Editor-in-Chief's Note: In a follow-up to my column about the greed-fest in Monterey, here are the results from just one auction house - Mecum - last week. A special comment on No. 7. This is the first production L88 Corvette (of 20) built that year. We - my brother Tony and I - took delivery of it at Hanley Dawson Chevrolet in Detroit and immediately set about turning it into an "A" Production racer to run in SCCA events, which Tony did very successfully. This ended up being a well-traveled machine, but quite a few years ago Tony was contacted to verify its originality, and then asked to supervise its restoration back to its configuration as raced in the 1967 SCCA Runoffs at Daytona, which he did. He was then asked by the owner to race it at the Monterey Historics and then the car was put back into its street configuration to up its value. Then, it was put back into competition configuration, then back into street configuration again. And now, it has a new owner. We get asked all the time if we wish we had kept any of our famous racing Corvettes, and the answer is always, "Sure, but remember, at the time there was nothing more useless than last year's race car. So..." -PMD

The top collector car sales at the Monterey 2024 auction included:

Volkswagen of America, Inc., has announced pricing and the EPA-estimated range for the ID. Buzz. Pricing for ID. Buzz models will start with the rear-wheel-drive Pro S at an MSRP of $59,995, Pro S Plus at $63,495, and the launch-only 1st Edition at $65,495. At 100% charge, rear-wheel-drive models will offer 234 miles of EPA-estimated range, and 4Motion all-wheel-drive models will offer 231 miles of EPA-estimated range. Three different interior color worlds are carefully curated to complement the exterior colors and are currently exclusive to the North American models. Copper gives mid-century modern vibes with rich brown leatherette seats with yellow piping, brown door inserts and a washed wood-look dash. Dune—first seen at the ID. Buzz reveal in 2023—is a bright, airy, coastal-inspired interior, which pairs light grey leatherette seats with clay-colored piping and door inserts, along with a light wood-look dash. Moonlight, a moody dark interior, includes dark brown leatherette seats with white piping, blue door inserts and a dark wood-look dash, paired with black headliner. Editor-in-Chief's Note: The ID. Buzz is finally arriving late this year, a full eight years after it was first shown to the public. I see three major issues right off the bat for the "Buzz." First of all, the launch timing is atrocious. Despite the shiny happy EV boosters suggesting that "it won't be long now!" for EV sales momentum, the reality is that EV sales are sluggish, to put it mildly. Secondly, the EPA-estimated range for the Buzz is underwhelming to say the least. 234 miles on the rear-wheel-drive version? Wow, as in, you gotta be kidding me. And finally, the price is a killer. Yes, for months the buzz about the "Buzz" was that it would be pricey, I get that. But VW operatives are going to find out the hard way that the list for the "first-on-the-block" types who just gotta have a "Buzz" is going to be painfully short. The ID. Buzz is just too damn expensive, no matter how VW deigns to position it. As we like to say around here, it's Not Very Good, is it? -PMD

 

 

See website for complete article licensing information.