from them. They have already bought the car you want, and many times they have bought more than one. Most car club members will be more than happy to talk to you about what to look for, share other tips, and even maybe point you in the direction of someone who is selling the classic car you want. Many times these cars will sell for more, but in general car club members "baby" their cars, and you will have a better chance of buying a real "gem".

Chances are, especially if you are looking for an exact model, i.e. special color, model, options, etc. in a classic car, you may have to search online. Ebay motors and craigslist are two excellent places to start. Buying a classic car online can be more work, but it can also be so much more rewarding, especially if you can find exactly what you are looking for. You need to be careful buying online, since there are scammers out there. If the selling price seems too good to be true, it probably is. Also be wary if they do not give out their phone number. Scammers like to use email only. Other red flags are sellers who are out of the country, sellers selling the car for someone else, or if the seller doesn't know answers to simple questions a classic car owner should know about their vehicle.

There are online companies that will go and inspect your classic car wherever it is, and send you extra pictures and a detailed inspection report of the vehicle. These can be a bit pricey depending on how much detailed information you want, but can also be very valuable in determining the real value of what you cannot see for yourself. Another idea is to check out car clubs or online classic car forums, and find someone in that area that is willing to go check out the car for you. There are many classic car fans willing to help out others.

The safest way of purchasing a car online is by using an escrow company. An escrow company acts as the "middle man" between the seller and buyer. After the seller and buyer agree to the price and the details of shipment, the buyer sends the full amount for the car to the escrow company. Once the cash is checked and verified by the escrow company, they notify the seller, and they send the car to the buyer by the agreed upon delivery choice. Once the buyer receives the car and inspects it to determine it is in the condition it was advertised as, they contact the escrow company who then sends the payment to the seller. If there are problems with either end of the deal, the escrow company will get involved. Prices I have seen average about $250 to $300 for a $50,000 transaction, and 0.6% over $50,000. That's a reasonable amount to pay to make your $50,000 purchase a safe one.

Once you have your car, your last step is to get it insured. Many classic car owners insure their vehicle with the same insurance company they have their daily transportation vehicle under. You are better off looking into a collector car insurance company. A simple search online will pull up many. The reasons to look into a collector car insurance company are lower premiums and an agreed value quote. Premiums can be as low as 50% lower than your current insurer, plus only collector car insurers will insure your classic car for its entire agreed value. Collector car insurers only deal with specialty cars, so they know how to set the correct value to a vehicle. They know to add extra value to vehicles with rare options, cars built by specialty builders, etc.

Following the guide above, you should be able to find the classic car of your dreams. Even though buying a classic car may involve a lot of work and research, in the end you will hopefully have a car that will bring you joy for many years down the road.