You’ve all heard me talk about custom cars before – the good, the bad and unfortunately the, ugly. Customization is something that is a very personalized thing. You’re building a car to your tastes and creating a vision that came from the inner workings of your mind and your mind alone. Now, if you are building a car that will never be sold, then this is fine. Built whatever you wish, enjoy it and to hell with what people say about it, be it positive or negative.
If however you are building a custom car for resale than I think you have to be very careful about how you go about not only designing the car, but how you go about the marketing as well. What you’re looking at here is a highly modified1968 Dodge Charger. Many have revered the ‘68 Charger as the most beautiful American car ever built, a sentiment, which I whole-heartedly agree with. Most people also think that modifying one in any way is sacrilege and God knows I’ve been down that road many times.
This particular Charger is up for sale on eBay at the moment and is putting me in a tough spot emotionally. I know some of you are going to crush it immediately, hell I did to when I first saw it. The red paint is simply blinding and the wheels… well, that’s another story all together. HOWEVER – this is in no way a bad car or some hodgepodge mess that was quickly thrown together. I’ve built these cars before, I know what goes into them and I know what things cost. With that being said, I will tell you that this particular car has some VERY high-end components on it.
One look at the laundry list of parts from their eBay add confirms they did in fact use some of the best items on the market today and in the process spent some BIG money. The build quality also looks to be top notch as well. It’s a car that, from a build standpoint anyway, looks to have been very well thought out. It’s stated that the appraisal on the car stands at $250,000, which I can believe. Look at the car and the work that was put into it, NOT THE RED PAINT. The sale price on the car is $199,000, which in my opinion is a big stretch.
Now, do I think this price is way to high? Yes and no. From the sellers’ perspective I am sure they put in every bit of 2000 hours labor in on this thing, so to them that price is justifiable. From a buyers perspective though, it would have to be something that I REALLY wanted for me to pay that much. There are two things that kill the value of the car in my opinion – the color and the wheels – there is just too much of both. Otherwise I can AND would be more than happy to live with everything else on the car. Hell, I could even grow to like that molded rear spoiler on the deck lid.
As stated above, this car really does have some of the best components money can buy, with a build execution that looks to be top notch. So, do I think this car will sell for that price, well, no… no chance actually, if fact they’ll be lucky to get half that in my opinion. Now, if it was a different color, with some different wheels and maybe just a touch of chrome, there may be a chance. We’ll follow the auction though and see how it pans out.
Check out the full eBay ad here.