{"id":742606,"date":"2026-06-17T15:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/742606\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T15:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T15:46:09","slug":"what-this-finance-professional-learned-from-inheriting-one-of-her-fathers-vintage-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/742606\/","title":{"rendered":"What this finance professional learned from inheriting one of her father\u2019s vintage cars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The beneficiary: \u201cGillian\u201d is a single 60-year-old finance professional who splits her time between a Toronto condo and her cottage north of the city. Her father, not rich but sufficiently \u201cwise with his funds,\u201d collected cars starting in the mid-seventies right up into the early 2000s. Those years brought more than 30 cars that he parked in rented or borrowed garages, a converted barn and city parking lots in and around the Greater Toronto Area.<\/p>\n

The inheritance: Among the collection, the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me (to Gillian and her late father) was a 1965 Chrysler New Yorker that he bought off a Bay Street lot for $2,500 to fit his growing family. A decade later, with 200,000 miles (almost 322,000 kilometres) on the odometer, the car was almost sold for just $200. \u201cMy dad figured it was worth more than that just from a sentimental perspective so he covered it up in the barn,\u201d says Gillian. <\/p>\n

Sixty-two years later, the Chrysler\u2019s still going strong. \u201cIt\u2019s a very large, comfortable, 100-per-cent Canadian-made car with electric seats and windows \u2013 very luxurious for the era,\u201d she says. The car has been recently appraised at $30,000.<\/p>\n

What this 50-year-old plans to do with a $333,000 inheritance from her very frugal mother<\/a><\/p>\n

What she did with it: Though Gillian inherited her late father\u2019s love of restored classic cars, both father and daughter knew that she didn\u2019t want or need his whole collection. \u201cAs sad as I was to see them go, I was grateful that I wouldn\u2019t have to deal with a stable of cars on top of everything else,\u201d says Gillian, who was executor and primary caregiver for both of her parents. <\/p>\n

So when his health worsened and he wasn\u2019t confident driving any more, her father called a consignment seller to unload all the cars but one: the New Yorker, of course, perhaps because he didn\u2019t consider it his to sell. In the mid-eighties, after almost a decade in the barn, the car was unofficially gifted to Gillian to take to university. Before she took the wheel, it was completely mechanically repaired, refurbished and given a fresh paint coat of its original colour, Persian White. <\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s long graduated and had many cars in the meantime, her father still considered the New Yorker \u201cGillian\u2019s car.\u201d Thankfully her siblings agree: \u201cThey don\u2019t have the burning love for the classic-car hobby that I have,\u201d she says. \u201cSo there are no issues there.\u201d<\/p>\n

To prevent the car from becoming part of the estate, Gillian and her father trekked together to ServiceOntario a few years before he died to make her inheritance official. For the symbolic dollar that saves an interfamily car recipient from Retail Sales Tax, Gillian became the proud owner of the same car she\u2019d once happily ridden in as a toddler and drove to university.<\/p>\n

What this consultant did with an inherited artwork that ended up being worth millions<\/a><\/p>\n

What she learned: Unlike some who inherit vintage vehicles, Gillian already knew lots about old cars. \u201cThey\u2019re not like today\u2019s cars where you can be a complete idiot and still drive them,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no power steering or power brakes or power anything.\u201d Old cars also don\u2019t have airbags, crumple zones or anti-lock brakes, and if and when repairs are necessary, it is often difficult and expensive to source replacement parts. <\/p>\n

Gillian also couldn\u2019t just add her Chrysler to the car insurance she has for her \u201ceveryday car\u201d (a 2012 SUV). Her regular auto insurance doesn\u2019t cater to the classic-car market, so Gillian sought out a specialty insurer. \u201cIt\u2019s actually not as much as you\u2019d think, because you don\u2019t drive the car every day,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Gillian pays about $80 a month to cover the Chrysler and another classic car she\u2019s since added to her collection for parades, shows and touring. Soon she\u2019ll spend a week driving the Chrysler alongside like-minded friends from the Antique and Classic Car Club of Canada, staying at hotels along the way. When the Chrysler\u2019s not on display, it\u2019s stored either at Gillian\u2019s cottage or beneath her Toronto condo in one of five parking spots her father bought 30 years ago for $1,000 apiece \u2013 then and now, an undeniable bargain. <\/p>\n

Gillian plans to gift the car when the time comes to a family member who\u2019s expressed interest in it \u2013 but not without having a serious conversation first. \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to take a drive in a classic car and love it, but it\u2019s totally another to actually own and take care of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some details may be changed to protect the privacy of the person profiled. Have you recently received an inheritance and would like to participate in Inherited? Send us an e-mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The beneficiary: \u201cGillian\u201d is a single 60-year-old finance professional who splits her time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185,4825],"class_list":["post-742606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-r-fp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}