289 Competition Roadster on Cobra Country

[tcolley]

I have listed my 289 Competion Roadster on Cobra Country today hoping to create some interest in building and selling Unique Motorcars products in Texas and elsewhere in the Southwest.

We posted some really nice photos on their website and thought ya'll might like to take a look at them.

http://www.cobracountry.com/cobra4salefolder/colley-unique/home.html

Regards,

[pgermond]

Very nice looking car, but respectfully.........$57.5k?

[tcolley]

Phil,

I've got close to that in the car with all the all the extras that were added to the build. Front & rear sway bars, limited slip 3:42, 400 lbs front springs, heater/defroster, taller roll bar, steel plate under the drivers foot box, Southern Automotive 351 W with all the extras, TKO 600 with mid-shift kit, top notch paint from Unique's recommended painter, etc... etc...etc.

Regards,

[juanone]

Terry,

The car is well put together and looks awesome. My opinion is that you need to try and place your car outside of the immediate Cobra market. They will treat your car as a used up car even if it is new.

I sold my Unique at a very high premium because I opted to not continue to place the car for sale where everyone is trying to steal you blind. In Cobra Country your car will be placed at a price ceiling for the industry for Uniques. My honest opinion is that is not the place for a high ticket Unique..

I am quite sure the price is right for all that you have done to the car. Unfortunately the market is under that at the moment. There is a buyer for your car if you are willing to sit on it and wait. That's what I did. But of course I don't make my living out of building and selling cars, that is what you do. Otherwise you may have to lower the price at a loss if you want to sell it quickly. Absolutely.

[tcolley]

Juan,

I appreciate your comments and am open to any ideas or suggestions as to where best to market the cars!

I listed it on CobraCountry because I was told that a was the best place to sell the car and had seen couple Uniques sell for very good prices on their website.

I definitely don't want to list it on ebay as most bidders do not recognize the workmanship and dollars it takes to build a first class car and they want to steal them at a ridiculous price.

My goal is to build and sell about 3 to 4 cars a year and to make a little money. I am not willing to take a loss on my first car and will use it as my demo as originally planned, however, if I can't make a little money building these cars, then there isn't much incentive to continue...is there.

Regards,

[arrowdriver]

Your car is a beauty alright but the economy in the USA is not exactly booming putting a bit of a crimp in the market for expensive toys. We notice this is small planes too, however with the change in international exchange rates your car is cheap in Germany at that price so you might want to focus some promotion over there. The British pound is also very strong but being it is a left hand drive might be a bit of a problem. I have no idea of the best way to try to sell in Europe but there must be German sites for this type of thing.

I am well aware of the amount of time, effort and money that goes into such a car, which is one reason I decided to buy a finished one but I have built quite a few others cars over the years, some as old as 1910 model year. These one of a kind cars are a bit simpler than modern cars but you have no source of any parts so have to make each and every part from scratch. We are at this moment getting ready to drive to Colorado to join a tour organized by a chapter of the Horseless Carriage Club and am doing a fellow in Oklahoma a favor by bringing along 4 cylinders for an early brass car that my brother made up for him. This requred making up fairly complex patterns to do the castings, trouble shoot the castings and modify the patterns and then prepare the drawings to program the CNC machines. Total cost for 4 cylinders without pistons and valves is almost $20M. Our cars are a bargain.

It seems to me that with the obvious skill you have you could make a lot more money doing something else, but I have been wrong before so if you persue it, best of luck.