Hey Cool Car Fans,
I often get requests from clients to help them find a good deal on a specific classic car and I’ll usually start out by searching through the dealer auctions. Recently, I was cruising through the auction and I spotted a couple of Porsche 356’s from the early 1960’s that I decided to showcase here and write an article about.
One of the reasons why I selected these two vehicles is because of the incredible disparity in price between the two vehicles. I wanted to use this article to illustrate the fact that no two vehicles are ever the same, especially when it comes to classic cars. Much like a piece of a artwork the beauty is in eye of the beholder and what has gone into the creation of the vehicle. Many factors come into play from vehicle restoration, make, model, year, original miles, overall condition, who did the restoration, color, popularity, scarcity, etc.
First I spotted this 1962 Porsche 356B that was yellow and black with about 100,000 miles on the vehicle. The description of the vehicle didn’t really say much about it though. This vehicle was being priced around $72,000 with auction fees and shipping. Here’s what they had to say about it, but let’s get some more research on this year and model as well.
The Listing: “WOW New 356B Original Rust free pans, new paint excellent interior Super 90 Spec Engine, Sport Exhaust, Carrera Tail panel & much more. Some details still awaiting completion but wanted to get these stunning pictures out there.
Porsche 356 History
“The 356 was created by Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche (son of Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the German company), who founded the Austrian company with his sister, Louise. Like its cousin, the Volkswagen Beetle (which Ferdinand Porsche Sr. had designed), the 356 is a four-cylinder, air-cooled, rear-engine, rear-wheel drive car with unitized pan and body construction. The chassis was a completely new design as was the 356’s body which was designed by Porsche employee Erwin Komenda, while certain mechanical components including the engine case and some suspension components were based on and initially sourced from Volkswagen.” – Source: Wikipedia
One of the reasons why the 356 is popular is because it was originally created by the son of Ferdinand Porsche and it’s a cool body style. In addition, it’s an extremely popular Porsche model and is claimed to be the world’s largest classic Porsche club of all the models. They also are popular for rally and racing car events as well. What about the 1962 though compared to the 1960? Actually, there were not huge changes in these vehicles from 1960 to 1962 since the biggest changes to the 356 actually occurred in 1959.
“In late 1959 significant styling and technical refinements gave rise to the 356 B (a T5 body type). The mid-1962 356 B model was changed to the T6 body type (twin engine lid grilles, an external fuel filler in the right front wing/fender and a larger rear window in the coupé). The Porsche factory did not call attention to these quite visible changes with a different model designation.” – Wikipedia
The second vehicle I spotted was a 1960 Porsche 356B convertible, which I’ve put some photos in this article of as well. This vehicle was a complete restoration with an asking price of around $189,000 with auction fees. The first 1962 Porsche that looked like a pretty sweet ride was being listed at around $72,000 and this one was being listed at around $189,000. That’s a big spread in price.
Why the massive difference in price for a Porsche convertible compared to a coupe that was originally built within two years of the other one? Let’s look at how this one was listed and described compared to the other one because this vehicle is a complete restoration and you can see the difference between the two vehicles.
The Listing: “1960 Porsche 356 B Super 90 Convertible Signal Red Tan Leather Interior 1600cc Super 904-Speed Vin/Serial: 87746 Full Restoration in 2014 500 Miles Since Restoration Rust Free Body Rebuilt Drivetrain Solex P114 Carburetors New Clutch New Brakes and Suspension 12-Volt System Leather Trimmed Seats Leather Trimmed Door Panels Leather Trimmed Dash Detailed Undercarriage New Seals and Weather Stripping Constant refinement has always been the watchword at Porsche but the new-for-1960 356B represented a marked leap forward in both mechanical and cosmetic features. Most notably the traditional dropped nose and slanting headlight covers gave way to a raised front bumper and fenders and more upright headlights. The T5 body style also introduced such new details as opening front quarter windows except on the Draus-bodied Roadster so named to appeal to the fast-growing American market. 
Famed photojournalist Jesse Alexander described the 356Bs new T5-series body as a rather drastic face lift that will come as a shock to Porsche owners all over the world but today it is symbolic of Porsche excellence. This superb Drauz-bodied 1960 Porsche 356B T5 Roadster is presented fresh from a three-year no-expense-spared nut-and-bolt restoration completed in 2014. After being stripped to bare metal the rust-free body was finished to high standards of fit and finish and expertly painted in Porsche Signal Red. In addition to all new seals weather stripping and exterior trim it features excellent glass chrome and canvas top Concours-standard detailing including the undercarriage and a crisp clean Tan interior with leather-trimmed seats door panels and dash pad square weave carpets and fully functioning controls and instrumentation. The restoration included rebuilding a Super 90 1600cc flat-4 engine with Solex P114 carburetors. The transmission was also rebuilt and a new clutch installed; the completed driveline now has approximately 400 miles of use. All steering linkage brake system and suspension components have been restored or replaced and the electrical system upgraded to 12 volts. This marvelous collector-grade 356B Roadster is offered with the Porsche Certificate of Authenticity.”
I think these two vehicles really illustrate why there can be such a difference in price for the same type of classic cars. In the words of Donald Trump, the next time you contact me about a classic car you can see how the difference between cars can be “huge”.
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant who owns CoolCarGuy.com that is a licensed car dealership in Lone Tree, CO. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy
It is amazing how global the automotive industry has become over the years as we have watched prices of vehicles skyrocket. Isn’t the idea that if you manufacturer something in another country you should be paying less? We’ve seen that with calculators, computers and digital watches, but apparently not with cell phones and automobiles.
Let’s look at the new 2017 Chevy Bolt for example and who has been involved in creating this new vehicle. According to Wikipedia the Chevy Bolt was created in conjunction with LG.
You could get a 2000 BMW Z3 similar to this one (I’m not selling this one, just showing an example) that I spotted through the Manheim dealer auction that gets great gas mileage and has about 77,000 miles for less than half the price of a 2017 Chevy Bolt. I would take an older BMW hands down personally, but I recognize they are not in the same category. My point is that there are some great used vehicles out there that you don’t have to spend $30,000 on with a tax credit to get a cool car.
I have clients from all walks of life and often times I’ll have clients contact me about buying or leasing a luxury SUV. For example, Maserati is introducing a new SUV in 2017 called the Levante that will be available in both a diesel and a gas powered engine.
This should be a popular SUV for a very specific market segment and it’s a super cool ride, but it also has some serious competition. Jaguar has the F-Pace that they have rolled out, which is less money, but is smaller in size. There is the tried and true Porsche Cayenne that is another high performance and well made vehicle. The Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 that has plenty of horsepower and Jeep has been making the SUV forever. The always popular BMW X5 that is available in a number of configurations that has been around for a long time as well. Meredes-Benz with their assortment of SUV and the Tesla Model X that is the new SUV from Tesla to name just a few of the options available from luxury car companies.
The problem though is when a manufacturer rolls out a new product, like Maserati and Jaguar are doing, do you really want to be the guinea pig and purchase the vehicle? I wouldn’t recommend it. I didn’t say I don’t like these vehicles. I think they are really cool, just like many of the others I’ve mentioned in this category. I would just suggest leasing a first release vehicle like the Maserati, the Jaguar or the Tesla and letting the leasing company share in the risk. This is because we don’t know what the depreciation is going to look like over three or five years for a newly released vehicle. It gets even more sketchy with the Tesla because many people want the electric vehicle for the tax incentives, but it’s hard to unload a used one without the appeal of a tax incentive. If you lease it you can drop the keys, walk away, fix your costs and tell the leasing company the vehicle is theirs and to have a nice day.
Hey Cool Car Fans,
The first thing that we can do is refinance the person’s current vehicle and lease it back to them that can sometimes really lower their payments. I recently had a client who was able to lower their payment on a 2012 Infiniti QX56 from over $800 a month down to $422 a month by leasing the vehicle, instead of continuing with her current payment structure. Being able to lower her payments really helped her with cash flow based on her financial situation.
As a licensed life insurance agent in the State of Colorado I can show people how to leverage the benefits of dividend paying whole life insurance from a mutual life insurance company. One of the tremendous benefits of these products is that a person can invest in a policy, have a death benefit and build cash value to borrow against in the future for opportunities like financing their own vehicles without credit and at really low interest rates. There are huge benefits to this strategy that I won’t go into detail here, but it’s an example of how if you can lower your car payments you can have other financial opportunities available to you.
For example, many people are told by the television and radio “financial gurus” never to lease a vehicle, but what if you have an opportunity to buy a home at a great price? Let’s hypothetically say that you have a $600 a month car payment that is holding you back from qualifying for a home, but you only need $200 more a month in cash flow and you would qualify for the purchase. What if you could get out of it, lease something similar in a different brand and have a $400 a month payment for three years with miles that would work for you? That’s $2,400 a year, which over three years is $7,200 in savings. This is money you can use for other opportunities or save for the future.
Hey Cool Car Fans,
The exhaust was done at BDM Performance Exhaust and my client had them put Magna flows on and change out the tips to single oval shapes to match the contour the rear bumper, which gives is a slick look from the backend. 
The 2008 BMW M5 had an original base MSRP of $86,675 according to Edmunds.com and a 1/4 mile track time of 12.8 seconds at 115.1 mph and it took 4.5 seconds to get from 0 to 60 mph. As I mentioned it has 500hop and 383 ft lb of torque. This bad boy will get up and go, but the M5 doesn’t really feel like a fast car, which is the beauty of it. It’s more of a sleeper where people believe it’s just another 5 series sedan, but it’s actually a monster on the highway.
The E60 M5 was the world’s first production sedan to feature a V10 gasoline engine. At the time the M5 was released to the public it was the fastest 4-door production sedan in the world, which you would probably suspect it to be. It had a five year run from 2005 to 2010.
If you are looking for a fast BMW with plenty of room for five people, amazing horsepower and speed look no further than this nice BMW M5 sedan.