Scottsdale un-preview: two cars pulled from Barrett-Jackson

It’s not unusual for auction houses to pull cars from the docket prior to the actual auction, but two rather high-profile cars were pulled from Barrett-Jackson’s lineup this week, and the company has been none too shy about saying why.

The first, lot 1258.2, a 1958 Chevrolet Impala that the auction house previously advertised as once owned by Buddy Holly, was pulled on Wednesday because questions arose about whether Buddy Holly really did own that particular Impala.

According to the Barrett-Jackson press release regarding the pull, said questions didn’t come up until the Impala actually arrived in Scottsdale when the company’s consignment team was able to inspect the car and its paperwork in person as part of the company’s “diligence process.”

Barrett-Jackson has been unable to obtain satisfactory information to resolve the issues that were raised during the company’s investigation; as a result, Lot 1258.2 has been pulled from the auction lineup by Barrett-Jackson.

This appears to be the same Bill Clement-owned car that Bill Griggs discredited in the pages of Rockin’ 50s magazine back in 2000.

Next, there’s no doubt as to which musician owns lot 1246, the 1971 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda that Barrett-Jackson pulled from its docket today: Al Jardine of the Beach Boys. The question is: How did he get a ‘Cuda with a VIN that matches that from another ‘Cuda stolen in 1976?

As with the “Buddy Holly” Impala, the Barrett-Jackson consignment team decided to pull the ‘Cuda after seeing it during their diligence process.

During this final step of auction preparation, it was discovered that the VIN on the vehicle did not match the VIN on the title provided by the consignor.

“There are a number of legitimate reasons why a car’s VIN may not match the number listed on a title, particularly with older model vehicles that have been around for many years,” said Steve Davis, president of Barrett-Jackson.  “There is a chance that a clerical error may have been made on a title transfer at some point or that a door or body panel may have been replaced during the life of the vehicle, which resulted in the original VIN no longer being in place.  It’s also not unusual for a VIN plate to be lost or damaged during restoration. We don’t immediately assume there is an insurmountable problem when a VIN doesn’t match up.

“We have no reason to believe that this consignor had any prior knowledge of the VIN discrepancy or any knowledge of the stolen vehicle report dating back to 1976.”

The ‘Cuda – not a real Hemi, BTW – was featured in Mopar Collector’s Guide a few years ago, and even they noted the strange trail of former owners.

Both lots have been taken down from the Barrett-Jackson website, but remain cached (Impala, ‘Cuda) on Google’s servers.