Buying Your First American Classic

The most expensive mistakes in this field are almost never made at the point of payment. They are made weeks earlier, in the decision about what to look for and who to trust.

Decide how you intend to use it

A vehicle bought for weekend drives on B roads, a vehicle bought for long summer touring, and a vehicle bought primarily as an object to own and appreciate are three different purchases. Power steering, front disc brakes, an overdrive gearbox and working air conditioning matter enormously in the first two cases and barely at all in the third. Being honest about use narrows the field faster than any other single decision.

Buy the body, then the history, then the mechanics

That order is deliberate. Engines, gearboxes, axles, brakes and interiors are all replaceable at known cost with parts that are widely available for most American classics. Structure is not. Documented history is not. Spend your scrutiny where money cannot easily undo the problem.

• Ask for underside photographs taken on a lift, in daylight, not on a driveway with a phone torch.
• Ask for the title, the registration history and any restoration invoices. Absence of paperwork is not automatically a problem, but it should be reflected in the price.
• Ask what has been replaced and what is original. A seller who can answer precisely is a seller who has looked.
• Ask for a cold start video. Much of an engine's condition reveals itself in the first thirty seconds.

Understand the true landed cost

The purchase price is one line of several. A vehicle imported from the United States also carries inland transport to the port, ocean freight, marine insurance, UK port and customs clearance charges, and then registration with the DVLA. Vehicles over thirty years old and in original specification are normally eligible for the reduced rate under commodity code 9705, which at the time of writing means no import duty and VAT at five per cent, but eligibility depends on the vehicle meeting the historic criteria and is assessed case by case. Newer or modified vehicles are charged at the standard rates instead, which changes the arithmetic substantially.

Once here, the vehicle needs an IVA exemption or the appropriate DVLA age related registration route, a British registration number, and insurance on an agreed value policy rather than a market value one. Budget for a full fluids and brakes service on arrival regardless of what the seller says. A vehicle that has crossed an ocean deserves fresh attention before it carries anybody.

The right question is never what does it cost. It is what will it cost to own it properly.

Pay for inspection before you pay for the car

An independent pre purchase inspection by somebody with no relationship to the seller is the cheapest insurance available in this market. It should include the vehicle on a lift, paint thickness readings across every panel, a compression or leak down test, a road test, and several hundred photographs. If a seller resists that, you have learned something important at no cost.

Buy the best example, not the cheapest entry

In every American classic category we follow, the exceptional example costs more at purchase and less over ownership, and it retains value far more reliably. The cheapest route into a model is almost always the most expensive way to own it. If the budget will not comfortably reach a good example of a given model, the better answer is usually a good example of a less expensive model.

That principle is the reason we exist. Every vehicle we present has already been through this process, so the buyer inherits the diligence rather than repeating it.