7 Sub-$100K Classics We’d Have Brought Home From March’s Florida Sales

Although January is the busiest month on the auction calendar, early March isn’t exactly sleepy. The first weekend of this month, there were four auctions in Florida (OK, a couple of them happened on February 29), with everything from new exotics with delivery miles to a 1903 Mercedes changing hands. Our team took a look at all the public sales from Florida and then we gave each of us a theoretical stack of $100k to spend. These were the cars we would have taken home. Which would you pick—or did another sale catch your eye?

1963 Ford Galaxie 500 NASCAR, $70,000

First of all, I have no idea what I would do with this thing, but who cares? I want it! This 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 NASCAR is just too cool! It’s a survivor and has the scars to show for it, and names like Bobby and Donnie Allison on the list of drivers just adds to the cool factor. I think the selling point for me was when they fired it up and drove this behemoth onto the turntable at the Ritz. The noise was intoxicating. I think it would fit snugly in my one car garage in town and would be the perfect means to make new “friends” in my neighborhood on the days when I start it.—Greg Ingold, Hagerty Price Guide editor

1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal, $50,400

After picking a string of big-block C3s, I’m going to change things up with this 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal. It’s an Italian V-8 coupe with a dog-leg transmission that came in well under our price threshold. Plus, just look at that wonderful Marcello Gandini design. How can you not love those semi-hidden headlights? I’ve only got about five minutes of seat time on one of these, but I still remember the little V-8 sounded amazing. If I had this in my garage, I would suddenly have all kinds of excuses to drive to Malibu, Ojai, and any other destination that happened to be on the other end of a canyon road.—Brandan Gillogly, senior editor

1991 Mercedes-Benz 300TE AMG 3.4-24, $75,040

Since Brandan took my first pick, I’ll happily settle with this backup—a 1991 M-B 300TE AMG 3.4-24. $75k might seem like a lot for a W124 wagon with 106k miles on the clock—and it is. In fact, this is the second-highest sale for a W124 wagon ever. Then again, it’s a steal compared to the top W124 wagon sale of all time, this 1988 300TE 6.0 AMG nicknamed “The Mallet” that sold at RM Sotheby’s the same weekend for $467k. Inline-six or V-8? When we’re talking about an 84% discount to drop two cylinders, I’ll take the inline-six every time. Besides, there is only a 34 horsepower difference between the two and 276 horsepower is more than enough for this early-merger AMG sleeper. The only downside is that the rear facing jump seats are missing.—Adam Wilcox, senior information analyst

1965 Jaguar E-Type SI 3.8 Coupe, $56,000

My pick is the stereotypical red with black interior Jaguar E-Type that Bonhams sold for $56,000 at Amelia. However, this one is not quite so typical. It comes from someone who’s owned it for 46 years. The car needs a refresh to get it running and driving, and possibly a lot more, but we got $100K to play with, so there’s still $44,000 in the budget! That should at least cover the cost of getting the engine out and dropping the rear subframe. Besides, it is a neat late 3.8-liter car with some features overlapping with the later 4.2L versions. The interior is nicely worn but not too scruffy. Once it runs and drives, it’ll be a great, usable E-Type that can extol the virtues of the brand on the open road.—John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics

1951 Chevrolet 3100 “Five-Window” Pickup, $47,600

I was in the room when this ’51 Chevy hit the block, and couldn’t help but text my wife. She’s into flowers—each year, we plant over 400 dahlias in our front yard, along with a bunch of others that serve as accents to fill out bouquets. We’re not really in the market for an old truck, but if we were, this would be the perfect flower delivery vehicle.

This 3100 appears immaculate, and should have no problem chugging around the back roads with some carefully-packed bouquets in the back. And, at a final price of $47,600 with fees, we’d have plenty left over for a mountain of dahlia tubers (and some go kart parts for me).—Eddy Eckart, senior editor

1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale by Bertone

It’s always a fun exercise after big auction weekends (or weeks, or months) to spend fake money on real cars. Several from the March sales strike my fancy, including a 7000-mile 1997 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 that sold for $64,400 at Broad Arrow. I’d love to have it, but its long-term owner went to great pains to keep that immensely complicated, oft-overlooked Japanese sub-supercar in mint condition, and all I’d do is drive the pants off it, break things, kill its value, and then try to off-load it in a few years for a fraction of the price. There are no winners in that scenario.

Instead, I’m putting my money into a 1962 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale that sold for $67,200 at RM Sotheby’s Miami sale. There are no bad lines on this Alfa, and I fully appreciate its understated BAT concept-car DNA. It comes from the long-term ownership of a knowledgeable Alfa Romeo collector who took great care of it, and it certainly appears to be in very fine shape inside and out. It hammered sold for $30K under the low estimate, and about $40K under our #3 (Good) condition value, which I can only guess was because of its replacement (but correct) engine, although that still feels like a big penalty here. Hey, not my problem! I’ll take a cheap gorgeous Alfa any day of the week.—Stefan Lombard, senior editor

1977 Ferrari 308 GTB, $86,800

I remember when a decent 308 cost 25 grand. Sure, I was in middle school, but I still remember. In my mind, these should still be the cheap ticket to a set of Ferrari keys. Alas, there’s no such thing as time travel, so I’ll just have to accept that 308 prices are very different these days (up 251% over the past 10 years).

The 1977 308 GTB sold by Gooding & Co. this month seems like a good choice. An early steel-bodied, carbureted car, it’s a GTB so it doesn’t offer the wind-in-your hair driving of the targa-top GTS, but it’s both rarer and better-looking. It’s also a well-maintained, three-owner car and its 33,000 miles are low enough to be reassuring but not so low that it would be guilt-inducing to put more ticks on the odometer. The $86,800 sale price would have been shocking to middle school me, but in 2024 it’s right at the car’s condition #3+ value.—Andrew Newton, senior auction editor

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