Classic Car Appraisals: Tips on Insurance, Trends, and the 2025 Chevrolet Traverse

Classic Car Valuations and Insurance Options

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast , a 30-minute mini version of the In Wheel Time Car Show that airs live every Saturday morning 8 to 11 am , central . Welcome to the paranoid show called In Wheel Time . Coming up , we talk to Michael Wooding about car valuations . Jeff has his car culture . It dives into new car shows . In particular , will the Detroit Auto Show survive ? And then Mr Mars reviews the 2025 Chevy Traverse . Howdy , along with Mike . Out of this world , mars . We always need more . Jeff Zekin , to a point , and Chief Engineer David Ainslie . I'm Don Armstrong , glad you could join us today . Thank you very much . We're back in the studio for a little while . Anyway , till what March ?

Speaker 2 0:52

I believe so .

Speaker 1 0:52

That's our next tentative date . Yeah , okay , so about a month away , but we're here with you in our home away from home , the Sugar Shack Studios , joining us today in the Sugar Shack Studio well , not in the studio , but I will say that he is just a hop skip and a jump down the street . A bit Michael Wooding from the Auto Appraisal Network and Woody's Waterfront Car Show , and it's good to have you with us this morning . Good to see you , my friend .

Speaker 3 1:19

Good morning . You doing well ? I'm doing fine . I'm doing fine , making strides and improving every day .

Speaker 1 1:27

Good , glad to hear it . So let's talk first of all about what you do with the Auto Appraisal Network . What is it ?

Speaker 3 1:39

Sell it for us . We are appraisers of custom classic and collector cars . Appraisers of custom classic and collector cars . There's other appraisal services available but they deal mainly in new cars and wrecked cars and that type of thing . But when you've got a 57 Chevy with an LS7 or LSX , in it and an . Art Morrison subframe . What does that car worth ? What should I be insuring it for and what would it sell for if it went across an option ?

Speaker 1 2:09

So , as a matter of fact , I've got the Corvette , the 2001 Corvette that is now considered in some circles a classic car I don't know as if I would call it that , but I have been looking for insurance . That kind of fits me . And Grundy , and what is the other one that everybody Hagerty , hagerty . The problem with those is one of them , at least that I just found out . You've got to have a garage , yeah , and you have mileage limits , and one of them . You also have to have another car , like a daily driver , that's registered . Well , I don't have a garage and I don't have a daily driver , because I do press vehicle reviews . So I get a new car from the manufacturers every week . So that counts me out . So in the meantime and in between time , my all-state car insurance is killing me now at $150 a month for the Corvette , and that's not with collision , that's just to be covered in case I get into a wreck and it's my fault . That's it . You're kidding .

Speaker 3 3:22

No , there's got to be a better plan than that there has to be .

Speaker 1 3:27

One that fits me . But you know , I can't lie and say , oh yeah , it's in the garage and I have another car that I drive every day . Well , I do have another car that I drive every day , but it's not in my name . So there lies the problem . So I'm going to let you think about that , and then you can say , don , I've thought of something and try this . So anyway , back to the point that you've got , and that is that we have you to take , for instance , my 2001 Corvette and give it a valuation , because I'm going to take your valuation to Hagerty or Grundy or one of those providers and say here's what I think is the value , here's what you , as an outsider , think the value of the car is . And I'm thinking of this .

Speaker 3 4:21

We base ours on comparable sales .

Speaker 1 4:24

Comparable sales . Yes , so you know , mine does have . If you want to call it a Restomod , I wouldn't call it that , but it does have air intake , it's got a Corsa exhaust , it's got different wheels on it , it's got Corbeau seats in it , it's got a Hurst shifter in it . So I've made some modifications to the standard stock vehicle that mine now has 35,000 miles on it .

Speaker 3 4:52

But you wouldn't call it a rest of it . That is not a rest of it , so what would you ? Call it Just a modified car .

Speaker 1 4:59

A jacked up car that Don Armstrong jacked up .

Speaker 3 5:03

No modified .

Speaker 1 5:04

Modified .

Speaker 2 5:05

Yeah , that's a professional term . Well , who's professional ?

Speaker 4 5:09

He is . It's better than Opus .

Speaker 1 5:15

That's true , exactly Alright . So it's a modified car . I haven't done really any engine work to it . It's stock LS1 .

Speaker 3 5:23

Which is a very durable engine that will last you for 250,000 miles if you keep the oil change in it .

Speaker 1 5:30

Yeah , and don't blow it up . Yeah , there's that . So you do those kind of , those kind of valuations . Yes , do you not ?

Speaker 3 5:43

Yes , and we do them in several different forms . Like I said , you have an auction value or a fair market value . That's , if it crossed the block at a Mecham or a Gooding tomorrow , what would that car sell for ? Okay , yeah , we can give you that number . We can give you an insurance valuation which would be that number . We can give you an insurance valuation which would be that number , that auction number , plus 15% to 20% . And the reason you go 15% or 20% higher is one you'll have to find a replacement car , which is going to be difficult on a custom classic or collector-type car . You're going to have to ship it from god knows where . There's going to be time and money invested in just acquiring that new car that matched your old car . So we go 10 to 15 to 20 percent higher sometimes on particular cars .

Speaker 1 6:43

So if I was going to replace that car , I think , I think that I would probably look for a C7 Corvette as opposed to a C5 or a C6 . So then those numbers obviously would be skewed , not matching the 2001 value because it's a newer car .

Speaker 3 7:03

Yeah , absolutely .

Speaker 2 7:07

What , mars , I was going to say in my drooling over cars , over Corvettes . Your Corvette has got a lot more value than a 6 . Most of the 6s that you go out there and look at are selling for a lot of them sell cheaper than your 5 .

Speaker 4 7:25

I wouldn't know .

Speaker 2 7:26

Well , that's something that some of the boards talk about . How come the C5s are holding their value better than the C6s , and some are even saying maybe the 7s ? They're just not appreciated by the market , from what I've seen drooling over them .

Speaker 1 7:39

Well , Michael Wooding would know better than us .

Speaker 3 7:45

They're holding their own . They're not gaining in value or going up , but because they make such good track cars , somebody with a little bit of extra money can pick up one of those cars at a reasonable price and take it straight to the autocross and start racing that car , and so those purchases and those bills help bring the value of those cars up and hold it in a specific place .

Classic Car Market Trends and Insights

Speaker 3 8:18

But the market for collector and classic cars right now is depressed . It was depressed all of last year . Really thought it would start coming back in February , march here , but it's looking like it's going to be even later in the year Could be December before we see the strong values that we saw in 2022 .

Speaker 1 8:45

So what you're saying is that perhaps if you're in the market for a car that say , for instance , mecham would have that , this would probably be a good time the upcoming Mecham auction here in Houston to go . It's a buying time , absolutely so . Do you have a booth there that says Auto Appraisal Network ? Famous Michael Wooding will value the car for you and tell you if this is a good buy or not .

Speaker 3 9:12

No , usually I end up there looking at a car to four clients in other parts of the country . You know a lot of people are scared to buy a car without physically touching it or seeing it . Okay , you see it online , it looks good , but what does it ?

Speaker 1 9:32

look like underneath . Well , and that's what I've been preaching , you know , since we met you , and I understand how crazy the custom car , the Restomod , can be . You know it looks great on the outside . Of course , some of the television shows that I've seen , you know drooling over a 69 Camaro and then they get it up on a rack and holes all in the frame . It's been wrecked , nothing straight . It's terrible underneath yeah , they can .

Speaker 3 9:59

You know , you can put a lipstick on a pig , but it's still a pig .

Speaker 4 10:03

Yeah , also , the meekum has classifications . They have criteria that they go through before they put the car up on the block , and you have to have it inspected from them prior to that , before they make sure the titles ride and the numbers match , if that's what you're going to tell people .

Speaker 1 10:20

So they've got a process as well , right , well , they also have another process that I learned about , michael , and that is the fact that , for instance , if you're going to sell a custom car or some other vehicle let's say a 1970 Camaro that besides the engine block number and besides the tag under the hood or the door , that there can be on some cars a hidden VIN number that they know where it is , but I didn't know that there was one up underneath the fender .

Speaker 3 10:52

Well , that's so rare . Most cars are pretty straightforward as far as how they were built . There's usually a VIN tag somewhere and then there's a data tag somewhere . The data tag usually tells you when the car was built , what color it was painted originally , what kind of motor it had in it originally . The VIN number doesn't give you that kind of information . So you have to have that data tag and then when you get into high-end collector cars you look for what they call the build sheet and that's a mere piece of paper that at the factory followed that car along as it was built and told them what to put on it . When they got to the end of the line they might throw it on the floor and put the carpet over . They might stick it underneath the back seat , they might glue it to the top of the gas tank Several different places . They've found those build sheets in the cars and if you can get a build sheet to back up your car and it's a nice original car you're talking great value .

Speaker 1 12:10

Do they still use build sheets on all cars ?

Speaker 3 12:13

No , they don't .

Speaker 1 12:14

No , well , it's computerized now , yeah , versus a piece of paper that actually follows the car Can you , let's say , for instance , a 69 Camaro and I know that I just used that , I'm just throwing it off the top of my head that had a bill sheet with it , did it not ? It did Okay . And so if let's say I can't find the build sheet or it's been lost along the way , can you go to Chevrolet and say can I get the build sheet for that particular car if you've got the VIN number ? No .

Speaker 3 12:45

Chevrolet does not have that information anymore . There are guys like Galen for the Mopars and various individuals that bought out GM records and Ford records , and Kevin Marty for your Marty reports . What they did was actually buy the archives from GM and from Ford and they housed those so they can go back there with a VIN number and tell you what that car was built with and how many of those cars were built that way .

Speaker 1 13:26

Now does the Auto Appraisal Network . If I want to , can I use your services to delve into that ?

Speaker 3 13:35

To a limited degree . You know we normally , unless there's a lift available , we can't be casting numbers off the transmission and things like that that people like to document along with the motor . When you're doing a 100% original car , you have to have a casting number that matches the date that the motor was manufactured and the car was manufactured .

Speaker 1 14:03

Well , since the last time we talked to you , have you run across anything that's a good story about auto appraisals lately ? I know you've always got stories .

Speaker 3 14:13

You know . The thing is is these people are spending God's amount of money on building some of these rides . There's one in particular that I did . There's actually a TV show , the Martin Brothers deal . Yes , right , resurrection . Yeah , they built this Hudson pickup truck for a gentleman . I remember it . That was absolutely gorgeous , okay , but the guy that commissioned it didn't even live to see it finished . His brother had the car finished and delivered . The overall bill was half a million dollars . Yeah , okay , he had me out to appraise the car and that because he had another one , one or two also and appraise that truck on what he could expect to get for those at auction . We said around $275,000 to $300,000 .

Speaker 1 15:20

That's all . That's it , even though they had half a million dollars into it . It doesn't matter what you spend .

Speaker 3 15:27

It's what the market will bear .

Speaker 1 15:31

Wow , did you follow it through ? Did they get the money for it ?

Speaker 3 15:35

No , he sold it for $285,000 .

Speaker 1 15:41

Wow , and they put a half a million dollars into it . Oh my God . It sounds to me like my 77 Corvette that I don't even know how much money I put into it . I bought it brand new for $11,000 . Custom paint , chrome , all this stuff , and I sold it for next to nothing Nothing .

Speaker 3 16:00

Yeah , yeah . So that's what I tell people now when they say they want to get into the hobby or they want to have a classic car , I tell them to go to Me , them , or , or one of the other options find a car that's close to what you want , have it inspected and buy that car and then change that car to what you want , right , okay , yep , you wanted a red 70 duit grand sport . Oh yeah , okay , you can find the yellow one and you can buy it at a reasonable price . It comes across . You buy that , put a paint job on it , you've got what you've got and and you've got a good driving classic car that you can use . Or you can go all the way and start showing .

Speaker 1 16:52

You know when you redo those things hey how we're running out of time here . Uh , how are things coming along with the this year's waterfront car show ?

Speaker 3 17:02

well , it's going to change a little bit , in that I have a contract Contracted the Houston area Pontiac Club to work the show and handle all the issues for me , gotcha . So they'll be doing the parking , they'll be doing the judging , they'll be doing pretty much all of it .

Speaker 2 17:23

This year and they've got a lot of experience because they do a show down in Galveston .

Speaker 3 17:28

Right , that's March 22nd on the stream Nice show . That show will be out .

Speaker 1 17:38

And that's always a good show . Well , michael , it's great to talk to you . Thanks so much for joining us today . Good luck with your health and we hope to talk to you again soon . You stay in touch with us now you hear .

Speaker 3 17:45

If you want to trade that bet , now's the time to trade it .

Speaker 1 17:49

I'm good right now , but I appreciate the offer . Thank you , sir . Thank you , Michael Take care you bet .

Speaker 3 17:55

You too .

Speaker 1 17:56

Just ahead , mr Bars has a review of the 2025 Chevy Traverse and Jeff has his car culture feature on the Detroit Auto Show . In Real Time Car Talk Show continues in just a couple of seconds . The Tex-Mex dining experience is defined by Loopy Tortilla your destination for Texas's best beef fajitas and frozen margaritas . Since 1983 , loopy Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients . Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience at Loopy Tortilla , all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I-10 in West Houston . Visit any of the Loopy Tortillas and you'll see the same attention to detail in each and every location . Start your Loopy experience with queso flammeado and guacamole , along with a classic frozen margarita . Dine on famous Loopy beef and chicken fajitas , or pepper shrimp brochette , or a fish or vegetarian entree , and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert . Or a fish or vegetarian entree and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert . Find Loopy Tortilla in Houston , college Station , beaumont , austin , san Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth . There's a Texas location near you . The recipes are authentic and time-tested , the ingredients always fresh . Loopy Tortilla it's pretty good .

Speaker 1 19:08

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Speaker 1 19:35

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Speaker 4 20:20

Yeah , and it's not too pleasant for him because the Detroit Auto Show attendance plummeted as glory days fade for the Detroit Auto Show in Detroit .

Decline of the Detroit Auto Show

Speaker 4 20:32

Far more news was revealed at the Brussels Automotive Show and the Tokyo Auto Salon and even CES this past year . Most automakers have abandoned the event , leaving dealers to fill the gaps . Now we were just at ours Autobotive Show with Rochelle Salinas outstanding organization , fantastic show . But the Detroit Auto Show only attracted 275,000 visitors last month . That's a lot . It's down a half a million . Since previous years they were topping out at some big numbers . So the Detroit Auto Show used to be a can't-miss event and its return was barely worth mentioning . The Ford Mustang RTR and the Mustang GTD , Spirit of America , were introduced ahead of the event , leaving the North American Car Utility and Truck of the Year Awards as the only worthwhile news on the media day . Amazing To say , it wasn't worth attending and we're openly questioning whether or not the Detroit Auto Show was dead . We're getting a resounding answer and it's time to break out the defibrillator and catheter , because the event is on life support catheter . I wrote that .

Speaker 4 21:35

Well , while organizers tried to put in a positive spin on things , the numbers are truly terrible . Over the course of 11 days , 275 000 people attended . As the detroit free press noted the pales . In comparison to the 780 000 people who attended in previous years , that's a staggering decline . As a result , it's hard to judge and make up the lackluster lineup and the return to January has impacted everything . Despite the awful attendance , organizers proclaimed it was one of the largest auto shows in the US . However , the numbers aren't much to brag about . In the former Motor City , Juul barely beat the 2024 Chicago Auto Show . The Chicago one was shorter by a day and it attracted 260,000 guests , so it was a little bit more and less days . The lackluster showing isn't much of a surprise for most automakers . It declined to Detroit and it was a worthy effort to do it , but as a result , dealers , four indoor tracks and randomness included the Army , the Marines and a Polish investment and trade agency helped fill the leftover space on the board .

Speaker 1 22:44

Did they have any ?

Speaker 4 22:44

pierogies in there . I hope they did , because those are awesome .

Speaker 1 22:46

This didn't stop officials from proclaiming what is the whole thing with the dinosaurs ?

Speaker 4 22:50

there . I don't know , it's just some event that this , whatever Ford or whoever , well , I was just going to say because , like a dinosaur , Is that like a Bronco back there ? I don't know it could be a Bronco . They didn't stop officials from proclaiming that the show had a true energy and a robust lineup of vehicles . While that's enough to make your eyes roll , the event had estimated economic impact of $370 million .

Speaker 2 23:15

It cost them that much , that is actually down .

Speaker 4 23:17

Organizers also said there were 34 brands on display as well as nearly 500 vehicles . They're turning it into a different kind of show , evidently . The latter figure appears to include 150 modified personal vehicles that were shown in partnership with Modded Detroit . That's a club , evidently , there . While it's easy to write off the show as a major disappointment , the charity preview raised $1.7 million for the children's charities around the area . That's good news , although the show's future looks far from bright if things do not improve . With all this being said , is the detroit auto show dead or is it just transitioning into a post auto show era ? Uh , not much new , and it's hard to justify a trip to the motor city .

Speaker 1 24:02

That's a shame yeah , it really is all right time now for this hour's car review . Mr mars has the chevy traverse he wants to talk to you about . All right , michael yeah , buddy .

Speaker 2 24:11

So I was really interested in this vehicle because we had kind of a run with the Chevrolets and this is the 2025 Chevrolet Traverse High Country . Now , this is a new trim level . This year it's been available in several other vehicles . They dropped their baseline and kept it at four trim levels by including the High Country . It's an LT , a Z71 , the , the new high country , and then there's the rs uh , the one we had . The high country is front wheel drive . There is an all-wheel drive available now .

Speaker 2 24:39

This is classified as a standard suv three row . Now I would look at it as a mid-size but , being that's what the government calls it , that's what the government calls it , it is a seven passenger seating in this vehicle . Up front you're going to find the LED lighting all around . You've got the walk up and the exit lighting that comes on whenever you're approaching or getting out of it , which makes it kind of nice if you're out in the dark world . It's got the trailer and package , and I mention that here because it has the hitch view and hitch guidance option that comes with that . And when you look at this vehicle , it's got a lot of nice lines to it and you look at the size of it it's . Technically it is actually on the same wheelbase as the Tahoe , but it's not as long . The body's not as long but it is the same wheelbase . It came with roof rails . It's got the hands-free liftgate , which works extremely well , as in , you get out of the driver's pass and you run around the back of it to run into the store . If you walk too close you might look behind you and see your lift gates open , or you might come out of the store and the lift gates open because you didn't realize it opened up . But it works really well .

Speaker 2 25:41

We were rolling on some 22-inch wheels that were really nice , absorbed a lot of the road imperfections . Getting inside of it . We had the leather seating . Now the front is heated and ventilated . The second row was the bucket seats and both of them are heated , and the third row is a one-touch fold flat . That's pretty easy to get into .

Speaker 2 25:58

We had the 11-inch driver display . Now this is a big screen for the driver to configure however you want your information , your speedometer and everything . But in the middle was this big 17.7-inch LCD display where you're going to find your nav system , your convenience controls , all those kind of things that you're going to be looking for , easy to find here Now . It does have the wireless cell phone charging , with Apple , android and Google's making some inroads into the GM . It has a digital rearview mirror , which works really well , and a Bose 10-speaker audio system . Now , up under the hood , the only thing you're going to find in a Traverse , regardless of the trim level , is a 2.5-liter turbo that does have 328 horsepower , 326 pound-feet of torque , which is pretty good for an inline-four . Eight-speed automatic transmission in this vehicle , with the trailering package will tow 5,000 pounds . This EPA says . In the city city you should be looking for 20 , the highway 27 , and then combined 23 . Now I drove this vehicle . I enjoyed driving this vehicle . I drove it 490.7 miles Dang .

Speaker 1 27:02

Nice , where'd you ?

Speaker 2 27:03

go . I had to park it . Well , I came here , went to the beach . I mean I had fun . I liked driving this vehicle . I got 21.8 miles per gallon across that and I thought that was pretty good . You know , hauling kids around , grandkids and everything .

Speaker 4 27:17

Again it's comparable .

Speaker 2 27:19

I've got grandkids . Do you have kids ? No , yes , I do . They're grown , he's not sure . I kind of skip them and go straight to the grandkids nowadays . So again , it's comparable in size to me , to the Tahoe . The Tahoe is actually physically bigger but it gets the same wheelbase and it's got a much more CUV type ride , because it is more of a CUV than the Tahoe is or the Suburban or those kinds of vehicles . But body-wise the Tahoe is like seven inches longer .

Speaker 2 27:47

Just to give you an idea , now the base model price on this vehicle is $40,600 . Now the trim price for the High Country starts at $53,600 . But because everything that was on it is part of that trim package , there's really no options . So the MSRP is at $54,995 . If you're looking for something to compare it to , the Kia Tay ride starts at $36,390 . The Palisade from Hyundai starts at $37,000 . And the Toyota Grand Highlander is at $40,000 . So they're all pretty comparable in price riding through there . But I did enjoy this vehicle and I think if I was looking for a three-row midsize or standard size vehicle , I would definitely encourage you to look at that one . I liked it .

Speaker 1 28:31

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Speaker 1 29:36

The award-winning In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show now reaches 5.3 million folks each year . Check us out on InWheelTimecom , the Odyssey Radio app , youtube , Facebook and just about every other entertainment source out there , including our live broadcast every Saturday 10 to noon Central Time . The In Wheel Time Car Talk Show has informative automotive guest interviews , new car reviews , along with popular features , including Jeff's Car Culture , the latest new cars , cruise ins and racing dates . It's InWheelTimecom . Join us . That's it for this podcast episode of the In Wheel Time Car Show . I'm Don Armstrong , inviting you to join us for our live show every Saturday morning on Facebook , youtube , twitch and our InWheelTimecom website . Podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts , spotify , stitcher , iheart Podcast , podcast Addict , tunein , pandora and Amazon Music . Keep listening and we'll see you soon .