Another career move last year left almost no time to work on the CR-X, and the floods in Southern Alberta caused an already busy work schedule to get even busier. This year, things have been much calmer and I decided it was time to get an appraisal done on my CR-X.
This was my first time having a vehicle appraised and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I wasn't sure who to choose, since it's not like the streets of Alberta are overflowing with Japanese CR-Xs and the Internet is full of misinformation. Lets face it, they are a niche specialty car, not your every day classic so that made finding an appraiser a bit of a challenge.
After reviewing the sites for several local vehicle appraisers I found one with a broad range of previously appraised vehicles and called them up. I spoke with a pleasant man who explained that the appraisal would consist of him coming to view the vehicle and take pictures. He asked questions like whether or not I had receipts for the work performed, which I do, and he would need to review other comparable vehicles for sale.
The first step in preparing for the appraisal was to go out in the garage and go over my CR-X from bumper to bumper and making notes on all of the parts I changed. Since my receipts were organized by year so the next step was to go thru them and pull out the ones for the parts I'd replaced. Once I had those separated then I added them to a spreadsheet.
After the receipts were tabulated, I called and made the appointment with the appraiser. I cleaned the CR-X as best I could with the time-frame I had to work with, and I made sure she started and could be backed out of the garage should the need arise.
When the appraiser arrived, he was quite amicable. I was a little defensive, knowing that most car-guys over the age of 50 look at the Import crowd with a bit of disdain, but he was very gracious and appreciative of the care and quality of workmanship that I've put into her. I can't begin to say how relieved I was at this. He commented several times at how impressed he was at the overall condition of the car and was very interested when I told the story of two people selling me the same car and how she shared a consecutive VIN series with my old North American CRX.
He asked me to provide a little background information to include in the report as well as any supporting information. I included a short blurb I'd written about the JDM CR-X for an upcoming blog post, my Oh Snaps! Honda Tuning picture as well as a letter I'd received from Honda Japan regarding my CR-X (numbers matching engine etc).
A few days later I received an email with my appraisal. I was impressed with the thoroughness of the investigation he did, and given that there aren't many JDM CR-Xs for sale, the comparables he chose weren't too far off (minus the JDM goodies and RHD). In the end, she was appraised at $14,000 which was actually only $1000 less than the total I'd put into her so far (not including the exchange rate for USD to CAD).
Now, it's time to call my broker and get insurance for my baby.
Remember, this blog was written in chronological order so, you will need to click OLDER POSTS to move forward in time, and click NEWER POSTS to go backwards.
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