Hi guys

Check this out. Comments welcome????

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1932-CHEV...bayphotohosting

Hey RG,

It's a neat looking car. Waaaay too old for me, however. Is it even 'sorta' original?? I wouldn't think the color or interior were 'stock.' Don't know.

Bill.

it may not be original, but that doesn't mean it isn't easy on the eyes...


epi

Looks like a fun rig to me, even though I come from the rain capitol of the universe.

hey bob, when did you move to kaua'i?..


epi

Never been there Kepi. I do understand it is a gorgeous place, the "Garden Island".

you might try it sometime, bob...some very good deals for visitors, as it still has not recovered economically from hurricane iniki many years back...


epi

Well, we know the hand brake does not hold and the engine has an odd look about it, but what else do you guys see that makes ya think it's not original? (besides the top, body and wheel colors)? Truck and rack?, rear tailites?

I can't see the details that good but the stantion/windshield frame, hinges on the doors, the way the doors set to the body rails, door handles etc. are all diffenrent as well as what was mentioned above. Unless this is a holden body from Australia which is different than the USA made body, it may be made up. I still think the door hinges would be hid with the holden body but I may be wrong.

There are a lot of things not correct with the "fake" phaeton. One would be the closed car instrument panel along with no interior door handles, incorrect outside door handles, wrong engine, and the list goes on.

Definately not a Holden body as Holden continued with the 1931 body in 1932. Only difference being the 1932 firewall and different windscreen posts.

So what do you guys think this thing is? How many of them are out there?
Someone is ready to pay near 10K for it with 2 days left.
I don't have sidemounts on my car, but I see the small rectangular brackets are missing on the firewall.

The reserve hasn't been met yet so until that happens probably no one will own it. At any rate, this car is not the "real deal" and it is amazing how many bidders have not done their homework on this thing. So, I guess that all we can say is "let the buyer beware".

Just noticed that the vin # ends with 521. Even I would pick up on his statement that only 419 were made. Duh...how did ya get a vin # with 521!

The car serial number has absolutely nothing to do with how many of each "model" were made since the car serial number is concerned only with the total number of the "run" in each specific factory. Besides, the car serial number listed on eBay is incorrect anyway.

There were only 419 phaetons made in 1932, and this car isn't one of them!

So Skippy,

Would this one be called a "Fake-eton??"

Bill.

I guess that would pretty much describe it.

Yeah Dog, we went thru the vin #'s with my coupe. I was just Phaeking!

That shifter looks strange too. Eather it's bent down and in 1st or 3rd gear or that "thing" is not a 32 shifter. Maybe the drive train and frame is from a later year.

It's a shame to see people ruining the hobby like this. Even though he does not mention the word Phaeton, he does say "only 419 made".

What get's me, is he says it's all steel. So were did those parts come from? Did some company attemp a Phaeton knock-off years ago? I have an EMI catalog from 1989 and they only did roadsters.

The "fake" looks like parts of it could have possibly been a closed car at one time.

Lots of people who own old cars know nothing about them. He may not be dishonest, just ignorant. It seems like these folks, and the crooks too, can always find another uninformed buyer who will pay their price.
Mike

The auction ended with a high bid of $17,500 and the reserve was not met. There were 26 bids on this thing! Unbelievable!

dog,

which is more unbelievable?..that there were twenty-six bids or that the reserve wasn't met at $17.k?..


epi

Both!!!!

I called the guy up when it first came on ebay and told him I believed it was not an original car. The reserve was $20,000.

Hey Doug you got bigger ones than me!

So what what his reaction when you said that to him?

Did he give any explanation as to how the car got that way? He says he got it in a trade. But does he know what it was?

Twenty six bids to 17.5 is the amazing part. I'm watching Barret Jackson this year, and I've allready fell of the sofa a few times!

He said he didn't know anything about the car other than he took it in on trade. He didn't seem too interested in if it was original or not probably since his ebay name is "johnsrods". To the rodders who probably bid on this I guess it doesn't matter. It would be hard to believe that someone would bid on this as original.
As a sore point with me it is just as stupid that we have car clubs that are dedicated to the preservation of cars that welcome hot rods at their shows and wonder why this type of promotion has helped encourage the butchering of many nice original cars. Just check out ebay. Oh how did I get on this subject..sorry

You are right Doug. I think this guy might have had a few close friends place some of those 26 bids.
Like you say no one who knows would go up to 17.5 for a bogus Phaeton and even the parts are not worth it.
Typical scam.

my two cents worth of comments:

in this case, i give the seller the benefit of the doubt...

he admits that he is simply repeating what the previous owner's assertion and that he doesn't have any proof...he's saying: do your own homework if originality & rarity matter to the prospective bidder, because the story suits me, and I'd rather not do or know any more...

not everyone, apparently including this seller, know nor care about originality, rarity, or preservation...

there are a lot of people out there, myself included, that wouldn't know all the details to discern original from faked...certainly many of the guys here do -- and we have some outright authorities here that likely cannot be matched anywhere else -- but you guys are not reflective of the general population...

of the twenty-six bids, there were only twenty discrete bidders...of these, four were bottom fishers at $111 to $5k bid...only five were $10k and over...I'm speculating here, but in a nation of nearly three hundred million (I'll skip the possibility of international bidders), there are probably that many (five) people that would bid on the car...

one of the final bidders handle was "porsche747"...maybe a stretch here, but a porsche-driving, jumbo jet pilot?..$17.4k probably wouldn't be a lot of dough...

what's my point?..that it doesn't surprise me that there might be five people (that are not the sellers friends) in our part of the world that would want to drive a car that looks neat & different than what they see others driving, wouldn't really care nor worry about whether it was original or rare (as we do), and would spend between $10k-20k to have it...

or maybe they're thinking: cool, a rare car for them to drop on another $100k at the rod shop!..


epi

Chevrolet you are probably right.
It's a shame to see people with that much money ready to throw it away. But if I were a different person I sure would take the money and run.

rgwiz,

yeah...takes many a kind to make this world run 'round...


epi

I would still like to know who the nuts were that were biding on that car? As Doug pointed out there are many things that we can see in these pictures that tell us this is not a real car. But there are only about 20 plus people in the world that have a car like this that would know, and Doug and I are two of them.

The 1932 phaeton is a rare beast since so few of them survive today. It would be nice to use one of these rare cars as an example to show what a real 1932 phaeton actually looks like. Do you have any photos of one that you can post here Brucie?

great idea, dog...


epi

Chevrolet's theory may be a very good one, and I can understand it. But, I still have that bad feeling about this one. I've seen it first hand, that is where I was asked to bid on an eBay item just to drive up the price.

rg,

oh...well, that's different...that would make the owner appear to be engaging in deceitful sales practices...maybe I was wrong above?..


epi

I don't know if you noticed, but at the top of the completed auction it says "The seller ended this listing early because the item is no longer available for sale." Wonder what happened?

probably found a local buyer that met his minimum...


epi

Oh Kepi,

Actually the buyer could be local or anywhere. If, for instance, he had it advertised in Hemming's, it could have sold off that ad. And, of course, the auction would have ended 'early.'

As I said, could have been 'local' (like you suggested) or 'anywhere' (like the example I suggested).

Bill.

It's quite usual to use eBay as an advertising media for expensive items.
After letting the item run for a few days you have a list of possible buyers from the bidders & those who asked questions you then remove the item & do a private deal saving you the high final eBay costs.

Another way is to set a very high reserve.
If you reach the reserve then you don't mind paying eBay the percentage.
If it doesn't then you know what the highest bid is & who it is....You can then do a private deal with the bidder, his top bid may already be higher than what you wanted for the car...But there's no harm in trying to raise him a little more.
eBay is full of scams, some illegal, some just bend the rules a bit.

Buyer beware!!

Another give-away- look at the rear door door jambs, there is a missing piece there, the one thjat holds the catch and the rubber door bumper. I assume the 32 phaeton door jamb is the same as my 31 Phaeton jamb. Also, notice the closed-car instrument panel, Jo