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Hemmings Motor News Blog

Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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Lies, Falsehoods and Other Misconceptions

Posted November 03, 2014 9:30 AM by dstrohl

(Editor's note: This first appeared in the August 2011 edition of Hemmings Motor News. It's still sound advice, which is why we're reprinting it here.)

If ever there's an activity or business filled with misconceptions, our beloved old car hobby is the crowned king. For years, certain descriptors have been wrongly used to either sell a car or to make a point of fact that is simply wrong. Like fables, new folks to the old car hobby quickly adopt these falsehoods because they just don't know any better. So let's set some things straight.

Learn the half-truths and zero-truths of auto collecting on Hemmings Daily.

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Re: Lies, Falsehoods and Other Misconceptions

11/03/2014 2:19 PM

No link. Clicking on the hyperlink doesn't do anything.

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Re: Lies, Falsehoods and Other Misconceptions

11/03/2014 2:52 PM

"The bigger the engine, the greater the demand:

Not everyone who owns a muscle car wants a big-block V-8 under their hood. Small-block V-8s are lighter, so the car will handle better. And sometimes a larger engine can be overstressed, which can make it less durable and quicker to overheat. Also, keep in mind that in today's world, an engine that is more fuel efficient is more desirable, especially for those owners who plan to drive their old cars regularly. Other much preferred "smaller is better" examples are Alfa Romeo's 1,750-cc engine over the 2,000-cc version, and the Triumph Spitfire's superior 1,300-cc engine over the larger 1,500-cc unit.

If it's 25 years old, then it's an antique:

This is perhaps the biggest falsehood of all time. Just because many car clubs, such as the AACA, state that a car has to be 25 years old to qualify for admission, that doesn't mean that it's an authentic antique, or classic for that matter. There are many different classifications, depending on the year, make and model car. The general consensus is that cars of the early postwar era can be referred to as classics, but usually anything built from the mid-1970s onward is simply called a collector car. Then again, all desirable old cars are collector cars; however, not all collector cars are Classics, or antiques. Yep, this is one point that people will never agree on, especially those who are new to the scene.

Convertibles are worth more:

In most cases, this may be true, because as the saying goes: "When the top goes down, the price goes up." However, not everyone in the market for a collector car wants a convertible. Many enthusiasts prefer the security and comfort of a fixed roof. For those who enjoy spirited driving on curvy roads, a fixed-roof car handles far better, because its chassis doesn't flex as much as a convertible body does.

New paint makes a car more salable:

Sometimes cars are painted before they're put up for sale to hide rust or recent accident damage, which causes more knowledgeable buyers to be suspicious of new paint. It's better and easier to sell a car with its old paint, because the buyer will better be able to see just how honest the car really is, and if its body had any prior damage. In many cases, cars with their original paint-however faded and scratched that paint may appear-will command a far higher price because unrestored original cars are fast becoming the most desirable type of collector cars to own.

100 percent original, new paint and interior!:

Any major item that has been replaced or refinished renders a car a non-original. The car may be restored or rebuilt to original specifications, but it's not original. Authentic original cars still wear the same paint the factory applied when they were first built, and upholstery, drivetrain and everything else, too. As soon as a car is repainted, or its interior or engine replaced, it's no longer original.

Mint condition:

The only thing that can be labeled "mint" is an uncirculated coin that has never been touched by human hands. Even cars that had just rolled off the assembly line were not mint, as they had handprints all over them. So let's toss this overused, mislabeled term aside and replace it with something more appropriate and more truthful; How's "excellent showroom condition" sound?

One-owner:

Whether your name is on the title or not, if you're the person selling the car and you did not buy the car when it was brand-new, then it's not a one-owner car. Not that this really matters to many people, because it doesn't, but we need to state the facts as they are; it's not good to mislead a potential buyer into thinking otherwise."

- See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/10/29/lies-falsehoods-and-other-misconceptions/#sthash.xSpdXAtQ.GMsFLWQH.dpuf

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Re: Lies, Falsehoods and Other Misconceptions

11/04/2014 8:16 AM

I sent a note to SavvyExacta. The link has now been fixed.

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Re: Lies, Falsehoods and Other Misconceptions

11/04/2014 11:56 AM

Interesting that this was posted the day before election day. Purely a coincidence I am sure.

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