Ashish Talwar, one of the owners of Merit Cars in College Point, doesn’t buy classic cars at auctions, because you can’t really get to know much about the vehicles. Merit Cars, however, specializes in providing information and images and inspecting its cars to sell to buyers nationwide and worldwide who often never see the actual vehicle – before it’s theirs.
The 20-year-old company sells classic cars to buyers locally and worldwide, including some who hire inspectors to evaluate.
Photo by Claude Solnik
“We don’t do too much work on the cars,” Talwar said. “We buy the cars and sell them. Our aim is to provide the best and most comprehensive information about a car that we give to the purchaser.”
They buy from private owners, inspect and give information to reach an international audience.
“We have a fantastic mechanic and good staff,” he said. “We go through the whole car, put it on a lift. We check everything and give a better packet of information.”
They have 45 vehicles in their inventory now, parked and on lifts in a kind of classic car paradise.
Virtual viewings
They typically provide 150 pictures of cars from every angle: outside, inside, closeups, showing numbers, with videos of cars running, driving and pictures of cars’ undersides, as well as hard and cloth tops.
“Ninety-five percent of our cars are bought sight unseen. We provide so much information on our website.”
They buy nationwide, with a little more than 1% from nearby, selling less than 1% in New York State, as well as nationwide and in nearly 45 countries.
Photo by Claude Solnik
“We have bought so many cars from Queens,” he added. “We advertise we want to buy cars. That means people have these cars in their garage.”
About 90% of their customers are male, and as many as half are collectors, with three or more cars.
Classic cars often go for much less than new because many have serious mileage. A 1989 Mercedes 560S with 77,000 miles and two owners, for instance, goes for $16,950.
Car categories
Those who want to spend less can buy cars billed as projects, which can have broken windshields and other problems.
“The car has been sitting in somebody’s garage for 30 years,” Talwar said. “It was his grandfather’s car. Nobody wants it in the family or the family doesn’t know much about the car, so they sell it.”
Photo by Claude Solnik
Talwar walks past dozens of classic cars, such as a “project” version of a Lotus Europa made in England that could easily sell for $40,000 in good shape.
“We’re selling a project. This has been standing for more than 20 years,” he said. “The windshield has been broken, but it’s complete and intact. We’re selling it for $10,000. If the engine has been swapped, we don’t touch it.”
Driver quality vehicles, their most popular segment, are better, running and driving, but not meant for daily use.
“Those are people who want to buy a weekend car,” he said. “They want to grab a coffee, take it to a show, go out for ice cream or cruise side roads or backroads.”
The top segment, including show winners and expensive or rare cars, is also known as trailer queens.
“Those people have put so much money in the car, they can’t even drive it,” he said. “Nobody should put a scratch on it.”
Trending
“Sometimes when I go to see the car, such a nice-looking car is in a parking garage,” he said. “I’ve seen cars in garages so beautiful and expensive that it boggles the mind.”
Photo by Claude Solnik
Long Island is full of expensive cars, with some beauties also in Queens. People call him up, saying there’s a Porsche. “I’ll go to an ordinary-looking garage,” Talwar continued. “There’s a beautiful Porsche standing there.”
He gestures to a board where he has listed what he considers hot, trending cars, such as a Mazda Miata 1990-1999; Mustangs 1964-1972; Corvette C2 and C3; Alfa Romeo GTV 1969—1972, Porsche 911 and others. He said sometimes designs in particular years are more popular.
“Mustangs after 1972, the body style changed,” he said. “The demand for that cratered.”
The Volvo P1800 is a “very sporty-looking Volvo” that was featured in the TV series “The Saint” with Roger Moore. It’s also the car in the Guinness Book of World Records lists for the highest mileage ever for a single car, at 3 million miles.
Trending cars
While many things motivate buyers, Talwar believes one thing drives most sales and the desire to own classics.
Photo by Claude Solnik
“Nostalgia is the number one thing,” he said. “In the top segment, it can be an investment. People can buy a Ferrari. You know it’s going to appreciate in value. Rare Ferraris prices shoot up so fast.”
Cars in the driver segment typically relate to cars people remember from when they were younger.
“When they were growing up, these are the cars they saw other people driving,” he said. “When I grow up and have some money, I’ll buy this car.”
Maintenance
They try to sell and buy one to two cars daily, finding them all over, including people responding to their marketing as buyers.
More than half of these cars use carburetors, while fuel injection is the norm today, so you need specialized mechanics.
“You need a good mechanic who knows about old cars,” he said. “Not every mechanic can work on these cars.”
You might think “upgrades” would be good, but collectors like an authentic engine and look.
Photo by Claude Solnik
‘The value of the car remains only if it is kept original,” he said. “The moment you try to modify it too much, the value will tank.”
Movie star cars
Some of the hottest cars were used in movies, such as the Mercedes 450SL, featured in movies in the 1970s and 1980s, such as “American Gigolo.”
The movie “Corvette Summer” further boosted interest in Corvettes. “When I saw the movie when I was young, I thought I’m going to go to America and drive a red Corvette,” Talwar said.
When Dustin Hoffman drove an Alfa Romeo in “The Graduate,” that boosted sales of Alfa Romeo sales, which released a model called The Graduate.
“It’s the same model he drove in the movie. They made it slightly cheaper and put an emblem on the back, calling it The Graduate.”
The Fast and the Furious movie franchise also boosts particular cars, but movie cars dating back to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate are still hot.
“That is one of the Graduates, the black one Dustin Hoffman drove,” Talwar said. “We have two of them right now.”