![]() It was sitting up on tree stumps with no wheels or tyres, in a dilapidated barn, surrounded by old water tanks and a Sixties cargo container. Fortunately for me, his listing was vague and his photos sucked, so after the bids ran up to $50,000 with reserve not met, we were able to settle on a price and close a deal the next morning.Īs we spoke further, he explained that the car would be difficult to extract from the barn. When we could not settle on a number, I was disappointed to see him list it on eBay. I was quick to gain his trust when I told him his friends were wrong, and the car was worth way more. His friends had been telling him to take the money and run, and he was not sure. Potential buyers had pitched offers up to about $35,000 for the car. The seller was not really a car guy, and he had been struggling with what was a fair price to sell it for. During Pebble Beach Car Week this year, a heavily patinated (is that even a word?) 356 Porsche had a crowd around it at every event and on every street, while flawless examples buzzed by in an endless and ignored parade of perfection. I recently angered some guy at a fancy restaurant in Los Angeles when the valet moved his new Bentley to make way for my crusty 1951 Chrysler Town & Country wagon. I have shown a few of my own cars at such events, and they certainly have proven to evoke smiles and conversation from a wide range of people young and old. Top concours shows now have special classes called "preservation class", or "barn finds". We want to relive those moments, and it is hard to argue that a time worn example will not push more of our emotional buttons than a perfect one. PATINA CAR MOVIEAdd to this the factor that many of us have grown up and remain full of memories of the girl that got away, the movie with the escape scene, the celebrity at opening night, the coolest guy in school, that favorite lost relative. You immediately are connected to the history on a far higher level than you can experience when one is restored to perfection. Linda: I called the owner, and he said, "Well, this other guy's had buses his whole life, and so he's really invested into the brand.When you see, touch or smell such a car, your mind immediately starts wondering where it has been, what it has seen. And found out there was some other buyer. Marqued: Tell us how you came to buy the bus. That was kind of a joint venture that we decided on, and hopefully when we start a family that will be a continuation of what he experienced when he was a kid with his family's Westfalia. Then my dream car has, later on in life, always been a Volkswagen bus. He really introduced me to Porsche, and the genius engineering behind the features of his car. I've always had a fascination for that type of car, or just the sense of adventure that you get from having a certain type of car. I think before I was somewhat of an outsider. For me, it was definitely his passion that kind of locked me more into the car world than I was before. He obviously had the Porsche, and I really got brought into the German engineering aspect of it. Linda: I think where we intersected is when we started dating. We used to go on holidays with that bus, and pretty much went anywhere with this thing. Grégoire: For me, I grew up with a Volkswagen bus, a Westfalia from '72 I think, with a pop-top and everything. I really love the Aston Martins, the shape and silhouette of the car was really just inspiring for me. As a kid, we always butted heads, because I was a really big fan of the '60s, '70s Jaguars. He's always been about the heritage of American car building and craftsmanship. My dad has always been into American cars, so he owns a '67 Ford Mustang. Linda: It's interesting that you raise that question about what roped us in. When I arrived, literally the first thing Linda ever told me was, "Who is driving the poop-colored car?" referring to my 356. Grégoire: Actually, the first time we met, I drove to a camping trip with some common friends, and we were in different relationships at the time. Marqued: Did cars bring you guys together? Was that a shared passion to begin with, or who roped who into the car world? ![]()
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