When I came across this ad, I had a difficult time recalling the last time I saw a Fiesta Wagon for sale. Well, the answer as to why is fairly obvious: this is a rare bird, with supposedly fewer than 10,000 built in 1957. This two-toned example listed here on craigslist for trade or for $9,500 packs some impressive history. The seller claims it has been in his family since new and used extensively by his grandfather for travel between the U.S. and Central America, and actually kept in Guatemala until 2005. I don’t know how the seller is able to part with such a family heirloom, but it sounds like he wants to create some new memories by accepting trades for a camping trailer. From what I have seen, these go for good money in restored condition – would you keep it as-is or bring it back to showroom form?
Those are the coolest cars. The dash and gages are a work of art. I work in Mexico and found this one being towed to a scrapyard one day after work. It was minutes away from getting flattened and I was able to save it for less than scrap price.
~ I’m eternally thankful that you did, Wiley Robinson! One more saved.
I don’t know why it won’t let me attach a picture of the car. It’s under 8MB
Cool old cars like this have more character than most people do nowadays.
P.S.
What’s the deal with the first photo on the CL ad? That’s cheezy.
The blue wagon in the ad photo doesn’t have any door handles.
I’m Close by and was thinking about looking at this myself if anyone wants a ppi.
I would like to have somebody look at this car for me, I’m in Ontario Canada, just across from Detroit Mich.
The blue car in the first (rendering) and last (Actual) photos is a two-door, the car for sale is a four-door. Still cool but kinda deceptive…
Actually if you look closely they are both 4 doors but with shaved handles.
Wow, the seller cares about this beautiful wagon so much that he is quite happy with someone buying it and bastardizing the crap out of it. This rare Olds validates restoration to be used as a family fun wagon. The blue wagon is a good indication of what not to with this wagon.
I like wagons….a lot. But…………..y’all can mention how rare and how wonderful the car could be……………until your bank account starts heading south…………now that, is a different story. Where one can make interest, now one looses principal.
Once finished and you are done with the “excitement”………..who’s going to buy it?
The market is getting smaller for many old cars.
Just an opinion.
That is quite an interesting old wagon, I can see the appeal for road-trips or cruising to the beach with surfboards strapped to the roof ! I would tend to agree with Rancho Bella though, that the market for a fully (expensively) restored fifties wagon is probably small. Many people would consider this a fun, desirable car but how many are willing to pay really big money for one. To restore this car to something like show condition would not be cheap even if you had the time, space and skills to do most of the work yourself. The area of paint to work on is huge, good quality re-chroming can cost a fortune these days, and although you can’t really see it in the photos I’d assume the interior is as rough as the exterior.
I also agree very firmly with Jason, and others,… I wish sellers wouldn’t include photos of of other cars which are not the car they are actually selling. OK, in this case I don’t think anyone is going to be confused about which car is the subject of the listing, but it’s just a pretty pointless comparison.
Same thing with posting links to a different car that sold for big money at Barrett-Jackson. I’ll be charitable and assume that it betrays the seller’s total lack of understanding for how classic car values work, rather than any deliberate intent to mislead….but, you just can’t relate the auction price of a flawlessly restored, concours standard example to a rough, needy project car without taking into account the likely cost of transforming the rough project into the concours example. The B-J car at $52, the car for sale here at $9.5k gives you $42.5 to spend on restoration? To get the quality of restoration evident on that B-J car I’m sure you’d need to employ a good professional restoration shop and your $42.5 really isnt’ going go far.
I’m not saying that this isn’t a nice old wagon or not worth the $9.5k, just saying that the B-J results and pictures of a completely different resto-modded car aren’t relevant or helpful, and if anything would make me just slightly wary of the seller.
In my personal opinion, this car may be more suitable for the “patch it up, make sure it’s safe and drive and enjoy it in its slightly crusty state” approach? But then, if I were buying it for that route…. the $9.5k would seem a bit too much to pay maybe.
It is cool, I love the paint scheme, but this one looks like it has leda rough life. Cooler than most nomads in my mind