[junglejill]

First, I apologize in advance if I come across as a complete idiot..because I actually am when it comes to cars. I have been reading a lot, but it is only managing to confuse me even more. I am hoping that someone might be willing to let me know what types of things buyers need to know when looking to purchase a Cutlass..? I'll try to be brief....

In 1967, My Grandmother bought a 1967 Olds Cutlass Supreme Holiday, (lived in Michigan, original owner, it was garaged most of the time-so there was only a small spot of rust as she didn't drive anywhere unless she had to) and gave her car to my Mom in 1985, when she was no longer able to drive. We drove it from Michigan to California. It had only 46k original miles.

My Mom and I paid to have things done on the car over the years, (new brakes, oil changes, tune ups, and I think she had a new front end done (I am still looking for all the records or part of the front end or something that was done that cost over a couple hundred dollars..)

My Mom no longer drives, and gave the car to me in 2003. now there is 146k I cannot care for the car the way that it should be. Before I became ill, we had plans of giving her an overhaul (new paint, new interior, I wanted to get new rims for it, new stereo, so it would be really pretty-but I have since been told it was a good thing I didn't do it, because it should stay stock?) We did manage to get the paint job, a new headliner, but was unable to go any further because my income went to nearly nothing when I became ill.

I can't afford to keep it anymore, gas is too much-and frankly anything other than an oil change is too much-and I have noticed now transmission fluid is having to be added more-which I am pretty sure it is not a good thing, and it needs new springs? Everywhere we go, at least one person will ask us if we want to sell it or will tell us what a beautiful car it is. The paint job we had done was $6000.00. We want to sell it to someone that will take care of her.
Her name is Nellie.

It has the original transmission, the original engine (which I was told was important when selling?), original interior (new headliner-but the seats need to be redone), original chrome, etc...

My questions are, does it help to have the repairs and paperwork that was done to the car? We have that from the first piece of paper my Grandma got at the dealership-so do I tell them that? I have the original license plate, does that matter or can I keep it-turns out the letters JKR are my initials on the michigan plate my grandma had-but if it sells the car better I will include it. When the paint job was done we had them leave the door panels off as our intention was to replace them when we had the interior done and some of the inside chrome-will it hurt the price we might get if we just include them or do you think we should put them back on?

When selling it, Is it worth mentioning that it was My Grandmothers, then my Mom's, now Mine? or does anyone really care? Is it better to put a for sale sign on it, or do you think eBay or the forum here is better? How can anyone that isn't local want it if they aren't here to test drive it? Doesn't it make it harder to sell that way? and finally, how can we find out what in the heck we should ask? Our insurance company, Farmers, has it insured for $13,000-but I am told that really doesn't mean anything?

How can I be honest about what work it needs if I don't know? Do I have to pay to have a mechanic go through it before I put it up for sale? I can't afford to do that...