Hi everyone (76 Custom Cruiser)

[RussTom]

Hello Everyone,
My dad is finally realizing that he doesn't need to keep the family wagon anymore since we are all grown up. So, I got the task of finding it's value and to find it a good home. I thought I'd ask the experts here how to best go about doing that. I thought that just putting it on Ebay/Craigslist wouldn't find it a good home.

It's a 76 Custom Cruiser, with 97k miles. Always garaged, never been in an accident, no rust. Now resigned to 50mile airport duty every few months.
Thanks for your help.

-Russell

[Olds64]

Russell, if you have pictures please post them. It is hard to say how much a car is worth over the internet, especially wihtout seeing pics. You can search on Craigslist, and Hemmings Motor News to get a ballpark figure for asking price; however, don't confuse asking price for what a car is actually worth. Someone might ask for $27,000 for a car like yours but they probably wouldn't get it.

[lshlsh2]

Also post options and engine/trans combo. these will also affect the value
Larry

[jaunty75]

Assuming your car is in good, driveable condition but needs cosmetic restoration (repaint, taking out the scratches and dings of 33 years of driving, etc.) to bring it to the point where you would want to take it to a car show, the Old Cars Price Guide puts the value of a '76 Custom Cruiser in the $1400 to $1500 range. Get it up to an about show-quality car (a "20 footer"), and you can double those values. If your car has been garaged its entire life and has been well cared for, but still needs attention to get it to show quality, you might be near $2000. But with mileage closing in on 100,000, no one will think of it as a low-mileage car.

As Olds64 points out, sources like Craigslist will tell you what people are asking for the cars, not what they're actually selling them for. As you might imagine, the demand for station wagons has not traditionally been strong among old car enthusiasts, although that seems to have changed somewhat in recent years, particularly the for older cars (Vista Cruisers and before). That sentiment has probably not yet caught on too strongly for the Custom Cruiser wagons.

To sell it, you're going to have to either find someone who will treat it as a collector car and fancies the station wagons, or you'll have to find someone who just sees it as another used car and who just wants cheap transportation. This type of person will attach no collectibility value to it at all. But there are probably more of this type of person out there.

Also post options and engine/trans combo. these will also affect the value

The only engine available on any of the '71 to '76 Custom Cruisers was the 455. There was probably only one transmission available, too. THM 300?

Other options, like whether or not the car has power windows or cranks, AM/FM or just AM, cruise-control or not, etc. will have a very minor effect on the value. $5 here, $10 there at most. What would have an effect of maybe a couple of hundred dollars would be whether or not it's a two-seater or three-seater, with, of course, the three-seater worth more.

[Oldsguy]

welcome to CO Russell. You should just keep it and drive it for yourself.

[jaunty75]

Originally Posted by RussTom

My dad is finally realizing that he doesn't need to keep the family wagon anymore since we are all grown up.

By the way, having kept the car for 33 years, which is long enough for children born when the car was new to have children of their own, what age does your father consider "grown up?" 40?

[J-(Chicago)]

Looks like you're stuck with it, Russel.
That's a good thing.

I'd hate to see an old friend like that leave for $1500

[RussTom]

Thanks for all the great advice. I actually meant to put some pictures of the car up when I wrote the original post. It's a 3 seat with a 455 engine and a 3sp auto tranny. I still think the coolest thing about the car is the clamshell tailgate. Even today, I could watch it go up and down for hours, thinking of my childhood.

[Jamesbo]

Welcome aboard

X 2 on keeping it. I have a Vista and I love it.

[Olds64]

Russ that is a clean car. You could definitely get more for it than what Jaunty75 mentioned. I believe there was a 76 Custom Cruiser in Hemmings about a year ago that sold for around $5000. It was in similar condition to yours but had metallic blue paint, tinted windows and aftermarket wheels. Just keep your eyes peeled and keep checking various sources on the internet for cars similar to yours.

[jaunty75]

Thanks for the photos. The car looks VERY nice, which is what makes it so tough to come up with a value. $2000 might be very reasonable, but you've got to find someone who wants it. In the condition it's in, it might be very appealing to someone who just wants cheap transportation and the ability to haul stuff.

My father owned both '71 and '73 Custom Cruisers. The '73 was OK (although it never got better than about 10 miles per gallon, even on the highway), but the '71 was one of the first "post-strike" cars and did have a few issues over the two years we owned it. I remember the clamshell tailgate was one of them. It wasn't long before the well into which the lower half descended would not drain rainwater properly, and you could hear water sloshing around in there whenever the car was driven. The lower half of the tailgate would often emerge from the well wet. He had to keep taking it back to the dealer to get it unclogged.

The thing I always remember about that car (I was 14 when he bought it) was that, when you closed any of the doors, it was never the satifsying "clunk" you're supposed to get, but rather it sounded like the dropping of a heavy can of nails. I remember reading in Consumer Reports or somewhere like that that this was not uncommon for post-strike cars. My father always said it was built on a Monday.

Another thing I remember about that car was that my father had ordered it, rather than buying off the lot, to get the options he wanted, and when the dealer called to tell him that it had arrived (we had waited a long time because he ordered it before the strike, but it didn't arrive until after it ended, and the strike itself lasted two months), he also said that we would have to wait a bit because it had arrived "incomplete." Some of the options, such as the cruise control, had not been installed, so the dealer was going to have to do that, and some of the interior trim had not been installed but rather had been just thrown loosely into the car when it left the factory. I guess GM had been in a hurry to get these things out the door once the strike ended.

[jaunty75]

Originally Posted by Olds64

I believe there was a 76 Custom Cruiser in Hemmings about a year ago that sold for around $5000.

How do you know it actually SOLD for this?

[jaunty75]

Quote:
I believe...

Ah. In other words, you have no idea.

[jaunty75]

Originally Posted by Olds64

I know because I called the guy and asked him.

You're making this up. You're FIRST post simply said, "I believe...", and then you erased it.

[Olds64]

[1ATony]

Welcome to the site.Why do I have the National Lampoons Vacation song going through my head

[70 cutlass s]

I think it would be a cool car to keep.

[Bluevista]

That car does look clean, if it runs good and has no rust around the windows or anything that car is worth at least 3500 bucks all day IMO.
If I didn't have mine and were closer I'd buy it in a minute for that if it checked out.
I don't think 5k sounds unreasonable at all for an asking price, low miles, clean and running is worth a lot. Don't rip yourself off by lowballing it, at least try if you do sell it, can't hurt. Evilbay is about the only place you would get enough exposure for something like that.
There's always somebody looking and willing to pay a premium for clean and it only takes one guy. They cost way too much to restore so it holds the prices way down.
I would try http://stationwagonforums.com and see what they say, a lot more knowledgable on the subject and I know there are a few members with them there.
I would keep it too.
It would be like selling the family dog at this point to me.

[Olds64]

Why do I have the National Lampoons Vacation song going through my head

The Griswold Family Truckster!

It would be like selling the family dog at this point to me.

Or tying him to the rear bumper of your station wagon and driving down the interstate! Poor Clark Griswold! Poor Dinky!

[cutlassgal]

You Serious Clark??? Different movie I know, but still a "vacation" one!!

[Lovin87olds]

Originally Posted by Oldsguy

welcome to CO Russell. You should just keep it and drive it for yourself.

I agree, keep it. You will never know the joy you will get out of a car like that. Unless you really can't keep it then I'm very glad you care enough to give it to a good home.

[jeffreyalman]

I bought one 6 mo ago for under $6k and was offered $7500 for it which I declined, very similar, but loaded, 106k miles, needed about $3k in work. I probably overpaid but original except paint, good condition, well cared for all things considered. I question all these price guides anyway. WTFE. Nice car. Keep it.

http://www.hemmings.com/users/22135/ride/6180.html

[rare6288]

I also agree,keep it! Believe me, as a total car nut, you won't have to look back decades later like me and say, "I should have held on to that [at the time] average old car." The sedimental value means a lot. My dads '62 olds was just a car when i was growing up. Thankfully he kept it and now i have it! Over 40 years of memories!!