This week, a driver-quality BMW Z3 M Roadster sold on Bring A Trailer for nearly $15,000. This was in line with what the market generally commands for the less desirable open-top M car, especially one with average miles and condition. Even so, the price paid may still be too much.
When we debunk a car's history, there's a tendency to rely on the CarFax, perhaps a bit too much. The CarFax tells us if any maintenance was conducted at local service facilities and dealerships, and more importantly captures whether a vehicle was wrecked beyond repair in the course of its life. Plenty of cars are damaged significantly but not enough to warrant totaling it.
While bodywork is sometimes a serious blow to the value of a car, it can be a moot point if the work was done to a high standard and documented by the owner and the body shop. However, this work is rarely captured with photos, and the same goes for if a vehicle is neglected for years at a time. Take for instance the M Roadster mentioned above: the seller pointed to gaps in its history as being due to its use as a summer vehicle on Martha's Vineyard. Ironically, I saw this car years ago after being consulted to view another vehicle on the property.
The M Roadster was seriously neglected, with an interior covered in mold due to being stored in an incredibly damp garage with evidence of water ingress. The car did not run; hadn't run in years; and was left idle for months at a time due to the property owners not being on the island full-time. In fact, the property was in foreclosure and it seemed like the residents of the home had very little interest in spending much time there.
Does it make it a bad car? No. But this sort of neglect is a characteristic of the CarFax that is never captured, and as stewards of enthusiast-grade vehicles, it's not difficult to imagine a world where the documentation we already do is channeled into a dedicated account with sufficient access controls and one that is forever associated with the VIN of the car. That's what The Common Gear (TCG) was founded around, the notion that as car nerds who already take more pictures of a vehicle than we do our own children, it's not a difficult reach to lock that data into an account so those perilous gaps never again develop in the history file of an enthusiast-grade car or truck.
And given the seller of this M Roadster didn't say a word about how he found this car on Chappaquiddick, it sure would have been helpful for the buyer to see exactly what he was buying.