5 star cars we're watching at the Arizona auctions

[Hagerty]

Break out the sunblock, dry clean that blazer, and liquidate some assets-it's gavel-banging season in Arizona! The Copper State's annual week of sales-part of what we call the January Auctions, involving Mecum's massive Kissimmee, Florida auction-returns for the new year.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/5-star-cars-were-watching-at-the-arizona...

[audiobycarmine]

The Maserati 5000GT looks a lot like one of the cars in 1960's "The Time Machine", when an "atomic satellite" attacks the London of the mid-late 20th century.

Those Apollo's look great — imagine if one had the foresight (and the money) to have acquired one back then... There's never a time machine around when you need one.

[Ragster]

Man ........Old Burt's Firebird will garner some bids I'm sure......just for the nostalgia of that time and the movie.

[noah300g]

I want to see what the cinnamon colored Chrysler 300G convertible sells for!

[avideo]

Those of us car lovers that actually live in Arizona consider most of these auctions as yearly entertainment. We go to the auctions and look over the cars, check which local cars are going up for sale, and laugh at the liquored up bidders trying to outbid each other.
It's especially funny when a Tri-Five Chevy Belair or a 1966 Mustang fastback gets bid up over $90K - and there's nothing special about either car!

[elko67]

NOT TRUE !!!

[tadg47]

I can't understand why some people will spend way more money for a car that was owned by a movie star. Big deal! The car is the same car regardless who owned it. Especially a Pontiac Firebird.

[lbarclay]

Smokey and the Bandit was a big deal culturally, and the Trans Am is legendary because of the movie. This is one of the only 77s Burt Reynolds owned, and is the one used for promotion of the movie. I would say it's culturally significant. Saying the car is the came as any other Trans Am is similar to saying the ball tom Brady threw his 600th TD with isn't worth any more than the NFL ball you can buy at Dick's.

[PRScott]

I disagree. Tom Brady is seriously talented. Reynolds not so much.

[Still443]

This is when they really need a dislike button.

[PurelyPMD]

Or the LOL!

[elko67]

TRUE !!!

[Rider79]

Well, many folks would strongly disagree with you.

[KYColonel]

I would be most interested in the 'Bird, not because of Reynold's,
but simply because I'm not interested in European cars.

[henkdrie]

A great selection! The Mercedes is special, but there are too many to be that special; let us say 1.5-2.0 mil though... The Intermeccanica Apollo are on my list also, as long as they keep below 100k, being impossible to re-sell. Ah the Touring 5000GT, one of three Shah models - Allemano are best liked and sold all below 1 mil these past years, Touring should be less, but if it’s more the whole group is going up 🙂 good for theFrua as well. Sorry GM car does not belong here (I’m European).

[Bunka]

After owning several GM cars and a Ford, I came to realize that USA manufacturers built fake cars, their only purpose was to fool it's customers out of their money. Very satisfied with my European cars now.

[ThePorscheMan]

I still love "The LoveBug"... goooOOOOEE Apollo.

[topside]

During the Smokey/Bandit era, I was an auto appraiser in SoCal who dealt with a lot of Hollywood people & vehicles. I remember the Smokey/Bandit cars post-filming, returned to a Pontiac dealer as essentially scrap. I mean, utterly destroyed. Pontiac was NOT pleased about that, but the promotional results were undeniable. The Rockford Files Firebirds that I dealt with there fared far better.

[Still443]

Your post directly contradicts the article..."None of the Trans-Ams used in the film ever escaped the movie lot, as they were all crushed following the completion of the movie for liability reasons." Even if what you posted was accurate, why would Pontiac care about the condition of the cars if they were going to be destroyed anyway?

[Silvermane]

'never escaped the movie lot' isn't literal. It just means they never entered the public domain after the movie wrapped. Likely, they were returned to a Pontiac dealer to be properly transported to a facility to be destroyed or disposed of, since a movie lot wouldn't have those capabilities.

[Gary_Bechtold]

The 300SL is beautiful. It will go for a bunch

Burt Reynolds’ 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am brings smiles to almost everyone. It will do pretty well.

I never heard of the Apollo GT. I thought it looks kind of part British and part Ferrari at the same time before reading the description.

That Maserati is funky. It definitely looks 60's Italian car.

[Hacksaw]

Only 2 cars would be cool to own from this lot. The gull wing and the Firebird. The rest look like poorly designed cars. I generally don't like foreign for looks but the gull wing is beautiful. I changed my mind on the Firebird. The gull wing is the only one I would let darken my concrete. I feel like a hypocrite.

[MAXTHEAX]

No matter where you'd put this it will be the star of the weekend. Rights to the first C8Z06 Corvette. We can probably all agree on who will win the auction, the big question is how much.
The only Bandit car worth owning is one Sally Field was in.

[Lash]

That Maserati is ass ugly.

[Rider79]

Only the front; pretty sleek otherwise.

[SD-455]

Disappointed you did not mention the Bandit TA engines that were used in the movie vs those that sold as owned by Burt. I’m pretty sure neither were stock 400’s!

[Inline8OD]

Tadg47 above nails it. Perhaps some day, we'll finally graduate to reviewing various cars on their relative merits, if any, without invoking past despot or celebrity ownership. Let's leave that to People Magazine, Sports Illustrated,  and the lurid tell alls by the supermarket checkout stand.

[Rider79]

But - while you or I may not care about celebrity ownership, many people actually do - and not just for speculative purposes.

[j1c2]

Where's your Mecum Glendale selections?

[rxk9394]

that was a fun read, definitely liked the "cash drunk" and "enjoy...peasant" notes.

for anybody dunking on the Burt Reynolds Trans Am, I actually get the appeal myself. what if it was a Steve McQueen Triumph instead? I would pay the extra (even tho I can't!) just for the bragging rights and would tell everyone I knew or came in contact with that McQueen owned it before me! And frame the title and put it where everybody in the house would see it every day!

I would be willing to bet all of us have a hero or icon that would compel us to spend more on something just because their fingerprints were on it at some time...

[Rider79]

Yeah - SALLY FIELD!

[Revellcraft02]

Those Apollos look cool. One time, I was lucky enough to see the last of 9 Apollo roadsters built.