Need to sell this thing, 1966 Buick Electra Convertible SOLD

Sean; I had it on Kijiji and Facebook all summer, from April to September, and not one frickin' call, not a one. Over 2000 people looked at it. Well, Ok, there was one email from a either a scammer or a flipper, it consisted of one thing; - "$10,000" and that was it. True, I did drop the price all summer. I started high figuring that people wouldn't figure there's something wrong with it and avoid it, but it didn't matter. All I ever heard was crickets. I felt like I might as well have listed a 77 New Yorker or a Lincoln Towne Car, it was that bad.

Everyone seems to think that because it's an Electra, it's a huge battleship of a car; they prefer the Wildcat, which they assume is a smaller more nimble car, not realizing that Wildcat and Electra were built on the same chassis and totally share mechanicals. True, it is shorter, by exactly 1.5 inches.

I had one guy claim he was a major European importer, he wanted me to drive the car to Halifax where he had a buddy with a boat. Uh, yeah, I know it doesn't look very far on a map and it's pretty much a straight line on the map, but it's 5-6 days drive.

I'm going to list it in Hemmings next month, might try the auction side. I'll list it again in Kijiji and Facebook in March, when things begin to start clearing up. Right now no one will come out and look at it. That said, I'm considering tossing in a "Hail Mary" ad on Kijiji again just to see if it garners any reaction.

I don't really relish the idea of storing the convertible and scrapping the Wildcat, but it may come to that.

As you can see by my Avatar, the car has been to Seattle. It was a flawless trip.

And yes, I'm about 30 minutes away from Edmonton International Airport. Lots of acceptable hotels around, one about 5 blocks away from me.

 

Can a Canadian car be listed on BaT? Bring a Trailer?

 

It is a very nice car I hope it makes it to a good home and doesn't get crushed, I am sorry I can't do anything on this I am tapped.

 

Hi Marc,

So sorry to hear about your health trials buddy.

Have enjoyed talking to you over the years about our drop top Electra’s and wish you all the best of luck securing a new home for it.

Sincerely,
Fritz

 

Yes, but with any BaT listing, it has to be approved to be listed, and they are getting a bit picky these days. Cars on the north side of the border do sell at a bit of discount though depending on the age of the cars. Newer cars from overseas tend to have more stringent import/export rules, so a greater discount likely. Having imported older buicks from the US into Canada, I can't imagine it would be a big deal to go from Canada to the US. Just a matter of some paperwork and pay any taxes due on a car manufactured for sale in North America of that age.

With Marc's past travels with this car and how reliable it has been, I would imagine a fly into Edmonton and driving it back across the border, taking care of the import paperwork, and driving it home would be pretty straight forward.

Marc: I posted a link to this thread over on the BCA forums.

 

Thanks Doug! Appreciate that!

 

Sigh, this car speaks to me for reasons I am not sure why as it would sit as much or more in my garage as it does way up there. If I could just impulse-buy and fly up there to drive it home to Idaho it might just have happened. You will find its rightful next owner. Spring, when everyone wants a convertible, is just around the corner. Gotta get that drop-top working.

 

I have already contemplated dropping by our small-town DMV to ask about the title transfer, thinking I could do that, fly up, slap Idaho Plates on and smoothly drive through the border and home. However, they will probably want to see how I got-into Canada (allegedly with the car). I hate this sort of stuff because it's not like I would be attempting to commit a crime, just bypass a bunch of stupid, time consuming, and expensive red-tape to get to the same end.

 

It's easy if you follow the rules, it gets very ugly fast if you don't.

When your Canadian car breaks down in the US you're supposed to get it fixed and eventually leave the country with it, or scrap it and buy another one or an airline ticket out. There is no "selling" a foreign car to a garage, you have to pay them to take it off your hands because it's now technically scrap. If you arrived at a border crossing in a car, they will expect you to leave the country in that same car. It it wasn't scrapped as a result of an accident or was deemed damaged beyond economical repair, you're expected to remove it from the country you're visiting. Both sides record footage of comings and goings, and both sides have access to that traffic footage. Thank the drug dealers for that.

If you leave a car somewhere and then go home unnoticed, the next time you attempt to cross the line you will likely be denied entry or arrested. They'll figure out what happened, it's happened too often in the past for them not to know. At which point you may be expected to produce a salvage record of the car being scrapped, because that's what will happen to it anyway. Once found, the car will be seized and scrapped. They bust 100s of people on both sides of the line in Ontario and New York, it's just not worth the trouble. And yes, that applies to vintage cars as well, not just modern ones.

There's quite a difference between sneaking a beat up 15 year old Taurus across the line and a big red 1966 Buick convertible. When I drove it across the line in 2017, they ran the registration and everything on it. And when I got back to Canada they ran the plates again and everything on it as well as checking the tires for Canadian MOT stickers. If I had been selected for a secondary or a tertiary examination they'd have pulled it over and taken it apart. With vintage cars they've been known to do that.

I'm not about to leave it somewhere in Idaho in the hopes that someone will pick it up. The US doesn't like it when foreigners leave their garbage laying about. Once located, or once the new owner attempts to register it, I might get a call and a bill for shipping it back plus a nasty fine, and if I refuse, it gets scrapped. Not to mention, my insurance is void, so if something happens to it, that's that. Without proper paperwork, ie if the new owner attempts to drive it home without clear title and gets pulled over for speeding, he's technically doing it in a stolen car, and then there could be fines or possible criminal prosecution. No thanks, not worth the risk.

Then there's a particularly draconian piece of legislature in the US known as the Civil Asset Forfeiture, - if you can't prove that you've obtained said property legally, it's gone, seized by the police force in who's jurisdiction it was picked up in as well as open to US Customs investigation. That would be at the discretion of whatever local Sturmbannführer who pulled you over. You would then have to prove that you legally owned it, and without my signature on a US title declaration, you couldn't, and you'd never see it again.

I know in Canada a "grey market" car that is here on incomplete or has no paperwork is subject to seizure by the RCMP. A buddy of mine lost a nice Mercedes 300 SE that way, the car was shipped by family from Europe, it didn't have the right paperwork, and the RCMP showed up to his place one day and towed the car and presumably scrapped it.

The closest thing that could possibly be done is that I meet the prospective buyer at the border, he crosses and pays me on the Canadian side, gets my paper work, and then goes through US customs properly. (Better yet with the help of a broker who knows what forms are required.)

But be advised, US customs only processes cars through certain crossings and only by appointment, if you do not follow this, the car will be subject to seizure. If you just attempt to drive it over on a set of plates that belong on a different car, you're going to get it seized, they will run the plates. Once it leaves my possession in Canada, I completely wash my hands of it, it becomes the property and the problem of the new owner, which is why I would advise that the rules be followed explicitly.

That's why the prospective owner is advised to bite the bullet, pay the money and hire a customs broker attached to a reputable shipper , - then you know you'll get the car.

 

Marc,
It's a very nice car and very fairly priced in my opinion. I did not know how restrictive the border was. I assume if you live close to the border you can't have repair work done across the border without a penalty or tax?

 

And those are all of the reasons I haven't bothered. What would otherwise be what a appears to be a nice deal, turns into a royal PITA. I hate government and their stupid regulations; the only thing worse is two governments and two stupid sets of regulations. For me, it's just not worth the trouble of the scheduling around all of the BS and the additional cost of a broker erodes the nice deal factor.

I'm sure you will find the right owner for the car. I don't blame you for not wanting to get snarled in a mess trying to get around big brother. I too had determined that there is just no practical way around it that doesn't put someone at financial risk.

 

Realistically your plan works fine with the following modification:

-Fly up and buy the car
-Activate your insurance
-Have things pre setup with the broker I can set you up with so you can have the documents provided by them to the border quickly and effectively. They do it all the time and the border agents don’t give them any hassle.
- a few miles before the border have a tow truck take the car to the border and then once on the other side off load it and drive away happy.
- once you get home deal with the registration.

See the documents need to be at the border ahead of time and unless it’s got valid insurance and registration they won’t let you drive across. I’m sure it’s similar to Canada where you have a bit of time to register a car after you buy it.

 

Good grief, you can have the paperwork in order on a perfectly good car and still have to pay to have it towed across the border? I'm pretty principled about not rewarding stupidity unless it involves avoiding incarceration.

I was seriously considering it as an impulse buy on a neat car that is relatively close, but not for days of messing around and adding probably another $1,000+ ; I just don't have that much personal time to spare. If it was on this side of the Sweetgrass, MT border, well, I'd probably still find a way up there and hand-over the cash after some local verification on title work and some condition verification on the car. Due to the winter weather, now wouldn't be the time to make that happen anyway. Maybe somehow fate will step-in. Thanks to everyone who invested thought on how to make this work.

 

Well, it's too bad I lost a potential sale, but like Sean says, it's all do-able with a bit of planning, but I understand. It probably was easier 30-40 years ago when the border controls were more relaxed. Those were the days a person could enter the US on a driver's license and stay for as long as they wanted.

No, getting work done on either side of the line is not a great idea. A person living in the border or near the border is encouraged to stay on their own side of the line if they need any kind of work done. Especially for Canadians getting work done in the US. Everything is cheaper and parts are easier in the US, in Canada it's prohibitively expensive because everyone here figures the customer owes them a living and charges to the hilt. It also doesn't help that there is absolutely no local parts support for these cars up here, everything has to come from the US and Canada Customs and the Canadian Revenue Service want their cut and will bankrupt you to get it. Since everything in Canada has to be imported, you're actually penalized by Customs for importing it up yourself; Canada Customs still believes it protects Canadian jobs by charging a s--t ton of money for duty on antique parts. Everyone has their hand out for your money, especially if it's the government. I even get nailed for duty and tax on 200 year-old used watch parts.

Customs agencies as a whole seem to be staffed with some of the most narrow-minded, zenophobic morons that are barely able to fog a mirror without dropping it. It's amazing that some haven't drowned in their own showers yet. Like most in the HR field, they are neither humane nor resourceful. They are not known for their compassion, intelligence, or empathy, they're very black and white and by the Book. In university many decades ago I took a few courses on Customs and Immigration and did a practical with them in the Lower Mainland. It's one of the reasons I dropped out of the criminology program and switched majors.

The car will still probably be here in a month or two from now. I will post it here if it actually sells.

 

pay a broker, all done legal and someone won’t have any problems with customs or a title in the states
From my past it’s not a big deal just a cost of doing business

 

i paid about $200 for the broker last time I moved a car across the border

 

Both cars are back on Kijiji.
I'm not expecting much, but out of all the old Buicks listed on Kijiji in Canada, the convertible is the most attractively and realistically priced.

 

Both cars are still here.
The Wildcat has had 9 "hits", out of which only one person came to look at it, and they left after the "Gotta think about it". No offer, no nothing. So it's going nowhere. On the plus side, the Wildcat fired right up cold and ran beautifully tonight when they came to look at it.
The Electra has had 2 hits. Nothing serious came out of any of them.
So far the Electra has 1100 views, and the Wildcat has had 1820 views, so lots of people have seen them. But one thing I've found out is there are an awful lot of space cadets out there who figure a $3000 car ($2000 US) is going to be an interstate or interprovincial cruiser right off the hop.
Please, someone save me from the "Kijidiots"!

Oh well...2 months to go before they have to be gone; - I can only hope.

 

One is gone; the Wildcat is sold, as are a lot of the parts. The Wildcat is headed to Saskatchewan, under it's own power. It will no doubt be a very interesting trip, it's about 400 miles away.

So that just leaves the poor old Electra, it'll break my heart to let it go, but it doesn't look like there's any interest in it, so I might end up keeping it and storing it.

 

I am glad for you Marc that one of the cars got sold.
I do not understand why anyone from US did not buy this. All that talk about how big of a pain the border stuff is I don´t really follow. I am in Denmark - Europe and have been importing cars over here for the past 18 years. When I buy something in US I have to setup land transport, sea transport, packing in a container, dealing with customs/toll twice - when going into EU and when coming into Denmark, inspection of the car and paying license tax for being able to get plates on the car.
If I "just" could hire a guy with a trailer and to handle the border stuff it would be easy and cheap
I hope someone steps up and get your car.