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by Bobby McCarthy
Copyright (c), 2003, My Daily Driver -- All Rights Reserved

As long as I have been associating myself with vintage cars, there has always been some type of "rating system." Now, I am sure that there is a standard industry excepted rating scale for these cars, but the interpretation of the scales always seems open to debate.

I have used professional appraisers to determine the condition, hence the value of my car. But this was purely based on the insuring of the vehicle. No sense insuring your car at a book value of $2500 when you just paid $5500. Right? Since the insurance folks don't give a hoot about your opinion, a $75 accredited appraiser will get your point across. The few times that I have purchased the services of one of these accredited appraisers, I was slightly disappointed with their findings. I know these professionals are trained to view your car in an unbiased manner, but that doesn't mean they can't hurt your feelings. These professionals use the standard 1-6 scale to evaluate your car. Now here is where things get a little vague for me. If you are positively clear on this scale or you are as unsure as I am, you may want to pay close attention. As always, feel free to send us your feedback.

All Right, let's start with the ominous number 1 condition. It has been expressed to me that a number 1 is "better" than new. Better than new? Apparently, a number 1 is unattainable unless your car has been hermetically sealed in a NASA cryogenic chamber for the last thirty odd years.

A number 2 condition will win you trophies and adulation as you load your car back on the trailer after the show. Yikes, we're running out of numbers here. If we jump down to the lowly number 6, this condition is supposed to be just short of a chicken coup or planter. So that leaves us with the numbers 3 thru 5.
Vettes

Since a condition number 5 is just on numeric level above the chicken coup, one would consider that being branded a number 5, would be less than desirable. That leaves us with numbers 3 and 4. The cars I had professionally appraised were found to be either a condition 3 or 4.

I am no mathematician, but I don't like this particular method of pigeonholing. As with many things in life, I do not subscribe to the general consensus. That's probably why I drive a thirty-year old car. That being said, I conferred with my cohorts here at My Daily Driver and we came up with our own Classic Car rating system. Our criteria for this is based upon the fact that we Drive these cars day in and day out.

The My Daily Driver scale rates vintage cars by the Stranded to Drive Ratio.

This is very simple; we rate our cars by how many times the old sled left us stranded versus how m any times we left the driveway. In addition, we allow a curve system for the age of our cars.

If all your drives end with a call to AAA or a friend for assistance,
you rate a "Spend more time under the hood."

If your car has left you stranded just when you needed it most,
you rate a "Should have fixed that a month ago, but I was too damn lazy."

If your car has never left you stranded since the purchase,
you rate a "My goodness, what a great car."

Our rating system also deducts points for blatant failures. Such as, you have a carload of friends that you constantly brag about your car's reliability to and it strands the whole bunch of you on your way to a party. Ouch, that's a My Daily Driver classic car rating system killer. Although this system is still in the beta phase, we are confident that it will become the industry standard for rating vintage cars. What do you think?

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