how many US 1971 gtvs, and what are they worth?

[JHertzman@domain.elided]

In AD7-1211 Marc Baldwin, who is disputing his insurance company about value, 
asked how many 1971 GTVs there are in the US?

Lawrence Gowin gave a totally correct answer to the implicit insurance value 
question: not much, and if it is worth something to you, go for an agreed 
value policy, probably with a specialist insurance company.

Biba gave a more extensive answer, including "Sorry, but they 'lump' Your '71 
GTV in with the '70 to 74's. Range: $7,500 to $9,500 for very good to 
excellent examples. They claim 37,459 as the total made for these cars (John 
Hertzman, get out your calculator)"

OK. Fusi lists an all-years total of 2,475 US 1750 GT Veloces (tipo 105.51), 
of which 1,151 were built in 1971, but some (perhaps all) of the 519 built in 
1970 would have been called 1971 model year. There are undoubtedly some of 
the 36,231 LHD Eurospec 105.44 1750 GT Veloces here. I have doubts about 
survival rates, and would guess that perhaps 300 (max) '71s are running in 
the USA, and perhaps 100 of them are in relatively good condition - 
restorable to fair-to-good concours condition for less than $5,000 to 
$10,000, at which point they might be worth, at auction, approximately the 
restoration cost.

Marc states further that "All 1971 GTV owners are hereby offered a whopping 
$3,600 for your cars." I might take him up on mine, a one-owner car with 
about 60k miles which has original paint and upholstery, little rust (but 
some) and has never been in an accident. All it needs to be in full "needs 
nothing" condition is full upholstery including carpets and headliner (ergo a 
fresh gasket windshield and unobtainium windshield trim), "some" rust repair, 
"some" sheet metal work for storage damage, paint, a new dash, all door and 
trunk gaskets, tires, all wiring, piping, tubing, and seals, plus a fairly 
complete end-to-end mechanical overhaul and tweaking. Not exotic tweaking, 
just that if I am going that deep I would probably go with the leather of my 
choice instead of vinyl, some selective powder coating, have Wes do the pump, 
one of the gearbox magicians do the gears, Sperry do the head, Stebro the 
stainless exhaust, and Bankamerica the home-equity loan. It will be worth it, 
but then I wouldn't sell it for $10,000, or $3,500.

What are they worth? Nobody knows, except the prospective buyer and the 
prospective seller. It is not a commodity like, say, a base 164 or even a 
clean Verde.

The 37,459 figure that Biba's source, The Sports Car Market Letter, gives for 
'70 through '74 cars is slippery. The SCML also gives 44,265 for the '69 1750 
GTV alone, making 81,724; Fusi had given 23,486 1750 GTVs in 1967, '68, and 
'69, including the LHD, RHD, USA and CKD cars, considerably fewer than SCML's 
44,265 for 1969. D'Amico & Tabucchi give 47,512 1750s and 32,288 2000s, 
79,800 total, of which something like nine percent were US cars.
 
SCML also gives a narrower price-spread for the '69 ($8,000-$9,000) than for 
the '70-'74 ($7,500-$9,500) but in both cases these are, as Biba said, for 
"very good to excellent examples, significantly above a daily driver, one 
step below regional concours."

Some will question, as too low, my rough guess that there are perhaps 300, 
max, of the '71s running. We recently saw on the digest an extended debate 
about whether it is worth keeping a Milano when repairs it might need - a 
clutch now, perhaps a transmission later - could cost more than the current 
market value of the car. The 1750s, as the 1600s and Giuliettas before them, 
spent decades in that limbo, not valuable enough to warrant trying to slow 
the rust.
 
John H.
Raleigh, N.C.

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