Respectable Mecum price for Volare "Road Runner"

AMC Diplomat

AMC Diplomat

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Well, an F body snuck its way in and went for the respectable sum of $27,500
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Link: 1978 Plymouth Road Runner at Kissimmee 2024 as M91 - Mecum Auctions

maybe this means in a couple years someone will start stamping floor pans?
 
Take anything you see from those online photos with a huge grain of salt. They serve wine at those auctions. Unless you crawled under the car or know who did the body work, all you have to go by are some pixels. It could be a great deal, it could be a total nightmare that has been hacked up by a serial car flipper. There is no way of telling what that car really is from our vantage point, even at the auction they can hide tons of stuff and almost always do.
 
Ele115 said:
Take anything you see from those online photos with a huge grain of salt. They serve wine at those auctions. Unless you crawled under the car or know who did the body work, all you have to go by are some pixels. It could be a great deal, it could be a total nightmare that has been hacked up by a serial car flipper. There is no way of telling what that car really is from our vantage point, even at the auction they can hide tons of stuff and almost always do.
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Oh I'm not saying it's a good car. I'm just saying it's nice to see some love for these cars and if the value goes up maybe the aftermarket will start stamping sheet metal
 
These will definitely go a lot more collectible as everything else goes up. It's inevitable. With the EV's and all of that madness, look for anything with a carbon based propulsion system becoming very sought after soon. But vintage anything is going up quite quickly. All of the people that want Hemi this and big block that can't afford them so they are paying $20,000 for old clapped out wagons and four doors. As people retire, they want an old car. They have to find one they can afford.
 
I'm just having fun making improvements to my old car. Diplomats are still pretty cheap.
 
Well, they are yes. But in the near future they wont be. Much or most of what I accumulated, I got many years ago when it was worth nothing. I had plenty of storage and never liked to get rid of a car (or other things) unless I made significant money. There is no way I would pay today's prices, or even close for what I have. There are times when you find a deal, but that's not like it used to be. I bought up AMC's when people were scrapping them and didn't want them. They bring big money now and will go a lot higher as they were not produced in large numbers. Clean Gremlins pull in over 2o now. They were a couple grand a few years ago. I got two new golf carts last month, 37 grand for two of them. I am glad I won't own them when they need new batteries. They went to that new battery type. $$$$. Everything is out of this world now.
 
One problem with those big auctions is (for example this car) is then people with a rotted out S6 Volare or Aspen will think it's worth $10K. It happened wirh E-body, then B-body and later on, A-body. JMO but, take what people pay at Mecum or B-J and cut in half to get a real world price.

Also at an auction where you have limited inspection opportunity and no possibility of any kind if test drive, how do know if it really is a good car or just a pig with lipstick and masquera(sp?), much less a fair value (price).

Over the years at work I saw a number of cars that looked really nice if you saw them on the road. Then they'd be in the shop for an alignment or whatever and they were just a nice paint job and interior. Underhood was a greasy mess with wiring done by a 3rd grader, the underside was a cobbled up, filthy, patched up mess. We also saw a few that were nice top, bottom and underhood also, of course.

My long winded point is, looks can be deceiving. Thank you for your time. :)
 
Let em think whatever, if people want to pay stupid prices, fine, if it creates a demand for sheet metal its a blessing

How many posts have been about people struggling to put new floors in? If there's suddenly value, even perceived value, maybe people who already have these cars can get new floor pans
 
I can't even find them here let alone at decent prices. What was once a $1,000 is suddenly 6k and not selling.
 
AMC Diplomat said:
Let em think whatever, if people want to pay stupid prices, fine, if it creates a demand for sheet metal its a blessing

How many posts have been about people struggling to put new floors in? If there's suddenly value, even perceived value, maybe people who already have these cars can get new floor pans
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It's always a double edged sword. When the cars start selling for more, repop parts start coming out, which causes the car prices to go up more, lather, rinse, repeat.

Maybe though, it will help some companies get their noses out of the air and stop the "F-bodies aren't REAL Mopars" attitude at least. Legendary, I'm looking at you. What I mean is, if they see there's a market to make repop parts financially feasible, they'll start looking into it.

Biggest problem is when most get priced out of the F-body (and J/M body too), what's left that was built after that? Intrepids, Neons and Grand Caravans????? Yeah, you see my point.
 
In a few more years they will be collecting and restoring stuff like this. I can't wait to see them keep the plastic parts and electronics alive though

Colorado ragged out.jpeg
 
There's really only one thing that determines what a car is worth. It's worth what someone is willing to pay to own it.
 
I think as far as floor pans and parts like that it seems that those parts are not produced until they can get their money back from the high costs of tooling. Until such a time as people are spending big bucks doing full restos on these cars (meaning they have to bring big bucks when they are done), nobody is going to lay out the money for tools dies and set up. On the other hand, maybe China would do it. MAYBE. Like the stuff LMC truck sells, that type of quality. But you have to have a lot of customers lined up before it makes sense to do it. There aren't a lot of people doing high dollar restos on these things. I get that a few people want these parts, but it takes hundreds, if not thousands of orders
 
I heard once to reproduce the '78/'79 Aspen grille assy would cost an estimated $75K to $100K before the 1st one was ever made. Then add in the cost of plating, painting, etc and, well, it'll never happen. They'd either have to sell thousands of them, or charge like $2,500 a pop and still sell a whole lot to make it financially feasible.
 
Aspen500 said:
I heard once to reproduce the '78/'79 Aspen grille assy would cost an estimated $75K to $100K before the 1st one was ever made. Then add in the cost of plating, painting, etc and, well, it'll never happen. They'd either have to sell thousands of them, or charge like $2,500 a pop and still sell a whole lot to make it financially feasible.
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Maybe if the company didn't already have the equipment to make them. OER makes grilles for almost everything. I'm surprised there's not at least a repair kit where someone just sells plastic squares that you have to graft into the grille yourself

I'd settle for just black paint it yourself grilles. I still haven't found a Diplomat grille that was perfect. When my project is done, I'll have to settle for new paint and a peeled grille I guess.
 
The floor pans shouldn't be that bad to do especially with the technology that cuts dies these days. There are some smaller companies that make random metal parts for less common cars.
 
Ele115 said:
Everything is out of this world now.
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I'll say !
Mikes5thAve said:
I can't even find them here let alone at decent prices
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I have been looking for a Clean 1980 Aspen or Volare' 2 or 4 door slant 6 with air for quite some time now.
Or close to that description.
Lately found one,80 Volare' 4 door no air with 53k miles.Far from clean,poor paint and had a rusty rocker. Price was $4k.
It was in Pa and with transportation I would be at the $7k mark. I had to pass.
Missed a 78 last year,4 door,no air, 28k miles needed nothing. Was sold for $6,500.
Now that one I would have gladly paid the $3k for shipping.
 
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