Condition Descriptions

We went to look at a car to buy tonight. From the description in the advertisement, you would have thought the car was perfect. Instead, it turned out to be the perfect project car. The wheels were rusty. There was rust showing along all the body seams. The interior was tired. The new tires were the wrong size. The car did have its strong points. It was all there and lots of new parts had been installed and it ran good. It was a very good project car. But it was not what the ad indicated it was. Years ago, Old Cars weekly instituted the 1-5 condition scale to deal with this kind of thing. It has now been expanded to a 1-6 condition scale, but the basic idea is the same: to give collectors a standard they can go by so that they do not travel long distances for nothing.