How to Buy a Vintage Car

How to Buy a Vintage Car

Jeff Allen knows what he’s doing. At Flat 12 Gallery in Lubbock, Texas, Allen and restorer Perry Barndt buy, fix up, and resell classic cars, often for big profits. Now they’re bringing their expertise to a car-flipping TV show, ‘The Car Chasers,’ which premieres on CNBC March 5 at 10 p.m. EST. “The show is not just about cars,” says Allen. “It’s about the negotiation process and why to invest in what.”

The easiest way to avoid problems is to look out for the brown stuff. “Rust is a KILLER,” says Allen. “I always walk away when I see it. It’s not because I don’t know how to fix it. I do. But it’s not going to be the same. You can replace panels, but once you start with a rusty car, in my opinion, it’s always a rusty car. It will never be factory-original again.” Still, Allen is mainly concerned with serious rust.

Allen always looks for what are known as “numbers-matching” cars: That is, cars where the engine, transmission, and rear axle all link up to the vehicle’s VIN number. “True investment cars are going to be numbers-matching cars,” he says. How do you know if the numbers add up? Allen says most motors have the last six digits of the VIN number stamped on them, which makes that an easy check. The transmission and rear end are a bit trickier. Usually they’ll be stamped with date codes.

It sounds obvious: The fewer miles on the speedometer, the more the car’s worth. But Allen isn’t too concerned about mileage. He’ll just spend way less money to purchase a higher-mileage car. “I’ve bought Porsches with 200,000-plus miles on them,” he says. “I never worry about it. It just has to be reflected in the price. I’ve bought some cars that from the outside and inside you’d go, ‘Oh, that car’s got 40,000 miles on it.’ You get in and you go, ‘Oh my gosh, 200,000 miles!’

Allen has always followed one key strategy when picking out investment cars: Buy what you like. “I have lived by this motto, and after all these years of doing it, I’ve never been disappointed,” he says. “I know other car dealers who have sold cars at auctions and lost thousands of dollars, and I always want to ask them, ‘Did you really like that car, or did you buy it because you saw it and thought there was money there?'”

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