[Mgs] A modest proposal

[David Breneman]

--- Don Scott <dscott1 at sonoma-county.org> wrote:

> Anyone
> have any comments? 

> I always wondered if we were selling our hobby
> away, and now it's very apparent with the present economic
> situation, that
> foreigners are going to pluck away all our stuff that has
> value.  The US dollar is in the process of extreme decline
> and old cars here will  be such bargains
> that foreigners will buy 'em all. 

This is only the case if some mechanism (wage and price 
controls like in the 70s?) act to prevent the value of
the cars from rising in relation to the dollar.  There is
nothing tieing their value to the dollar.  They are a
commodity just like any other.

>  All it would take is a trust that acts as a
> lienholder on the title of cars.  It would be voluntary on
> the part of a car
> owner to place the "lien" on the car, and what it would do
> is impose a
> limitation that would keep a subsequent owner of the car
> from shipping it out. 

I sure wouldn't buy such a car!  "You can buy it but you
can't own it." Probably all such a process would do it
lead to a bunch of lawsuits. You certainly can't bind
a later owner to such an agreement without his permission,
and most buyers would expect a healthy discount on the
price of the car (50%?  80%?) to abandon their property
rights.

> The downside, of course, is that the pool of buyers would
> be less, and maybe
> the price somewhat less when selling the car. 

That's an understatement.  

When my grandfather retired, he bought a brand new 1967
Cadillac Coupe de Ville. My grandmother kept it for a
total of 30 years, until she passed away. It went to my
brother.  After keeping it under a tarp for a year, and
seeing the ravages of time on it (it had always been in
a carport before), and unable to get what he felt was a
fair price for 1-owner car with all it's service records,
he sold it to a feelow from Finland who restores late 50s
to early 70s Cadillacs for buyers in Europe.  We both
thought that this was an optimal solution because we
*knew* the car was going to someone who would love it
as much as my grandfather did, and would take good care
of it, and it would probably go on forever.  How could
we complain about that?


David Breneman         david_breneman at yahoo.com


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