[nmoreilly]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1970-pontiac-gto-84/

[4dblnkldude]

Effing thing is so sexy.

[vertigto]

Hard to believe that it only went for $105K...the market must be soft, as it was superb.

[nmoreilly]

Agree, I thought it was going to go for much more. Has original block, trans and carb I believe too.

[Verdoro 68]

I feel like it's perpetually been for sale for the last 10 years. At one point it was at a classic car dealer local to me. Not sure why it can't find a good home, it's a nice car.

[nmoreilly]

Just puzzling that less original 69/70 RAIV cars have gone for substantially more money at some of the other auctions. Seen a number of RAIII Judges go for strong $. - granted the hats a different market I guess., sometimes it may just come down to timing and personal taste

[vertigto]

I know if it were mine, I wouldn't have let it go for that amount.

[Verdoro 68]

I suspect the green on green brings it down. It was listed for $137k when it was near me a few years ago. I have no idea what it actually sold for.

https://classiccars.com/listings/vie...lifornia-94533

[JacintasHot]

If that car is as nice as the previous owners of it claim, I'd say it was probably a good deal for someone

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

It was a great deal .
But it was a soft color combo.
The green interior hurts more than anything on this particular car.
Not enough people wanted that combo nor wanted to pay that much more for it.

a 69 Ram4 Automatic Convertible fresh frame off went RNM for less than 110k at Mecum recently.
soft color combo and wire hubcaps.
Same auction another 69 Ram4 Auto Convertible sold for mid to upper 200's.
better combo

I think a set of R2's and RWL tires would have helped the Pepper Car do a lot better.
If it had been factory Atoll Blue or OrbitOrange it would have went 150-200k

[JacintasHot]

The biggest injustice to me would be if it were equipped with a TH400.
An M4 is the only way to go with this car
Because it is equipped as such, color be damned

[SD455DJ]

BVZ, I thought I would fill in a little more information about OE Coe Pontiac from your post on the BaT RAIV GTO.

Orson E. Coe Pontiac was down 28th St. from Berger Chevrolet by 1000’ to the east and on the same side of the road. We grew up just a few miles from the dealerships, so we would ride our bicycles there to check out the new muscle cars. I can recall a dozen or so ’69 SS Chevelles all parked in a row in front of the showroom…what great memories! OE Coe Pontiac-GMC wasn’t necessarily known for exotic Pontiac stock other than standard equipped GTO’s, Firebird 400’s, and Trans Ams, but not very many at that. When Dan & I were of working (and driving) age in 1971, we both got jobs at the McDonald’s across the street from OE Coe.

One Saturday afternoon in late summer 1972, an older gentleman came in to order lunch and came to my register (‘window’ in McD’s speak at the time). He was very polite and friendly and introduced himself as Orson E. Coe, the owner of the Pontiac dealership across the street. He told me about that the new Trans Ams in new colors were really exciting and creating a lot of showroom traffic. He didn’t mention anything about the SD-455 engine, but said they had all 3 color TA’s in the showroom.

Another story about ’70 RAIV GTO’s from OE Coe, there were at least 2 Pepper Green on green interior M21 RAIV GTO’s in the area. Dan almost bought one in 1973 with around 12,000 miles and very clean. He passed and bought a ’71 Laurentian Green base GTO (3-speed/400/3.55 open) at Berger’s used car lot instead, since he wasn’t impressed with the RAIV’s performance! Little did we know then…! This RAIV was equipped with Rally II’s, AM/FM, PS, PDB, etc. unlike the BaT RAIV GTO. We may have seen the BAT car, but it was ordered to have mag wheels and gauges added, pretty common for the day.

One of the green GTO’s got rear-ended pretty hard a year later (1974) as we saw it on a lift at the Firestone Tire garage (probably the car's owner worked there). Looked like the right rear quarter, bumper and deck lid were damaged. We saw it at night after they were closed when we were cruising around in our mom’s ’71 red on red Gremlin X.

Dennis

[J GLASGO]

Great story Dennis. Funny how Dan wasn’t impressed with the RA4 performance. We have worked on several in our days that were sleepy to say the least!

[J GLASGO]

Great story Dennis. Funny how Dan wasn’t impressed with the RA4 performance. We have worked on several in our days that were sleepy to say the least!

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Thanks Dennis.
The info I got was from a lawsuit stemming from Coe taking over the Pontiac dealer in 1966.
There was a dispute over additional land rights that were promised to be included.
Coe won the battle eventually around 1971.
He didn't get the land use , but was awarded monetary for breach of contract.

Evidently there was an empty lot adjacent or joining that Coe had full intentions of expanding the dealership on from the get-go.

It mentioned Berger Chevrolet in the dispute as a point of location reference.
That REALLY caught my eye.
Wasn't expecting that !

I thought it said "across" from Berger
But maybe it said adjacent .... Or something

I found it by googling Orson Coe Pontiac

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Not being able to expand probably cost Coe some small fortune in lost revenues.
You can't always sell it if you don't have it on the lot.

It seemed like the empty lot began to get used for soil supply while Coe was in negotiations.
(as in - they were digging out soil to use elsewhere)
Making the land useless for his needs.

The guy who Coe was opposing in their agreement - turns out did not even own that piece.
BUT , that guy could have bought it before the excavations started - and made the deal whole.
Coe evidently felt he should not have been required to buy the lot himself , since it was part of the land lease agreement he was already paying for.

But evidently he would have been better off to have bought it himself before it got ruined.

I detected some dirty deeds were at hand all around .
Spite and abuse of power comes to mind.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Some guy with a Hemi sumthinganother that was sold new at Grand Spaulding and was a dealer ordered inventory "lot car" was arguing that the 70 Pepper Green Ram4 could have just as easily been a "lot car" like his Grand Spaulding Hemi-Car was.
With another couple guys on B@T .

I was just providing some pro & con data to those guys.
Don't think Coe was a Pontiac Powerhouse Dealer comparable to Spaulding or Berger , or Royal or Knafel .

[SD455DJ]

Thanks BVZ for that info...I never knew about the land issue, but I'm assuming it must have been the property immediately to the east along the street that was vacant that I recall at the time. That property has a couple of lame storefront businesses that I'm surprised they haven't gone belly up after all these years. I know that there was an expansion to the north (the back) later when it came under new ownership in 2001.

Do you have a link to that lawsuit info? I'd like to look at that now that you got me interested...lol!

OE Coe was definitely not a performance image dealership, but the only Pontiac dealer in the Grand Rapids area at the time, so a lot of special order cars did roll out of there. I had an '70 Atoll Blue RAIV M21 GTO that needs restoration yet, but all numbers matching. I remember that car being driven to the community college and parking on the street that we walked along to go to classes. We found it in a Chicken coop in Holland, MI in the early 1990's.

Dennis

[Held for Ransom]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Thanks BVZ for that info...I never knew about the land issue, but I'm assuming it must have been the property immediately to the east along the street that was vacant that I recall at the time. That property has a couple of lame storefront businesses that I'm surprised they haven't gone belly up after all these years. I know that there was an expansion to the north (the back) later when it came under new ownership in the 1990's, or so.

Do you have a link to that lawsuit info? I'd like to look at that now that you got me interested...lol!

OE Coe was definitely not a performance image dealership, but the only Pontiac dealer in the Grand Rapids area at the time, so a lot of special order cars did roll out of there. I had an '70 Atoll Blue RAIV M21 GTO that needs restoration yet, but all numbers matching. I remember that car being driven to the community college and parking on the street that we walked along to go to classes. We found it in a Chicken coop in Holland, MI in the early 1990's.

Dennis

There's this one...
https://law.justia.com/cases/michiga...ich-195-2.html

[SD455DJ]

Thanks for posting the link HFR! OK, now it’s more clear, not to mention very interesting. The ‘new’ OE Coe Pontiac dealership was to go kiddie-corner (SW) of Berger Chevrolet, and to replace the Goodwin Pontiac that was originally planned for that site. It looks like the property size and configuration was misrepresented by Goodwin and that eventually was what won the case in favor of Coe. As a result of the on-going lawsuit, OE Coe bought land further to the east (current location). I never knew that happened. \

I forgot that Goodwin Pontiac was in ‘downtown’ Grand Rapids and the neighborhood was changing rapidly, and not for the better. I believe the ’70 Atoll blue RAIV GTO I had (sold it 10 years ago) was from Goodwin Pontiac on Madison Ave. as mentioned in the trial brief. It looks like OE Coe bought the Goodwin business in the late '60's, then wanted to by their property in the 'burbs.

Dennis