We’ve walked by this yellow Firebird ragtop numerous times on our walk down to the river and back. But then one day this past summer a For Sale sign appeared on it.
$25K. Well, I really don’t follow values on cars like this, but it’s certainly not cheap.
The 350 was the base V8. The two barrel version was standard, and a four barrel was optional. Now if this had the 230 hp Sprint OHC six, backed by the four speed, my pulse would quicken some. 1969 was the last year for the Pontiac OHC six, after a very short four year production run.
No four speed here. But at least by 1969 the automatic was the three-speed THM, as only the base six was still available with the two-speed automatic.
But it has a bumper hitch, which may not exactly contribute to its value. And it’s yellow, although its body is hardly pristine. So does this get any juices flowing? Or is this the wrong crowd to be asking that?
Not feelin’ it here, certainly not for $25 grand. Just a garden variety Firebird, and a bit shabby at that. Doesn’t even have the deluxe steering wheel, so probably a low optioned model. Trailer hitch is a nice touch (not). Wonder exactly what it was pulling. Now if it were a Formula 400, or in restored condition, a different story. T/A’s were quite rare this year, very desirable and worth a fortune, but not this. $25K can get you a lot of nicer alternatives.
No. Not $25K
Try 15K or less.
Someone thinks they’ve won the auto lottery, don’t they?
I call this Barret-Jackson Syndrome. They see a car, that’s been perfectly restored over five years to better than new cross the dock and get a winning bid of $65,000 and then think they can pay off their house or (more likely) their credit cards.
I’d offer $10,000 and wave a fistfull of hundreds at them – and then be prepared to spend that same amount or more fixing everything you can’t see back to a safe condition. Watch a few episodes of Fantom Works, every owner says their car has been restored and is perfect until they find the undercoating and bondo hiding a rusted out craphulk of a body.
Ditto 100% ok on what you said right on que with this Id offer 8k take it or kick dust 6cyl probably rust panel replace another 12 k to get it rollin right i just looked at a1971 base firebird he wants 75 hundred dollars i told him 4k thats it body was straight but wiring needs replace crack in frame right side interior needs work to make it look like a custom trans am and swap engine trainy swap Ls and t7oo about 15k total
+1
A ’69 Camaro coupe is on the short list for my lottery garage, so this Firebird does pique my interest a little. My interest for powertrain is similar to Paul’s. (OHC 6 and 4-speed)
Wouldn’t want to lay out $25K for this one, though, even if money was no object.
Certainly seems like a crack pipe price to me, though admittedly I have not been following what these kind of cars go for. (It seems these days that anyone who puts up any kind of car from the 1950s or 1960s for sale expects to retire on the proceeds.)
Knock a zero of the end and it would be a nice price. My how times have changed. My buddy had a 67 camero restored and probably looked better than the day it came off the assembly line. He paid around $10 000 CDN in 1990’s money. It had a 4 speed manual and he used to like to scare me by putting his foot into it.
I’d say 10 grand at most if it was all numbers matching.
Wife: Honey, you’re never gonna fix up that old car. Time to get rid of it.
Husband: You’re right, darling. I’ll put it up for sale right now.
Yup.
Ha! Good one…..
Sorry hun, no one would pay for it. I guess we’ll have to keep it.
Grade 3 car doesn’t warrant much more than 15K. Just keep in mind that it won’t keep on appreciating when you spend your money and use that as a reason. One day, and one day it will come, the value will stall and then decline. What goes up truly does come down when the winds of father time change.
Not my kind of convertible. I always liked the bigger old kind. The last Eldorado convertibles fit that class as do 1950’s through 1970’s Lincolns, Imperials, Chryslers, Buicks and more. Trailer hitch means heavy workout for this car which translates to “probably beat up a bit.” Perhaps Hubby can find a nephew who wants some fun transportation and can afford to repair it, too.
Cars.com has about 25 listed between 1967 and 1972. Prices range all over the place. Most looked better than this one. A similar one was priced at $12,000 or so, but a coupe. Most were over $20,000. I guess the point is that there are not many available, so If you want one it may be a sellers market.
there is one 69 convertible priced at $37,000 and three 67’s which average $35,000 or more.
Firebirds have never been as popular as Camaros and their prices reflect this. Convertibles are more valuable than coupes and this one appears to have a new top. Twenty five grand is at least ten grand over value in my opinion. I don’t think that it will bring anywhere close to fifteen in this condition. Once old muscle and pony cars get much over ten grand I lose any interest. For me there are lots of much more appealing cars available starting from that price. Yes, I am a cheapskate. I would buy a beater pony car for the right price. I only like cheap old cars.
These are rare, no matter the engine, with convertibles (obviously) being even more rare.
But I agree with most here: odd options(?), console shift but that low rent steering wheel shouts econocar. For most folks the V8 is THE engine to have, just not a Pontiac 350…the lowest powered V8 available. I like the yellow color, but most folks (seem to) hate it.
Finally, for an unrestored example, this is about TWICE what nearly anyone SHOULD pay.
$5K max would be my offer. Needs work on the body and interior.
Unless he has paperwork to back up lots of mechanical repairs it’s no where near worth what he’s asking IMO
Also, this isn’t really a car that interests me.
This is more my style and at a price I would actually pay if finances allowed.
But I want the truck paid off before I buy a toy.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Ford-Fairlane-500/272915978685?hash=item3f8b0f59bd:g:4j4AAOSwZtlZ~MSX&vxp=mtr
yeah, my take? Wifey says “get rid of it!” 6 months later..”but i’m trying dear, but the markets really soft” Recently read an outrageous craigslist ad that was shown on another car website . Some fool had a ’92 Mitsubishi 3000GT for sale for…no Kidding…$500,000
Wasn’t a typo, as he actually spelled it out as well YES, ASKING FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS! Guy lived in silicon alley, and bragged he was a developer of a “tech start-up company” Guess he thinks since his 2 bedroom one bath clap board bungalow built in1955 is worth $1.5 Million. 1/2 million for a $5000 car is about right?
I’m, with you, TJ.
Love the color, though. But not $25,000 worth.
Paul, you may be on to another feature for CC: “CC For Sale Worth It Or Fantasy Price?”
Your readers are civilized enough not to attack the owner’s breeding or sense, I think, but be objective and well spoken. And informative.
I’d like to see another car for sale showcased.
I have the perfect alliterative name:
“Curbside Classic Classified Commentary”
Nope, Nope, Nope. But then I have been noticing that my personal value scale seems to need calibration these days. In my mind this is a $2500 car. Even accounting for this being 2017 and not 1987, I am having a hard time seeing this one get into 5 figures. I mean for someone actually ready to spend money on it.
But perhaps I am still off because of my lack of appreciation for old muscle cars. Maybe someone will happily spend $15K on it and then another $25K to turn it into a wicked restomod. But I am not that guy.
I’m not qualified to say if the price is really realistic or not, as I really have no idea in this case. That aside, this is not a method in which one could realistically expect to get any traction. What are the odds you will randomly find a person that first off has $25K, then next is looking for a restoration project by relying on that they drive past your car? This is how you sell a low cost disposable good, not an “asset”.
I wonder if some of these guys with serviceable, but otherwise nothing special, old cars are thinking they’re going to score a big payday like that guy who sold a mid-seventies Camaro back to that Papa John’s guy who had gotten rid of it decades ago to start the business. IOW, they’re dreaming of winning the lottery.
With good, but nothing special, Goats of the same vintage going for, say, $15k, I can’t see this one being worth more than $5000 to the average tire-kicker, or maybe a few thousand more to someone who has some nostalgic memories of one they once had in their youth.
I agree completely. It’s a nice car, but not $25,000 nice to me. If you really want that kind of cash, I’d expect one to use the proper channels to leverage it. Nobody goes shopping for a Rolex by hitting up Canal St. in NYC.
There was a great place in Springfield, OH (Mershon’s) where, although they specialized in classic Corvettes, also did a good job of stocking other, very nice, straight vintage iron, mainly sixties’ GM musclecars but the occasional Ford or Mopar. The prices, while high, were not outrageous or insane for the high level of quality which seemed (to me) to be a pretty good barometer of what that stuff was actually worth.
I don’t think they’d touch this Firebird with a ten-foot pole but, if this guy wanted to get an idea of what it was really worth, Mershon’s would tell him.
Restomod. That’s it. Someone with too much money will come get it. Next year you’ll see it just off its full rotisserie with ResaleRed3inchdrop20rims6speedautotrans502BBChevyfullcustomgaugesetomigodetcetera.
There’s still a lot of people who think anything that fell out of 1969’s ass is worth bank. Try finding even a beat up Fender guitar from that year for OK money.
This would only be of interest to me if it looked like this under the hood:
A friend of mine had a ’68 with the 215 hp OHC six and a four speed in ’70-’71. The car handled very good with six and the engine had plenty of power. Enough to leave the rear end all over the road as he was power shifting it one night on a deserted road. Made for a long walk home.
The 1969 Firebird front end had an obvious and nasty black filler strip between the sheetmetal and the Endura/plastic nose pieces. Not so bad on a dark car but awful on a lighter color. I much prefer the full-chrome ’67-’68 front bumpers.
I always noticed that, 1969 is the only year in the entire F body timeline I prefer the Camaro to the Firebird.
Had a Verado green (think that was the name of it) 400 convert with light green top, same color interior as this but 4 speed w/three spoke brushed chrome and “wood” wheel. Before I got it a 68 front bumper/grille was put on. The whole look of the car improved 1000% to me. It’s a bolt on, perfect fit. It always confused people, but I wouldn’t have bought it with the stock grille. Car was immaculate, but with engine HO and Hurst 4 speed the 4.10 rear end gave 6-8 mpg and sounded like it was racing someone at 65, mph. Bought it for $1500 in the early 70’s, sold for not much more few years later
Well, I’ve been away from the market for cars like this a long time but this one looks about like a fair example would have ca. 1980. A lot like the ’68 Camaro SS396 shown here a few months back, except it’ll never be worth what that car could be.
The key to determining the value is how much rust damage it has and if it’s ever been in a major accident. Once the tinworm bites these things it’s a losing battle, and half-assed crash damage repair from decades ago can cost more to set right than the car is worth. This one looks salvageable, but I’d want to spend an afternoon with it up on hoist before committing. Since it isn’t a bona fide muscle car, just a droptop pony car, it probably doesn’t matter much if the numbers match. Aside from the cheapo respray over what appears to be original pale yellow paint it doesn’t seem to be too badly molested. The potential is there.
I wouldn’t pay more than 10K and expect to spend another 8 or 10k to get it reasonably sorted out, but I’ll bet someone comes along and pays close to asking eventually. They didn’t make many of these and survivors are rare, I just hope it doesn’t end up as a “tribute” Trans Am or 400 HO car.
My tastes run more to the stock than the eclectic as yours do, PN, but I agree with you here. I’ve about had my fill of cars from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s all with the biggest V8s and what-have-you. I’ve started to appreciate the ol’ straight six-engined cars, especially with some sort of performance upgrade such as tuned exhaust manifolds, dual-carb setups (or the occasional tri-power) and a 3- or 4-spd manual on the floor. Once in a blue moon, I’ve seen these at car shows and you KNOW the original buyer had the same intent just by the extras ordered on the car…bucket seats or whatever.
This Firebird would have gotten faint interest from me, with a 3-spd floor shifter and the 350. In any case, though…$10-12K tops. 25 grand is delusional.
It’s like the ’64 Corvair Monza for sale on a main street in our neighborhood last month for $22K. Very nice clean and attractive car, but $22K? After several weeks, now it’s back in its usual place around the corner, without the sign.
Why the high price? Trying to get back the money sunk into it, didn’t really want to sell it, or just clueless, who knows.
I like these type of cars, and follow a lot of them on the various internets sale sites and locally.
Way over priced.
10-12 grand if its really solid, no major rust, no major wrecks and rebuilds, solid mechanicals in this type of rather rough condition.
And that trailer hitch is a problem. Says that someone worked it hard at some point. Hmm.
I’d guess the owner is either being forced to sale by a spouse, hence the unsalable price. Or the owner had watched too many TV car auction shows.
This one would not be on my radar if I was in the market.
I had a baby blue ’63 Beetle when I was in high school. However, a 60’s Beetle today in good condition is between $15K to $20K as per Hemmings:
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/volkswagen/beetle/2014177.html
Instead, I’ll take a slightly used 2012-14 FIAT 500 POP for less than $9k and still feel nostalgic as I’m broken down on the side of the road!!=:-)
Chuck, love your comment, I just bought a 2013 Fiat 500 Pop 5-speed a few months back and have been loving it! $7,500 with a one year drivetrain warranty and 48,000 miles on it. Pistachio green and loads of fun!
I’ve paid 15K for a good condition 1969 Plymouth Sport Fury convertible, a fair price and being an Commercial Graphic Designer/Cartoonist, a good price. I’ll be counting the days when I can drive it in the Spring with the top down, and it’d be worth EVERY penny.
25K for a plain jane Firebird 350? I can’t see it. An’ I don’t see that having a trailer hitch would cut a price, In a Belgian-Korean comic I got, a character drove a Swiss registered ’69 Ragtop that pulled a Dutch-built Sterckeman Lovely 400 trailer. Most euro Firebirds of this type were vacation cars, and I’ve seen some ’69 350’s pulling Happier Camper HC 1 caravans here in the Northwest. I hope the next owner has it towing his or her toys… Pontiac’s can do that, Firebird included!
The transmission is most likely a 2 speed powerglide. I had a 69 Firebird coupe in 1979 with this engine tranny combo. Pontiac would put the powerglide with the base 350 2-bbl for a low base price model.
Sorry. Pontiacs did not use Powerglides behind any V8. Plenty of 65-66 GTO people think they have a Powerglide, and what they have is a Buick SuperTurbine 300. In ’69 this Bird would indeed have a TH350.
Many people confuse the 2-speed automatic used in V-8 Pontiacs with the Chevy Powerglide. In reality, they used the Buick SuperTurbine 300, along with Oldsmobile and Buick. You will never find a factory installed Powerglide behind a Pontiac, Buick, or Olds V8. This Bird could well have the 2-speed, and maybe a TH350.
Although to me (and Wifey), it’s the right color combination, I wouldn’t give over $10 grand for it. Who knows what it looks like underneath, where it counts?
It doesn’t matter to me, as being retired, I have no means to buy it anyway. Wishful thinking, however, is still free!
we are in the process of selling our condo and buying a new one, which has kind of warped my perceptions as to the difference between the relative and absolute values of money, and this would still be a HELL NO. Even if the undercarriage was clean of rust.
On eBay as I write (“Sold Listings,” rather than pipe dream asking prices), $25K has gotten someone a beautiful recent resto or an impeccable modest-miles original.
Convertibles like this seem to be getting no more than $14-15K.
$25K resto:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Pontiac-Firebird/162707716939?hash=item25e222bb4b:g:5X0AAOSwXLpZ3OzN&vxp=mtr
I’ll let the owners wife know that if she exported it to Australia (about $2500-ish USD), she’d foil his plan not to sell – because she’d actually get that $25K USD for it here. But that would make me a CC turncoat, and t’would be a betrayal of this site.
So I’ll contact the male and bribe him.
Price aside, gotta love the Grand Am tires on a Firebird, right? That adds some value!
Wishful thinking at $25K. While not a common model, these don’t bring Camaro money unless it is a Trans AM (rare for ’69) or a formula 400 with the right stuff. As a previous poster listed, $15K – seems more in line for this model.
A description of the Firebird 350 from that year’s Firebird brochure. http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/index.php/NA/Pontiac-Firebird/1969-Pontiac-Firebird/1969_Pontiac_Firebird_Brochure/1969-Pontiac-Firebird-06-07
I agree it’s overpriced. Sure ’69 Firebird convertibles are rare and worth more than the coupes, but not that much more. FWIW, Hagarty prices a #3 condition 1969 Firebird 350 Convertible at $16,800 or $9600 for #4 condition.
I think tiredoldmechanic hit the nail on the head though about it’s value. You’d really have to look over this car (or any other old car) with a fine tooth comb to know it’s true value. A solid rust free body is worth a lot in my eyes.
The only ’69 Firebird convertible that would be worth that kind of money would be a mint condition Trans Am (only 8 were built – 4 were automatics and 4 with 4-speeds). All were Cameo White with blue striping and powered by the 400 Ram Air III or 400 Ram Air IV engines.
If this bird is worth 25K, then my name is Chief Pontiac Catalina, the Grand Prix of the Bonneville tribe.
It’s pretty. And looks from the photos to be in relatively good condition for almost 50 years old.
But it’s got an AUTOMATIC TRANS.
$25,000? No.