1985 Grand National help with Value

My female coworker Liz lost her husband to a heart attack late last year, very suddenly. She's starting to think about downsizing to a smaller property and getting rid of a couple cars and some shop stuff. One of these cars is a 1985 Grand National. It was taken off the road a several years ago for a "fairly minor issue" which led to massive project creep and purchasing a mountain of parts that never got around to being installed. Now she has a non-running GN in near pristine condition (to hear her tell it) that is close to running with boxes of brand new upgrades. And whatever parts were needed to fix the original problem. It's all been stored inside.

So what do you guys think this thing could sell for? I know, photos. She's supposed to get me some. I told her I could consult the hive and help her decide if she could get enough for it selling as is, or if it's worth trying to get it running and then sell. Talk to me about value and I'll update with more info as I get it.

Thanks guys, really trying to help out a friend here.

Nice cold air cars (86-87) are $15k-20k depending on overall condition and either box stock or heavily modified.
Hot air cars (84-85) are not as desirable and unless its minty fresh and super low miles, probably around $5k as a lot, $10k parted out assuming the new parts are worth $5k.

Very hard to provide any more info without more details

i dunno, i saw an 85 sell at an estate sale for $8900 in front of me last year that had 26k but was rusty and looked like it sat under a pine tree for the last 10 years.

93gsxturbo wrote: Nice cold air cars (86-87) are $15k-20k depending on overall condition and either box stock or heavily modified. Hot air cars (84-85) are not as desirable and unless its minty fresh and super low miles, probably around $5k as a lot, $10k parted out assuming the new parts are worth $5k. Very hard to provide any more info without more details

Sounds about right. Though if it's put together as a running car I'd say more than $5k on average unless the mileage is really high, but as noted it's all about condition.

I think that eBay is the answer for a car like this. If she advertises it locally, it will be hard to get big money for it. She'll either have it priced too high and end up stuck with it for a while, or let it go too cheap. If she documents everything and writes up a good auction item description, the experts and collectors will find it and the true market value will come out. There are probably enough people looking for these cars that she won't get hurt with an auction.

If she has a trustworthy source that can get it running, even in stock form, it would really increase the value. I'll guess 3-5 not running, 6-11 running stock with all the extras in the trunk.

Honestly, it's worth $2500 as it sits.. running, they start at about $5k and go up from there..

That's assuming that it's a GN and not just a black T Type with some GN parts on it, then the value gets cut about in half.

Find someone trust worthy to check it out, and if possible, get it running in as close to stock condition as possible, without dumping a whole lot of money into it. Then sell it with all the extras in the trunk as someone else already mentioned. Hopefully it is a real GN and not a T-type.

I've been watching Mecum Kissimmee and T-types are selling all day for $15k. So I have to imagine that if it is a real GN and it is put back in running condition, as long as it isn't completely crusty, it's worth at least $15k, despite being a hot air car.

It is a real GN, the late owner was a big fan of the cars. I still haven't seen photos or parts list yet. Her son seems to be a decent mechanic if not terrible experienced, and he thinks he can get it running with some help. I suspect it may come down to time to fix vs time to move to a smaller house. We'll see.

Still no pix, will update if I get any.

I think they key here is to help out and get it into one piece as quickly as possible.

I haven't gotten asked to help yet. Not sure I could based on schedule, but having never wrenched in a GN I am intrigued. There might also be complications with son's involvement, etc. Dunno.

as an aside that may have it's own post in the classified, she's planning on selling his 06 Porsche Cayman too. 70k, stick, thinking $25 (which I think is high)

once you get past the snail shaped thing on top of the intake manifold and the distributorless ignition system, there really isn't anything unique about working on a GN/T Type compared to any other GM car or truck of the era. some parts are in weird places, but in the end it's just a G body with some fancy electronics on a 231 Buick V6- the 84 and 85 "hot air" cars even have all the same front accessories and brackets on the engine as any other Buick V6 powered rear wheel drive car of the era.