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A well-kept, one-owner classic truck has found its way out of hiding and onto the Bring a Trailer auction site with a current bid of $12,500.You won’t find many old Suburbans anywhere, and especially not ones with a three-speed, column-mounted manual transmission with a 350-cubic-inch V-8 engine under the hood. Add in the decent amount of upkeep that was done over the years, and you’ve got yourself an unusual opportunity here.Options that the original buyer chose include power steering, chrome bumpers, and a 32-gallon fuel tank. And AM radio, of course.Older vehicle in great shape? Check. Spiraling demand for classic cars during a pandemic? Check. One more owner ready to take advantage of the situation? Checkmate. The vehicle auction site Bring a Trailer currently has a listing for a 1976 GMC Suburban Sierra C1500 in what appears to be incredible shape, and the current bid is sitting at $12,500. The current seller is a dealer in New Jersey, and the auction ends in four days.

Bring a Trailer

This shiny black Suburban was apparently owned by a single owner from its original purchase in March 1976 at Thorpe’s Pontiac in Tannersville, New York, until some time in 2020. The original cost, after fees and discounts, came to $5577.60, thanks to an unusual combination of options. There’s a 350-cubic-inch V-8 engine (not a straight-six, as some might prefer) paired with a column-mounted three-speed manual transmission. The truck was ordered with power steering, chrome bumpers, and a 32-gallon fuel tank. Inside, the Suburban’s front and rear bench seats are covered in classic plaid saddle vinyl (the rear seats fold up), and the truck also comes with rubber floor mats and wood-grain trim. Occupants will be able to enjoy the rich, authentic sounds of AM radio as they cruise around in this beast of a truck.

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

The 15-inch wheels currently use 235/75 Goodyear Wrangler Trailrunner A/T tires, and the wheel cylinders were reportedly replaced in April 2021. The brake master cylinder was also replaced at some point. Other repairs done over the years include repainting the inner rear tailgate and some dent repair on the exterior of the rear tailgate. There is some water on the front seat bottoms and part of the rear cargo area shows rust. The coolant temperature gauge doesn’t work. The five-digit odometer currently displays just under 24,000 miles, but it has rolled over at least once, and the total mileage is unknown. The owner’s manual, miscellaneous GMC promotional booklets, and maintenance records are included in the sale.

Bring a Trailer

It’s difficult to compare today’s prices with those of even a few years ago, given how the pandemic and other factors have ramped up prices for various collectibles and used cars, but it’s worth at least looking at other figures. Classic.com sales results for seventh-generation Suburbans (built between 1973 and 1991) averaged $13,624 over 34 sales in the past five years. This average includes plenty of Suburbans that were not kept up to stay as nice as the current example, but it’s at least something to keep in mind. There’s also a 1977 GMC Chevrolet Suburban Sierra Classic with three rows of seats and running boards currently on eBay with a buy-it-now price of $14,995.
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A man in Kansas who bought a 1959 Corvette has found himself litigating with the state in an attempt to keep them from destroying the car. The Kafkaesque situation causes shivers for other car owners but also points to steps all buyers of classic cars need to follow.This is a process I am quite familiar with. I had a client who bought a classic car from Michigan that was seized by the state police in his home state when they found a VIN discrepancy between the primary VIN tag and a VIN stamped on the firewall.

Richard Martinez bought the 1959 Corvette from a dealer in Indiana and sought to have it registered in Kansas. During that process, the Kansas Highway Patrol found a discrepancy: the VIN tag on the door post did not match a VIN stamped on the frame. Various news reports mention the VIN being found in a “secret” location but those locations aren’t as secret as they were before the internet came along. Corvettes from 1959 had the VIN stamped into the frame at least once, though it can be hard to locate the stamping 60 years later.The KHP told Martinez that the car was going to be seized under Kansas law, due to the VIN issue. Kansas law 8-116(b) prohibits “knowingly” owning or having custody or possession of a motor vehicle if the “original vehicle identification number has been destroyed, removed, altered or defaced.” The statute orders law enforcement officers to “seize and take possession” of such vehicles and the vehicles are treated as “contraband.” Generally speaking, the law says, “Articles of contraband shall be destroyed.”Martinez hired an attorney and it’s been reported that he has already spent $30,000 on legal fees. He also notes that the car has been damaged while in storage–if he wins this case and gets the car returned to him, he will spend almost another $30,000 getting it repaired–in the matter of a car that cost him $50,000 to begin with.What is making headlines in this case is that the state of Kansas has made no allegation of wrongdoing on the part of Martinez. He appears to be “innocent” in this matter–it is the car that is in the wrong.Martinez has noted that the statutes of Kansas allow for the state to go another route on this matter. Assuming that the Corvette contains no stolen parts and is merely a mix-and-match special, the Highway Patrol could assign the car a new VIN. The statute is vague on how exactly this happens. “If the highway patrol is satisfied that the vehicle contains no stolen parts . . . the highway patrol shall determine the make, model and year of the vehicle, and shall assign” the vehicle a VIN that the state will accept as legal.But how do you “satisfy” the Highway Patrol that the car contains no stolen parts? Is that the job of the state police to prove, or for the owner of the car to disprove? And what does “satisfied” actually mean? Legally, it is a pretty weird standard to be written into a law. As it stands, the Highway Patrol is saying they are NOT satisfied – but they admit they have no proof that anything on the car is actually stolen.Martinez is in a very tough position. The law exists for a good reason. If cars could easily be sold with bad VINs, it would presumably make things easier for car thieves and other bad actors. But what about an innocent buyer like Martinez? No one has yet come forward to claim the car, or parts of it. A lot of people are lining up on the side of Martinez here, including the Kansas Justice Institute, who pointed out that a similar case made it to the Supreme Court of Illinois. There, an innocent buyer of a car with a bad VIN got to keep the car when the court ruled the statute violated the due process rights of the car buyer.Of course, Illinois law will not be binding on the courts of Kansas.I can tell you that in the case I handled, the stolen car was returned by the state police to its original owner—the one who had reported it stolen decades ago. We were forced to sue the selling dealer to get my client his money back, which we managed to do, although litigation always takes longer than we’d like.We’ll have to wait to see what the courts in Kansas do with the Martinez Corvette. In the meantime, if you are going to buy a classic car, you will want to take some cautionary steps. You can pay to have an expert inspect the vehicle for you and ask them to specifically check all the VIN locations to make sure they match. Or, you can Google the model year and name thus: “1959 Corvette VIN locations” and watch how badly the internet keeps those locations “secret.”After all, Martinez could win this case. But no one buys a classic car just so they can litigate its ownership for a few years before they can legally drive it.Steve Lehto is a writer and attorney from Michigan. He specializes in Lemon Law and frequently writes about cars and the law. His most recent books include Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow and Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird: Design, Development, Production and Competition. He also has a YouTube channel where he talks about these things.

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It’s been a couple of weeks since our last episode, but we’re all well rested and ready to reengage in the silliness that is Window Shopping. This week we’re looking at cars that we didn’t like at first, but that grew on us over time and eventually won us over to the point that we might even like to own them now. First up is R&T senior editor John Pearley Huffman who can’t be bothered to actually search for a car listing and instead presents Toyota’s website where he finds a number of hybrids that he now likes. Clearly, he didn’t quite grasp the challenge. Fortunately, senior editor Joey Capparella did understand the assignment and he selects a forgotten Acura TL that has a manual and all-wheel drive. Capparella admits to not having much love for that TL when it was new, but finding it online today has him rethinking his opinion.The next presentation comes from staff editor Austin Irwin who makes a controversial choice when he selects the first-gen Miata. But Irwin isn’t the only one who didn’t really get the early Miata’s appeal at first. Like Irwin, deputy testing director K.C. Colwell selects a car that is now nearly universally loved. Colwell’s pick of the E36 BMW M3 raises some eyebrows, but he explains that the hype surrounding the car was so great that he doubted the veracity of the claims. Like Irwin, Colwell admits that once he drove one, he fell in love.Speaking of love, host Tony Quiroga has professed his love for Buicks from the late ’80s and into the ’90s. His pick is the least expensive of the bunch and it is also likely the rarest. Quiroga confesses that endless Buick YouTube videos got to him and changed his mind about the two-seat Reatta. After watching, may you’ll change your mind about one of these cars, but then again maybe not.

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Acura will debut the Integra prototype next week, on November 11.The prototype version will likely be a close preview of the production 2023 Integra, set to go on sale next year.The debut will be live-streamed at 8:35 pm Eastern time on Acura’s website.We will soon learn a lot more about the much-anticipated return of the Acura Integra, as the company has confirmed that a prototype version of the car will make its debut next week, on November 11. As is often the case with Honda and Acura models, the prototype is likely to be a thinly veiled concept that will give us a good idea of the production car’s design.

Acura has already shared some details about this new entry-level model, including that it will be a four-door hatchback and that it will offer a six-speed manual transmission. We also expect it will join the Type S lineup with an eventual high-performance version, possibly with the same powertrain as the Honda Civic Type R. Teaser images show the Integra’s headlights and its rear-end design, which features a sharply sloped roofline and lighting elements similar to those seen on the TLX sedan.Acura will live-stream the debut on its website November 11 starting at 8:35 pm Eastern time on its website, and be sure to check back here for our coverage of the Integra prototype.
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