Whether you’re doing a traditional sale or an auction, the number one priority between having the listing go live and having the title signed over is making sure nothing happens to the car. Partly because you still have a soft spot for the machine you’re selling but largely because you want the sale process to be as easy as possible. Fixing anything on a deadline already sucks, but fixing something on a deadline for someone else? Woof. As such, it’s not uncommon for cars up for sale to remain parked until they’re sold because the world is a wild place, as one Bring A Trailer seller recently experienced.
The subject of this tale is a Ford Econoline van. I know, you’re probably picturing the somewhat nondescript white fleet vehicle that launched thousands of bands’ touring careers and served as faithful fleet vehicles for hundreds of thousands. This isn’t that sort of Ford Econoline, nor is it one of those decked-out ’90s conversion vans with a VCR.
Instead, it’s a pristine 1972 Econoline E-200 Club Wagon Chateau, heavy emphasis on pristine. With just 1,800 miles on the clock when it went up for auction, this might’ve been the nicest van of its sort on Earth. From the blue paint to the gleaming chrome, this really was a case of find-another because genuinely, you won’t.
Understandably, with a vehicle of this caliber, the seller did everything right. An enormous image gallery of more than 370 photographs, paint meter readings, walkaround videos, basically the whole nine yards. The only thing that was missing was a driving video. Bidding quickly crept up past the $30,000 mark, but five days into the auction, disaster struck.
On May 9, the seller of this lovely Ford Econoline popped into the comments section and wrote the following:
Good morning, unfortunately yesterday when I had the van out to do a driving video, I was involved in an accident when elderly man pulled out in front of me. @BaT has been notified. Until we deal with the insurance company which should be fun, I have no idea at this time what the final outcome will be on what we do with the van. Thank you all for the bids and the kind comments it deservedly received! I’m sure after seeing this you all feel as sick as I do at the moment. To all the moms out there have a Happy Mother’s Day!
Oh. Oh no. Understandably, this update came with some photographic evidence and the pictures are as soul-crushing as you can imagine.
There’s some bad news and good news here. The good news is that if the van was on an agreed value policy, it’s unlikely to be totalled. The bad news is 1: Just look at it, and 2: It won’t ever quite be the same. Understandably, Bring A Trailer withdrew the auction on Monday, but that still leaves the seller with a dented van to fix.
Now, Bring A Trailer’s been around long enough and moved enough metal that this isn’t the first time a car’s been damaged before the hammer dropped. If you’ve been a reader for a while, you might remember that in 2025, a remarkably nice Corolla wagon got rear-ended while it was up for auction. That one really sucked, partly because it wasn’t a hugely valuable vehicle to begin with and partly because the crash rippled the quarter panel, making the necessary repair far more expensive than a light bumper cover tap.
In a similar vein, a DeTomaso Pantera that would go on to be owned by Ford CEO Jim Farley was damaged during a test drive in 2018 when it was up for auction on Bring A Trailer. As the seller wrote:
Full disclosure: a potential buyer was test driving it, and I was in the passenger seat. Going onto the highway, too much power was put down on tires that weren’t hot enough. We spun facing traffic and a van swiped the side at highway speed. No one hurt, and the damage is cosmetic only
Visually, it was a pretty unfortunate hit, denting the right door and quarter panel and trading some paint. Sure, sheet metal can be massaged back to its intended contouring and paint can be reapplied, but that doesn’t make this incident suck any less.
Anyway, let this be a periodic reminder of the risks that can surface when selling a car. Fingers crossed the owner of this Econoline can have it back in fighting form soon, with the sort of panel-beating and paintwork that suits such a well-kept example.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
when i traded in my clapped out 08 escape that had a loose connection in the key switch so it didnt start all the time, dripped numerous fluids, rusted to hell, etc, the dealer offered me 8k for it, when i was expecting 800. i drove that thing directly to my parents house, and parked it in the garage for the week and a half for the new car to arrive
I have an 08 Escape and uh…where’s this dealer at?
Asking for…myself.
That dealer is now out of business They over paid on too many clapped out 08 Escapes
So sad, this is why the moment my car is on the auction site I consider it sold and it is not to be touched/moved/driven etc
That also means you have to have all of your driving videos and what not done in advance. There will always be a commenter that asks for some insane thing you’ve never thought about before but that’s the game. If it isn’t anything insane, photo it but if it requires pulling the vehicle out on the road politely decline, tell them they’re welcome to see the vehicle in person and address it there.
I need to see you doing a burnout in the vehicle whilst balancing a spoon on your head before I put in a bid
no joke when I sold my rather rare stone white 96 viper rt/10 someone asked me if the transmission was strong enough to do a burnout
“There will always be a commenter that asks for some insane thing you’ve never thought about before but that’s the game”
When I’ve sold vehicles and got idiots like that, I generally tell them to go pound sand.
no joke when I sold my rather rare stone white 96 viper rt/10 someone asked me if the transmission was strong enough to do a burnout
A whole article on the subject and no mention a rust-free J10 for sale with some tree damage?
I have no idea where you could possibly find a grille for something like that at this point.
That last drive to Carvana to drop off the car they are buying from you is the riskiest ride of all. Seems like the whole world becomes an obstacle course just trying to get you.
I had a Ukrainian chap working for me recently who’d been in the middle of selling a rare classic Soviet-era shit heap when Putin started a war with his country, and it got destroyed by an airstrike. I think it might be somewhat hyperbolic to call a bit of fixable bodywork damage ‘the worst thing that can happen’.
That got a guilty chuckle from me. Obviously a terrible situation for your guy but I’m imagining someone telling the van owner “at least it wasn’t blown off the face of the earth by Putin”
I’m going to run a bit contrary to the typical ‘Enthusiast’, get a bit on my soapbox and try and make a point that this isn’t a big deal. I know for this van it’s a rare, low mileage classic in pristine condition and it’s a shame that this happened, but it’s apparently insured and it doesn’t sound as if anyone was hurt in the accident so I’m going to go, oh well. I know it’s an inconvenience (more likely a big pain in the ass) for this seller, yes, it may slightly effect this van’s value (but given the nature of the accident and the vehicles low mileage and rarity, I doubt it as long as it’s repaired well, especially at auction) yes, it’s a pain to get it repaired, yes it’s a hassle, but what in life isn’t nowdays? Shit happens and you just deal with it.
I know people, especially enthusiasts, often view their cars more as member of the family than vehicles and I’m no different. I’ve been very attached to many of my cars and even shed some tears when selling them. When I traded in my old MPV that I had brought 3 of my kids home from the hospital in as newborns, I actually sat in the parking lot of the dealership for a few minutes and sad goodbye to her. I love my Miata and when someone did a hit and run on her I was of course pissed off at the damage that I would now be on the hook for (under the deductible, of course).
But after cooling off, I told myself the same thing I told my daughter when she backed into a relative’s car at a family cookout, damaging both vehicles. She was sobbing from embarrassment and was upset about her car which was the first one she had bought herself. I told her that yes it sucks, but in the end a car is just a machine. It’s designed and built to fulfill a need, it gets used, it gets damaged and repaired while preforming that task, it wares out and it ultimately gets replaced.
Yes, some small number of cars are also investments, but like many investments, they have insurance to cover life’s unforeseen events. Yes, someone of us put a lot of heart and soul into our cars and potentially a tremendous amount of work and money, but I think for most of us, that process, that creation, is part of the enjoyment, isn’t it? The journey, so to speak, not the destination.
In the end, this van is a machine, it broke, it will get fixed, and someone new will enjoy it on their journey. My $0.02.
I agree. My go to phrase is ‘at least it’s only metal’.
I get attached to my cars as well. But one thing that I put into the whole anthropomorphization mix is that cars have purposes. Cars are happy to drive you along, and they are happy to serve the purpose they have in life. Getting into an accident is part of the risks for that purpose, and as long as you walk away from it, the car served it’s purpose. It is more than happy to take that crash if it means saving you from injury or death.
I got into accidents before, and in my mind I always pictured it as a friend taking a bullet for me, and if I could help the friend recover, all the better – if not, my friend went down fufling its purpose.
I know it is corny, but it is how my mind works. Things have the meaning we attribute to them, right?
I need to hear this from time to time to balance out the pain of damaging an irreplaceably original car.
Are the cobblestone floormats ok?
Deep cut
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek
and of course, that’ll buff right out 😛
Oooooh nooo. That super sucks. I hope they’re able to pull it back into shape and get it into the hands of a happy new owner soon.
This is why you get a classic car policy, which I’m assuming the owner of this van has. I got my 72 Super Beetle insured through Hagerty, it’s about the same per month as straight liability but full coverage, including being able to keep the car should it be totaled. I did it all online in about ten minutes, I set the agreed upon value and it went through with no issues.
I’m going to get a similar policy for my recently acquired 97 F150, technically it’s a classic but really it’s just my beater truck. But full coverage is full coverage.
Don’t forget to check the riders on the policy? If you are paying for a classic car policy you need to use it as a classic car. No trips to the store, no more than 5,000 miles, when I last had one, if you’re using it for store runs your payout is zero and possibly insurance fraud if you make a claim
That is not what the language on my Beetle’s policy says, I specifically checked to make sure. I am allowed to use it for more than just leisure–all they wanted to know was how many miles a year I drive it, which I answered honestly. It sees maybe 500 miles a year, which is likely why I got a favorable rate. If I remember correctly there were several policy options, ranging from what you said, leisure only, to a more conventional policy for those who daily their classics.
Cammisa? Is that you?
Remember that classic car insurance comes with heavy restrictions on how you can use it, so a beater truck might not qualify…
When I insured the Beetle, the only restriction on the policy I got was a mileage limit. It wasn’t like registering something as a collector vehicle with the state, where they say it’s only for shows/leisure, etc. I won’t be driving the truck more than probably 1,500 miles a year.
So you’re saying the brakes could be better.
Drum brakes all around.
I thought it was going to be more bizarre with the chrome something happening in the background like people selling mirrors on marketplace. A guy that connected to find all these low milage vehicles has to know various body guys that can repair it. Sad especially if you think about the old guy thinking oh just an old van but an old van with 1800 mi.
This “pixelating the lead photo“ thing feels like a yucky cousin to “this one weird thing causes heart attacks in seniors“.
I agree. I haven’t liked the trend. It’s not about entertaining & educating & whatever that third E is (enlighten?). It’s about getting you to click.
We’re already here you guys. We *want* to know what happened, you don’t have to trick us into finding out.
I agree and I expect better from the Autopian.
I don’t mind it as much because it serves a narrative. Also, I suspect most of the clicks are coming from inside the house – I wonder what percentage is even from content aggregations and the like, where click bait makes any difference.
Well, at least he’s got some auction data to help establish a value for insurance (hopefully that’s not an issue and he had an agreed-value policy). Better to have a finished auction, but it’s better than nothing.
Is it any better if the accident happened soon after I won and registered my auction car? (Pouring one out for myself and the poor Mazdaspeed3 I won that got rear ended right after I got my vanity plates installed)
Noooooooooo
I love a good MS3, that aches all the way over here
I think this is a perfectly reasonable excuse to respond to random people on BAT asking for driving videos to be told “No Thanks”
It’s not like people at Mecum or Sothebys get driving videos, etc.
Though if a seller declined a driving video, prospective bidders will suspect mechanical issues with the car (even if this is not the case). You have to imagine yourself on the other side, what would you be thinking if the seller said “no”? Ideally though, a driving video will be included in the initial auction filing.
Driving videos, cold start videos, taking the car to a lift for undercar pics etc should just be standard homework done before the auction goes up. Once the auction is up, just don’t drive the car. You don’t want to keep changing the mileage in the auction anyway.
There are many reasons to tell all the non-bidding know-it-alls in the BAT comments to STFU.
For the most part, their history only consist of joke bids (like $964 on a Porsche 911) and they criticize every car like they’re judging a concourse.
If a seller said, “No thanks,” if I asked for some rolling shots, I definitely wouldn’t bid on it. That said, I also wouldn’t go record rolling shots for an auction that’s already live because that would be the time I’d have somebody hit me.
The dim light and angle in the garage really changes those colors—you cant even tell it’s two-tone.
I have a car going up for auction next week. I hadn’t even considered this possibility.
Sleep well 🙂
Well then… do your driving video now.
I’m going to go home tonight and wax that little thin spot in my trucks paint and tell it everything is going to be alright.
That’s doing it “right”? 😮
If we think of the six exterior sides and the six interior sides (front, back, left, right, top, bottom), that’s over 30 pictures for every. single. side. Yes, this is an unusually nice vehicle; it’s still excessive IMO.
Even if we skew toward more interior pics than exterior, and allow for some shots of the engine compartment, how in the heck could there be any utility after the 200th picture??
Archive pics for other restorers? Absolutely. Sentimental value? Sure. But in an ad? Get out of here with that nonsense.
I look at a lot of BaT auctions and for the most part, the more a seller wants, the more photos they post. This is not to say that “more photos = more money,” but the preponderance of photos is essentially saying “look at all the detail; I’ve omitted nothing, there’s no way I’m hiding a blemish.” Many auctions with single- or even double-digit images either fail to make reserve (in the case of absentee “I know what I’ve got” sellers) or end up adding photos to appease requests for additional detail in the comments.
If you expect to sell for top dollar, expect to jump through a lot of hoops to assure bidders that they’re getting a fair shake.
I understand that people want to know about the vehicles they’re considering, but again, what are they going to learn from photo #370 that they couldn’t have learned by photo #150?
This is An Van, not an aircraft carrier. There simply isn’t enough there to require so many pics. But let’s talk about the value angle.
Right now on a BaT featured auction there is a 1965 Porsche 356: 80 pictures.
A 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS: 206 pictures
A 2013 McLaren 12C Spider: 65 pictures
A Boattail Speedster-Bodied 1931 Cadillac 370A V-12: 70 pictures
Heck, there’s a 12k-Mile 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and even that has only 286 pictures.
If those sellers ^^^ can get their points across, surely Vanseller can do the same. Or are they all doing it wrong? 🙂
You’ve done your homework, so I’ll let the sellers defend themselves, but suffice to say “they must have their reasons” and then I’ll agree with you!
*friendly fistbump of agreement*
The “homework” was pretty easy: I just watched the features feed and picked cars that looked interesting 😀
Who will be the first to whip out a 3d scanner and post gaussian splats?
Heck, at that point, I’d just buy the hologram. Just as functional as a high-value garage queen at a fraction of the price!
Does your hologram have AI? It can only be acceptable to me if it has AI
/jk
I’m sorry… but that’s not good enough. I expect you to disassemble the vehicle and 3D scan each part individually JUST IN CASE I want to recreate a given part… not that I ever would.
I think the sweet spot is somewhere over 100, but less than 150. Too few shots leaves me wondering, but who has the time to pore over hundreds of pictures.
It’s the antidote to the fact these auctions involve buying a vehicle sight unseen, and for the money that changes hands, the photos are there in lieu of the buyer getting to crawl around with a flashlight to check the spring perches, brake pads, balljoints, tire manufacture dates, crimp connections, spare tire securing components, owner’s manual, all the crap you’d want to look at if someone was selling you a classic car and asking top dollar.
Extraordinary claims (e.g. “my 70 year old van is in pristine condition and deserves to command a higher price than most”) require extraordinary evidence (e.g. photos of every nook and cranny where rust might form).
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of those photos were of paperwork, receipts or even photos taken during the restoration.
That’s rough. On the other hand, maybe I can afford it now that it’s damaged?
As someone who has it in their screename….think of the vans!!!
Well that’s a heart-breaking way to end my day.
I audibly gasped at my desk after I saw the damage.
Hence, why the picture was pixellated in the first place! We can’t just click on that…we need to prepare ourselves!
Heavens to betsy, my lawd, yes suh.
Think of the children!