Heed Smokey Robinson's advice....

"Pretty girls come a dime a dozen, make sure you find one that'll give you good lovin'" "My mama told me-"You better shop around".  R&B singer Smokey Robinson had a huge hit back in the '60s with "Shop Around"  It definitely applies when searching for a musclecar. I've seen an alarming trend lately-a lot of low mileage,-and I mean low-like less than 10,000 miles "survivors". Some of these cars lived their entire lives in storage and were never driven. Who does that? Who buys a car and never, ever drives it not even on a sunny weekend in the hopes that 20 or 30 years down the road it'll be worth 10 times what you paid for it?  And what if it doesn't appreciate?  Some of these are nice "Time Capsules" but even if I won last weeks powerball jackpot-759 million bucks-I wouldn't buy them. Why-because their's way better deals out there. Here's a few  perfect examples. # 1. 1979 Trans-Ams. These two really killed me. One was a black SE model with 65 miles on it. That's right-65 miles. It had spent it's entire life in storage. The asking price was $180,000!!!  And it was a 403 Olds / TH350 model!!!  The other one was 10th Anniversary, 400,4-speed model that the owner claimed was THE car that paced the 1979 Daytona 500. Asking price for it was $85,000.  By contrast on the internet I found a pristine, unrestored, but spectacularly maintained 1978 WS6, 400, 4-speed model with 27,000 original miles for $30,000!!!  I also found a restored, documented and verified by Dennis Mecham  '78 "Macho T/A" for $29,995!!! And to go-"Apples to Apples" I found an 8,000 mile, 400, 4-speed, 10th Anniversary "Pace Car" model for $43,000! Literally half the price, for the very same car with identical equipment.  Further-I also found a restored 1974 SD-455 T/A-one of 731 built with a TH400-for $79,000 and a 1972 455HO model-one of 1,286 built-for $59,000!!  Now any serious T/A afficianado will tell you that he'd much rather have a 400, 4-speed model or a "Macho" over a 403 Olds / automatic model, regardless of price. But the better optioned, more desirable car is $150,000 CHEAPER???!!!!  The coveted 455HO and SD-455 models are 100K cheaper??  As for the "Pace Car"-I found an identical one for half the price-and the other disco-era models I mentioned were a better deal.  # 2. 1978 L82 "Pace Car" Corvette. This one had 40 miles on it. It apparently had sat in a Chevy Dealer's showroom unsold for more than 30 years. A few years ago when GM restructured and closed a bunch of dealers they decreed that all cars like this had to be sold immediately or you'd lose your franchise. So the car was sold to a collector who later sold it to this musclecar dealer in Florida who now was trying to sell it for 150K. 1st off-it is an L82 model which makes it worth more than an L48-but it's an automatic, not a 4-speed. By contrast-I found a pristine, 1968 400 hp,Tri-Power, 427, 4-speed Stingray for $52,000!!!  I also found a pristine, restored 1969 435 hp Tri-Power 427, 4-speed model for $84,000. I also saw a documented, Bloomington Gold certified 1971 LS6 454 / Th400 model for $139,000. I also found a restored 454, 4-speed '72 model for $45,000!!  '78 Corvettes aren't anything special-nor are the Pace Cars. Back in '78 GM said they had to build one car for every dealer. Chevrolet had over 7,700 dealers then. So their not exactly a moon rock. And when your asking MORE than the price of a 427 or 454 model-you know your sniffing glue!!  To go "Apples to Apples"-disco era C3s-I found an L82 / TH350 1980 model for $22,000, an L81 / 4-speed '81 model with 47,000 original miles on it for $26,500, and a 1977 L82 / 4-speed model that ran fine, but needed paint and some other minor work for $4,500!!  I found a rough, but running L82 / Th350 "Pace Car" for $6,000!!  So like I've said before-"Rare" doesn't always equate to "Valuable". Even if you have Floyd Mayweather's bank account-it would behoove you to do a little research before forking over a pile of cash. And these late '70's T/A and 'Vette owners aren't the only offenders. I've seen people asking $150K for 351W "Eleanor" clones-the Mustang driven by Nicholas Cage in the awful "Gone in 60 Seconds" remake,and I've seen documented, pristine 428 powered "Real" GT500 Shelbys for less!! I've seen documented, restored, "Boss 302s"  for half that!! Take a minute and think-would you rather have a for-real Boss 302 or a for-real Shelby GT500-or a generic, '67 Mustang fastback that a shop in L.A. did some bodywork on and threw a 351W crate engine in??!! And remember this isn't THE CAR that was in the movie-it's a COPY of the car that was in the movie-which everyone knows was a "clone" to begin with-the movie car wasn't a "real" Shelby!!!  A 150K for a clone of a clone???  Arrrggghhhh!!  I've seen people asking 100K for CLONE LS6 454 / TH400 Chevelles-and on the same website-a pristine, documented, numbers matching, L78, 4-speed, positraction SS396 for $59,000!!!  Nearly half !!  The worst was the Barret-Jackson auction here at Hot August Nights a few years ago. Some idiot paid $32,000 for a 1970 Challenger T/A clone ( 318 model that some fool threw a 360 crate motor with tri-power on it into and gussied up ) and later that same day-a for real, documented, numbers-matching 340 Six-Pack Challenger T/A sold for $24,000!!!  That's right-the numbers matching, real deal went for $8,000 LESS than the fake!!!  So do some research and look around before laying out your hard-earned cash.  Mastermind