[urq] Where to sell a high-end urq?

[Peter]

I have heard about your car but I have never seen it personally or seen
pictures; but I was at URQ25 and saw some remarkable URQ's there that were
in excellent original condition with no restoration needed.  2 come to mind
immediately that were a part of the URQ25 organizing committee.  A black 85
that belongs to Gary of Colorado with less than 50,000 miles and another 85
that belongs to Mark of Colorado with very low miles. That, along with a
host of others that have been properly restored and in excellent condition
and tastfully modified ones that suit the individual enthusiast that ownes
it/them.  If I remember correctly, Anderson was asking $40,000 for the car
you own. I think your way off base if you are trying to get anything close
to that value; not because of the car but because of the market. The market
sucks right now for most exotics (except Porsche ) as was exemplified by the
auction on August 14th  by Bohman/Butterfield at Pebble Beach. Of the 231
cars slated for auction; more than 1/2 failed to make their
respective reserves........... except for the Porsches. The Auto-Union car
had a reserve of $8M down from a  pre-bid two years ago of $12M. It is my
understanding (2nd hand from a bidder that was at the auction) that the high
bid for this car was under $6M...............that is .less than 1/2 of a
confirmed bid less than two years ago. The point being that exotics are
taking it on the chin right now because of the economy. Secondly, the URQ is
a strange bird that is unknown to most of the world. It is unlike it's
cousin the Porsche which everyone knows. And although the URQ may be a
better engineered car and would be considered rare in most circles
.................... it still is not a Porsche and does not command the
attention and mystique of that marque! The next obstacle you have is the
market for the URQ. It is possible today to buy a URQ in pretty good shape
for under $10k. One in very good condition for under $15k. I have seen
others listed for more than that recently; but I have not seen an actual
sale above that figure. So then you have to find someone that is looking for
a URQ that is willing to pay X amount of dollars over what he can buy one in
excellent condition for. I believe another issue that you are going to be
dealing with is the value of the Sport Quattro. Prices have dropped
$40-60,000 on the Sport Quattro in the last year. Maybe I am wrong here but
I believe that someone who could afford a $30,000 excellent example of a
URQ; could afford $100,000 for a super rare Sport example. We all wish the
cars value would be higher I'm sure; but it's not. Last year I put a URQ on
E-bay just to see what it would bring. It is an 83 that has been restored to
Original condition with less than 1,000 miles on the rebuild using NOS
parts. The high bid on E-bay was $13,XXX. Now you may say E-bay is not a
true indicator but I would respectfully disagree. It is what a willing buyer
and seller are willing to sell/pay today. All this said; I think it is going
to be very difficult to sell any North American URQ for more than $20,000 in
today's market no matter how pristine it is. And finally, like everything
history is a very good indicator of the future. Following is a list of the
purchased values of URQ's that I own: $3,500, $800, $2,500, $4,000, $6,500,
$6,000, $3000, $1,800, $2,200. Granted, I have put thousands of dollars into
them; but you can't disagree with the facts. It is a great car for the
enthusiast because of it's low value and remarkable engineering but a
terrible car to use as an investment tool. Again, it is what it is.
I believe that if you want to sell your car today the best market is Europe
where the Euro reigns supreme. I just sold a 2002 Allroad to a guy who is
going to take it back to Germany where he says it is worth twice what it is
here. Within the last two months I sold a 356 Porsche to a guy in
Belgium for twice what I was offered here.
After my long diatribe; I would therefore suggest selling it in the European
market to get the most money for it. Good luck whatever your next
move.......................

Sincerely,

Peter

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 10:04 AM, <javadog at att.net> wrote:

> First off, what do I mean by a high-end Urq?  Quite simply, it is the
> nicest ur Quattro I have ever seen, since the cars were new.  Happily it is
> mine but I don’t drive it as much as I should and I need to sell some cars,
> as I simply have too many.  So, a little about the car….  I bought it about
> 10 years ago from Kent Anderson, after he had taken it to the ’99 Monterey
> Historics.  It was a nice, low mileage (57K) car then but I decided that it
> could be better, so I gave it to a friend in the restoration business and we
> repainted a few areas that had rock chips, installed European bumpers and
> lights on both ends and cleaned the car from one end to the other.  The
> paint (Mars Red) now looks as it did when the car was new, the interior
> leather is soft as butter and the only real cosmetic flaw is some fading to
> the carpet below the rear window.  Mechanically, I changed the turbo to a
> K24 and changed the cam to a “cheater” cam that Ned Ritchie supplied that
> dated from the showroom stock racing days many years ago.  Unusually for one
> of these cars, it starts and runs like a modern car, first turn of the key.
>  I have seen a lot of these cars, and owned other, more “typical” quattros
> and I’ve never laid eyes on one even close to this one.  I’d like to get
> more money from selling it than what I have seen other nice cars sell for in
> the last couple of years.  Thus the question…
> I don’t particularly like eBay, as I don’t think anybody bids their top
> dollar on a car that they usually can’t personally inspect and there often
> isn’t enough time to get a shop to do a pre-purchase inspection.  I don’t
> mind buying parts and small things from eBay from time to time but I’d never
> bid on a car there.  Most of my friends wouldn’t, either.
> I used to advertise in the Audi Club classified but there’s a huge lead
> time there and almost no ads the last few years, so I doubt much would come
> from that.  There are several Audi internet boards but I’d wager most people
> on this one already have an urq…and I’ve decided that nobody needs two of
> them.  I found that I didn’t, after a while.  I emailed Kent Anderson a
> while back and he didn’t seem interested in selling the car for me, so maybe
> his business has changed.  Hemmings is another option, although that seems
> to cater to a different crowd and there is a fair lead time associated with
> those ads as well.
> So, what do you guys think?
> Jeff
> PS: I also will be selling a mint (9k mile, never seen rain…) RS6, so I’d
> like any opinions on that one as well.
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