Advice needed on 456 6 speed purchase!

Beautiful car. Is this Hoovies car?

 

There aren't many for sale at the moment. I am going to say $70-80k. Good luck.

 

It sure looks like Hoovie’s car!

It’s a beauty. Hagerty has these at $75K (condition 3) - $120K (condition 2). The super low miles (er… km’s) and overall condition likely put this somewhere in between. The non-US spec is probably bringing the price a bit down since it won’t be able to be registered in all states (notably CA, maybe others).

But then there’s the celebrity factor: it’s a Hoovie car, maintained by the Weeezard and participated in Car Trek. The sky’s the limit!

The $85K Hoovie listed it for seems like a fair starting point.

These are wonderful cars… IMHO one of the most beautiful designs Pinninfarina ever created and pics don’t do them full justice. They can be expensive to sort… hopefully the Weeezard has taken care of that.

Good luck - keep us posted!

Ruben

 

Beautiful colour! And a lovely car.

I can’t comment on the km/value part. But you should be careful with any car that has lived in the UAE. Sand gets everywhere - literally - and “sand” contains salt. If the car was ever out in a dust storm over there, it’s like driving a car through a salt dust wind tunnel.

 

You should be able to convert the gauges to English. Ask FAI about that.

 

Nice looking car.

 

If you want a bargain you may want to look into the Japanese market. The 1994/95 456 GT should be reasonably priced.

With some effort you might even make a profit if you directly imported a car.


I considered importing from Japan, a nice 550 with a wild factory applied blue color.

 

I love mine, had Sofia for a little over a year, corrected some small flaws... have put about 3,500 miles on her so far and she has been pretty darn reliable! I highly recommend the blue w/Blue interior... If you have the non-Airbag steering wheel even better, I love that piece!

 

Without knowing about aforementioned paint work and stories, $85k for a USDM example with this sort of mileage would be highway robbery especially given the color. Put all the mitigating factors into a blender and I’m guessing it’s still around 85. It’s a reasonable ask. A concours quality M in Azurro California sold at Monterey this year with 5500 miles for like $170k. Now, that was a concours car, in tan leather instead of black (which is a surprising $ hit on these), it’s provenance was sterling, and it was a USDM 456M which go for a good 30-40% premium above an import GT. But I think it shows the demand for low-mileage cars in amazing colors like Azurro California. It takes more than one person to bid up a car that high.

 

Blue colors with light interiors really seem to draw the money. I recently imported my Euro spec 95GT and saw the comments about the discount for import versus USDM GTs. Makes sense but my goodness you cannot place a value on that non airbag steering wheel. It has the look and feel of one of the best wheels I’ve ever helmed and was a must for me.

Anyhow, back to the point about an import GT. My car was delivered new in Rome and then legally imported into California in 1999. State sticker put in the door jamb. Speedo replaced to miles. Paper attached to the jamb testifying to the KMs when they swapped it. Question. Since my car was federalized in 1999 and registered in CA at the time would it be able to be registered in CA again? The car was exported to Holland in 2011 and I bought it A a few months ago and brought it back to the US.

In terms of value, I estimate the car to be worth $100-to an optimistic $120k due to color Blu Swaters/tan, miles 18k, and condition (I think it’s a 2.3!). I paid $78k and with importing and sorting it I’m at $90k. I have no plans to sell for a long time but curious what you think, especially on the previous import history.

Best forum ever!

 

@Everettpa1 there was a very similar car that’s been on and off ebay lately, i think slightly lower miles. I believe they were asking 125k. It hasn’t been around in a while but never sold on eBay so I’m guessing they sold it locally

 

I can’t for the life of me figure out why black leather is a negative on a 25 year old car. Makes no sense. Especially given how ugly a lot of the pinkish tan leathers they used back then. I like my black and wouldn’t have gone for the car with old camel tan blech

 

Odd that a 13K km car needed new valve guides ...

 

Guido- Not really if she got a bad set of guides originally. Most did not. Some sets (or even just a few guides) were really soft, more like brass than bronze, and it would not take long to generate a lot of smoke.

 

I see he decided to keep the car, I had also email him when the fire sale video came out but never had a response. How was dealing with Hoovie?

I had emailed him months ago about this car and received a quick but short response, not looking to sell (about the time the new Countach was revealed and that high $$ 456 sale on BaT happened). We’re you actually in talks to transact before he changed his mind or just hopeful?