Why is Atlanta Craigslist so good?

So, I'm in Atlanta, and I don't understand what it is that makes this particular area such fertile ground for the gems that Atlanta Craigslist routinely turns up. DFW, Houston, LA and Miami are all southern cities that have larger metro populations, but the per capita project gold is not even close. 

I wonder if the amount of old money is part of the answer. People who have the means to buy nice foreign cars, but not the desire to hold on to them or repair them after they are out of vogue. That said, I would expect those cars to end up back on dealer lots.

Any other ideas?

We Get Bored easy,  

Dallas,FW,  Houston, Miami, I give you those as Southern.  Unless that is Lower Atlanta,          LA Is NOT

LA is Southern in terms of clime. Up north cars just get eaten up with rust too quickly so I understand why there isn't as much CL gold.

I think it's the number of transplants.

People come from other areas with exposure to, and appreciation of a lot of different kinds of vehicles that are not typical for the South, and continue to buy them (or bring them).  For example, Subarus are almost non-existent in the South, but plentiful in ATL.

Transplants to ATL are typically higher income.  They can afford nice things.

Wealthy transplants who want to relocate a vehicle from another area to ATL have no reason to relocate junk.

ATL is close to a region of good quality rust free cars.  Northern transplants go gaga for rust free, and buy the varied things they like, bring them to ATL, and eventually lose interest and move on.

It's a Metropolitan mindset (open to a lot of things) with money to buy the things they like.

Transplants.

Yeah. It's just that it's the land of no rust and plenty of acreage that allow people to hang on to old cars for a long time. I can't really speak to the transplanting issue. 

GTXVette said:

Dallas,FW,  Houston, Miami, I give you those as Southern.  Unless that is Lower Atlanta,          LA Is NOT

That depends on whether one chooses to define the term "Southern" objectively or subjectively. 

In reply to Driven5 :

Ya'll Don't Live Round Here Do Ya.

I don't know. L.A. and surrounding areas have the most abundant and affordable projects I have ever seen. Get into the rural areas and people hoard and give away rust free projects. And the junkyards, er ma gawd.

Pretty sure smog laws just make it so these cars never see the road but out of state buyers and people who title out of state are in candy land!

In reply to GTXVette :

Thankfully, no.

It's funny you say that; I just bought a gem off ATL Craigslist. I agree, it always has good stuff. 

I cruise ATL Craigslist for a few min a day, and a few months ago was looking at a lot of Craigslist cars for a new project.  I think Atlanta likely has one of the highest densities of cars (to its detriment -- personally I find metro Atlanta unlivable due to the traffic and the layout).  

I live about an hr. south of Atlanta (closer to Alabama), and to be honest, I see way more old cars on the road here in daily use than I see in ATL, although not particularly desirable ones (look!  there's a Cressida/Stanza/Pulsar/NX2000/Paseo, etc)

I like old BMW's, Volvo's, etc. and north Atlanta has a fair amount around (trickle down effect from Cobb county yuppies?).  I did find my E30 here, but the pickings are thin.  There are E46's to be had for $3k all day long, but the older stuff has gone somewhere else.  

I love old Japanese cars, and those are much harder to come by here.  I am envious of the West coast Craigslist in this regard (want AE86 so bad!).  

I have mostly moved on from Craigslist to Facebook marketplace, which has the added bonus of being able to see the seller's profile prior to wasting time trying to make contact (the "would I buy a car from this person?" test)

I don't know much about Atlanta, but I always thought Cobb County was a tough area because the Big Boss Man was from there and it was in his entry music "Hard Time". Turns out it's wealthy area. 

 That is where I was Raised .Lots of well off Folks .I moved there in the Early 60's only the Main roads were Paved . It's Grown Quickly.

There's a strong culture of cars, hot rodding, and diy auto work here in Georgia that perhaps is less prevalent in some other major metropolitan areas, combined with a higher than average space allotment per capita.  In other words, it's financially possible to have the space to keep and work on a non-running car.  I think that's a big one these days.

In reply to ultraclyde :

That's very true. 

I didn't realize how spoiled I was living in GA until I started my recent move and found anything vaguely resembling what I had in GA in space and land completely prohibitive financially. 

NoPermitNeeded said:

It's funny you say that; I just bought a gem off ATL Craigslist. I agree, it always has good stuff. 

What did you buy?

GCrites80s said:

I don't know much about Atlanta, but I always thought Cobb County was a tough area because the Big Boss Man was from there and it was in his entry music "Hard Time". Turns out it's wealthy area. 

I was really into wrestling back in my early to mid teen years.  He entered the WWF/WWE right toward the end of when I watched.  I moved to Atlanta a few years ago, and it turns out I now live just a few miles from where he did (Paulding County).  I've heard stories from some locals who were here...he ran for local county office.  He was not all that wealthy from what I heard.

As to why cars are so good here...I think it's a combination of a very dense population with a ton of cars (Atlanta is a commuter city) and a lack of rust allows cars to live forever.

ATL craiglist has the perfect mix of:

- Large metropolitan area = large population and therefore many cars.

- Transplants moving to and from here and dumping their cars like was previously mentioned.

- Generally conservative STATE government with little regulations on safety and emissions, keeping more older cars on the road in the boonies.

- The opposite is of the counties in the CITY, where emissions testing could possibly put an otherwise fine car on the used market.

- Lack of snow and therefore salt.

- SWELTERING HUMIDITY makes a car with non-functioning A/C basically undrivable in the summer, hitting its value HARD.

- Large concentration of "redneck" demographics, and their stereotypical tendency to hoard old vehicles in a field or barn.

- Large immigrant population and their need for cheap reliable vehicles and the economy to support such endeavors i.e. lots of junkyards, shade-tree mechanics, jerry-rigged solutions keep cars away from the crusher.

Bought my FX16 in Atlanta.  Just sayin'.....

Shhhhh!!!   Before someone in the ATL sees this thread and all the car prices on CL start to rise.  

Flying into ATL it becomes apparent that there is certainly much space for cars. But it isn't just the space, it's that the spaces tend to be stuffed with cars rather than pools or play gyms or gardens. As I'm spending time here, it seems that people of all backgrounds just spend their money on cars.

Dude Welcome to Atlanta,  Sorry that last bunch of posts Soured. What do you want to see I will Give Directions and Times.

Anything Car Related That is. 

maschinenbau said:

ATL craiglist has the perfect mix of:

- Large metropolitan area = large population and therefore many cars.

- Transplants moving to and from here and dumping their cars like was previously mentioned.

- Generally conservative STATE government with little regulations on safety and emissions, keeping more older cars on the road in the boonies.

- The opposite is of the counties in the CITY, where emissions testing could possibly put an otherwise fine car on the used market.

- Lack of snow and therefore salt.

- SWELTERING HUMIDITY makes a car with non-functioning A/C basically undrivable in the summer, hitting its value HARD.

- Large concentration of "redneck" demographics, and their stereotypical tendency to hoard old vehicles in a field or barn.

- Large immigrant population and their need for cheap reliable vehicles and the economy to support such endeavors i.e. lots of junkyards, shade-tree mechanics, jerry-rigged solutions keep cars away from the crusher.

Actually I've found that emissions is a reason why some cars get dumped. My two requirements for driving any beater in Atlanta are working A/C and passing emissions. The broken A/C issue is workable if the windows still roll down. Failing emissions means you can't register it anywhere hear Atlanta.

I'll add that my favorite CL ads are found using the map view. Focus on east Cobb, Dunwoody, GA 400 corridor (but not too far up), John's Creek, and the area of Briarcliff Road north of Clairmont but south of the Northlake Mall. Rich people who don't need money but need to get a spare car out of their driveway are my favorite kind of people.

Having only been to Atlanta once, my guess is that the traffic sucks so much the locals give up on driving altogether. 

This is true till Dark, then the city streets are easy enough to get around, most people that work Inside the Perimeter Hwy. don't live anywhere near there. I'm 50 miles north of the perimeter and that is normal ride Home, LOT's Of people get this Far then drive into the Country. Emissions Park a Lot of Cars In the City But out here they don't do them at all, and there is a 25 year rule to not need emissions.