So there’s this guy, see, and he’s got a bunch of old eye-talyan cars, see, and he says his eyes are getting too old to work on them. He’s rescued them from barns, see, and now he wants to get rid of them. His loss could be your gain, though, although I’m sorry that one enthusiast has to give up on cars for someone else to get them. They are located in Petaluma, California and are listed for sale here on craigslist. Thanks to Robert M for this great find!
Most of the pictures the seller has included in the ad are of this newest car of the bunch, a 1981 Lancia Beta Zagato, which has the removable roof panel and a fold down convertible rear top. The driver’s door appears to have been repainted at some point, but the seller tells us it’s got an unmarked interior.
Here’s the same car out in the sun. Other than the patch at the top of the rear fender and the mismatched door, this car doesn’t look bad. The seller does point out that it’s not California legal due to the carburetion, so I’m guessing it wasn’t a California car to begin with.
As best as I can tell from the poor picture, the interior doesn’t look bad at all.
Here’s another Lancia Beta; this one is a 1978 with a sunroof, no rust and a great interior. It also runs, despite the picture being taken on a rollback.
I’m not sure if this is the same Flavia coupe shown in the first picture or not. Anyway, one of them has a zero hour motor. There are also two “rare project” Fiats, a 600 cabriolet and a 1954 1100 station wagon. The seller also mentions an early 1960’s 1100 Fiat cabriolet that may or may not be for sale. Do any of these eye-talian beauties sound interesting to you?
Useless pictures and description along with no prices, he’s not a serious seller at this point.
Steve R
The guy wants to see what we on BF say about the cars ,that is how he will decide the prices and that’s ok ,
Now, if we could just monetize our peanut gallery.
Monetize means converting money 💲
These cars are desirable to lots of people, but this seller will be lucky to get decent prices with them all clumped together in a local CL listing.
Roger Penske says “Effort equals results”, and there wasn’t much effort or information in the CL listing, unfortunately. These CL listings are so sad to see, especially when somebody deserves, and probably needs, a decent payout from his old cars.
What the seller needs is a good friend…with good eyesight, and a good camera…to take lots of photos and then list each car individually on Ebay.
Anyway….
These are not the most valuable Lancias, but worthy nevertheless.
And that rear shot is of the Flavia–photo attached. The Flavia body looks to be in good condition, especially from the rear photo, probably because the cars are in sunny, ultra-dry Sacramento.
I think the rear of these Flavias looks better than the 4-eye front, because of that stylish rear end and the Hoffmeister kink-like rear window on both this Flavia and the Ferrari 250 GT 2+2.
I hate sellers who don’t give a selling price!
Jeffro, Me too. Unless it is a car that I just,have to have, I usually don’t even bother to inquire. Ever seller has a price in mind, so why not just say it. I have never seen a seller who thought his car was worth less than what I tought it was worth–most think his is worth a heck of a lot than I do–or will pay. If he can get it–fine, good for him, but I tell im that is really about all I feel comfortable paying, and if they don’t take, I tell them to keep my number incase they don’t sell it we can talk. A surprizing number call back and I hav picked up a couple of nice cars. Of course I’m firm firm on my price, but i don’t think anyone thinks he/she will always get what the are asking. No one has ever bought a car from me for what I am asking, and I have never bought one for what the seller is asking. That is how buying and selling cars is. I once looked at a Cadillac I liked, the seller wanted 11K, I offered him $7500.00. He hit the ceiling , called me every name in the book, idiot , puke etc. My attorney self popped up and told him why are you,getting so angry, I did not call you nuts, crazy, nor did I make a negative comment about either the car or your asking pric. I merely said that I would pay $7500. He glared at me and was mumbling a few negatives under his breath as I was walking off. About a week later he came by my house getting my address from a business card I had given him teling me he would take tmy offer. He had probably blown everyone wo had looked at the same way he did me, but mine was maybe the only number he had retained. I told him the $7500 was waht I would have gien before he hit me with the bad words, and today I would give him $7000. He shot back I’ll take $7300, I gave him $7300 drove him home drove the Cad for 2 years and 20000 miles and blew it out for $8000. I try never to tick off the potentaial buyer when he offers me much less than I think I can get for it. thank the for the offer but say I’d like quite a bit more, but I don’t I’can call you and maybe we can deal at that point. They usually say that would be okay. I will usually get near or what I am asking because I think I price my cars reasonably and will always deal. If I go back the gy will think you are taking his offer, but I remind him that I said we could deal. Most of them knw their offer was way to low and we generally make a deal where he pays more than his offef and I take less than my price, but neither of us feels we got hosed. And since he knows that I have biddle around in nice cars, he /she will tell friends who are lookinf for a car to call me. So it all works out .
I went to the barn. The man was very pleasant. His cars are cool. Dan
Had an 81 zagato with 35k on it a few years ago. I bought it non-running for $1,000…. I fell in love with the body but the Mechanicals were an absolute Nightmare and never could get it running. Still a beautiful car and will never forget it but mechanically, not for the faint of heart do it yourselves IMOP.
The 81 zagato has been offered for sale prior, the door and the patch are the give away. Any one get a price$ let me know, I’ll be a buyer if reasonable.
@ Lancia_hunter
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With poor eyesight, he has probably done the best he could on pics. Please notice the CAPS in his advert, that’s what you do when your eyesight is failing. He wants serious prospective buyers to call, SO HE CAN TALK to them. He probably does not deal well with email at this point. It seems to me that the ad is fairly straightforward. I would guess he wouldn’t care for supposed buyers who won’t even invest in a call to discuss price, and it seems to me that he is saying that the 1200 Cabriolet is for sale. The peanut gallery is well named. If I seem irritated, it’s because I’m getting up there, where friends are starting to go without warning, and I don’t care for the lack of understanding of what his situation seems to be. He was honest, I think, why the need to be mean?
You are correct. He was leaning on his caretaker and hobbling around the barn doing his best. A kind fellow who had fallen ill.
Agree, no need of someone to be mean, he emailed me back, but would need more pics. I’m hoping for additional pictures. He came across as polite in the email, all things considered.
If interested I can forward information.
Jerry
Thanks, Jerry, I’m sure some of us would be interested!
Seller recalls what the cars were like when he first acquired them, typically years ago, most cars have been taken apart and missing items, seller forgets this, so buyer has to physically look at each car for completeness and then ask about paperwork – DMV cares not if you buy the car from a blind man with screwy paperwork, your screwed.