Arizona Auction Week: 1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer at Barrett-Jackson
Exotic hardware is abundant at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction, but comes later in the week. One of the strengths of this auction is the effort made to include cars of interest to those of us with somewhat less than six figures in the bank. An early offering was a garage kept 1985 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. With 110,000 miles on the clock this Jeep has the AMC 360 V-8, the tacky, yet traditional, faux wood trim, and factory driving lights. "Never off road," the description reads, which has always seemed a strange thing to brag about when off-road was where the vehicle was intended to shine.
(Click through to find out how much this clean Jeep sold for.)
The bidding floor was about a half full when the Jeep was driven onto the stage. In a flurry of incomprehensible chatter, the auctioneer asked for $20,000. No response from the bidding floor quickly forced him to retreat to $2000 before he got a bite. Despite the energetic exhortations of the auctioneer, only two bidders showed interest and the hammer fell without enthusiasm at $4000. This turned out to be the second lowest price for any vehicle on day one.
The top price paid on the first day of the auction was the $68,000 hammer for a '36 Pontiac Street Rod. Just behind were $67,000 bids for a 1972 Chevelle SS Custom Two-Door and a 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible.
Comments
chartguy
It was the wrong crowd to sell that vehicle to. These folks want something to be seen in. Getting noticed is why they're bidding.
The vehicle would likely have fetched more than that on ebay. There's a fellow doing complete restorations of Grand Wagoneers, and I seem to recall he was charging $60-70K for the finished product.
We used to train and show Rottweilers. We'd often go down to Chatfield Reservoir to train for tracking (scent trails). Anyway, back in the late 1980s, several other dog owners had those Grand Wagoneers. The local nickname was "Cherry Creek Cadillac" (Cherry Creek was probably the poshest neighborhood of Denver back then). While they had the typical AMC reliabilility issues (never anything major, but a constant string of niggling problems), they were very effective at hauling dogs, and with the right tires would take a family to Aspen in what used to be considered style.
Somebody got a bargain.
Donald
Somebody got a SERIOUS bargain on this. I've seen the restoration units, and these vehicles are tough to find in the wild, in this kind of condition.
The biggest concern would be what was going to crap out at that kind of mileage. These vehicles have a checklist of know issues after 60k miles, but these have a style and character to them that nothing from Jeep has offered since (for full-size offerings).
Too bad, with all the heritage-design frenzy of the auto industry of late, that Jeep could never address design cues of these early wagoneers with their newer models.
Jeff
"Never off road"? Looks like the original owner beat everyone else to the SUV-as-pavement-ornament trend. Still, that's a gorgeous Jeep. Replace the carb with a TBI kit and hit some trails.
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