Pure Sleaze

You see & hear all the hype about the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale and you build up a certain image in your head and then . . .

I watched the Preview edition tonight on Speed and they showed the over head of all the cool cars and then they zoomed in on the 2 main guys and unbidden came the word out of my mouth "Sleazy!"

My wife said "You're just now noticing that?"

That Mafia style hair cut on the Pres with his sunglasses just oozes sleaze. And Barrett's no better. With him you can't put a finger on one element that makes him look untrustworthy, but he at least does try to appear respectable occasionally.

Now if I'm taking a million dollar car someplace I'm thinking I want to take it to someone who oozes Trustworthy. They both looked like the epitome of a used car salesman.

That's not saying I won't enjoy the show. I'm looking forward to the very beginning and the very end. I want to see the plebian cars and I want to see the high end specialty cars, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE THE CHARITY AUCTION CARS!

Hmmmm, how do I Tag this Topic as ALL CARS?

I don't love Barrett-Jackson. I have not watched an auction for years. I think the last one I watched was when they sold that Oldsmobile Showcar for $3 million.

I would much rather watch Mecum.

I will watch because I'm addicted to cars. Could care less about the people. Specially that "Ferrari hat" cat a few years ago.

I've never been to a collector car auction that didn't strike me as a being run by douchecanoes of the highest order.

Meh, I actually want to watch one now.

I don't mind the weekday auctions where the lesser (but still worthy and cool) vehicles can be had for decent money. Kinda like you couldn't build it for that money and buyer and seller still walk away happy.

Their ultra-hyped, huge money vehicles ruined that part of the experience for me... but it's still kinda cool to see what's out there.

B-J personnel are all business first, car guys second... but hey, it's their tent.

I actually like the first couple days of the auction. I like to see cars/trucks that have been driven and some built by regular car guys. They kinda lose me with the super low mile cars that look like they have been in a protective bubble for 60 years.

The same people complain about those auctions every year, and I wonder why they keep watching them.

I've been to Barrett. It is a circus. The best deals happen on the opening days. You can actually get a good buy if you know what you want and can inspect it. There are WAY more tourists than bidders at the auction. It is kind of cool to see the weird stuff for sale, but the cars that should bring "HUGE NUMBERS" and then whimper off the block are a real let down. I watched Randy Grubbs hawking one of this tank cars (http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-video/Video+_+Barrett_Jackson+2010%3A+Randy+Grubb+Talks+About+His+Tank+Car!-61944.xhtml) and a quite serious buyer asked him for a quote to build a car for him. Randy's quote was somewhere around $400k, which is what they thought the tank car would bring. When the tank car rolled across the block it sold for $280k to the guy who wanted the quote! The motor alone was worth $100k.

Another was watching the custom Sonny & Cher Mustangs hit the block like a dead halibut. No amount of hawking from Barris himself were going to get those things off the ground. It was kind of sad to watch.

For me I'd rather attend an R&M auction. Their auctioneer is awesome if you are a seller, but he can drive you nuts if you are a buyer. It seems he drags our the closing forever, but he will tease every last dollar out of a crowd while being highly entertaining. The British accent doesn't hurt. Plus you get to see cars honestly sell for millions.

What?! Used car salesmen are sleazy? Oh, this is HUGE!

I find it interesting that you call them sleazy but YOU hate charity cars.

The guy (Steve Davis) with the sunglasses has an eye condition, which is why he wears them. You might want to check out this link about this sleaze-ball:

Surprise, surprise

And not that it's important, but the "Barret" you refer to is actually Craig Jackson, son of the Jackson in Barret-Jackson. I don't know if he's sleazy or not, but you might, you know, actually want to know something about people before making conclusions...

bravenrace wrote: I find it interesting that you call them sleazy but YOU hate charity cars. The guy (Steve Davis) with the sunglasses has an eye condition, which is why he wears them. You might want to check out this link about this sleaze-ball: Surprise, surprise And not that it's important, but the "Barret" you refer to is actually Craig Jackson, son of the Jackson in Barret-Jackson. I don't know if he's sleazy or not, but you might, you know, actually want to know something about people before making conclusions...

I hate the long winded hype surrounding the charity cars and how they promote them. Some of the cars have been nice, but the circus surrounding it makes me want to barf.

I could care less if Steve has an eye condition, that is unless he's blind. Blindness is the only thing that would explain the hairdo and the clothes.

And my conclusion is that they both look & act sleazy. I don't care who they are, all I care about is what I see and when I look at them I see sleaze in word, action & looks.

No speed channel. No problem. I can see how it could be addictive though.

carguy123 wrote:

bravenrace wrote: I find it interesting that you call them sleazy but YOU hate charity cars. The guy (Steve Davis) with the sunglasses has an eye condition, which is why he wears them. You might want to check out this link about this sleaze-ball: Surprise, surprise And not that it's important, but the "Barret" you refer to is actually Craig Jackson, son of the Jackson in Barret-Jackson. I don't know if he's sleazy or not, but you might, you know, actually want to know something about people before making conclusions...

I hate the long winded hype surrounding the charity cars and how they promote them. Some of the cars have been nice, but the circus surrounding it makes me want to barf. I could care less if Steve has an eye condition, that is unless he's blind. Blindness is the only thing that would explain the hairdo and the clothes. And my conclusion is that they both look & act sleazy. I don't care who they are, all I care about is what I see and when I look at them I see sleaze in word, action & looks.

Great.

poopshovel wrote: No speed channel. No problem. I can see how it could be addictive though.

Only if you like seeing a bunch of rich goobers wave their gigantic financial penises around. Honestly, most of the stuff I've seen go for big bux is pretty tasteless.

I've always though the B-J bigwigs looked a little hucksterish myself, but as always it's best to give the benefit of the doubt. Just like some of the finest people I have ever known have looked like they didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of, so have some of the so called 'classy' types been complete scum I wouldn't want in my house. And the reverse is true too, of course.

carguy123 wrote: Hmmmm, how do I Tag this Topic as ALL CARS?

Select Abarth, then hold down the shift key and select Yugo.

In the first section they showed something from the vendors section that looked interesting. They showed a 3 screen video game that was big enough and had a viewpoint such that you appeared to be really in the car on the screen.

They had a wheel and what looked like a dash even. What gave it away was the feet moving below the dash of the passerbys.

I went live to the Vegas auction a few years ago. The best part was the post-sale holding area, which was like a fantastic car show. The bidding itself was a yawn.

EvanR wrote: I went live to the Vegas auction a few years ago. The best part was the post-sale holding area, which was like a fantastic car show. The bidding itself was a yawn.

As one of the announcers said earlier, "This is like the biggest & best car museum there is."

About some of those charity cars,

My shop has happened to build four so far, a '69 Camaro for the Susan G. Komen ($245k), a '64 Chevy II for The Faine House ($65k), a '70 Nova for The Mission Continues ($90k), and a '69 Bronco that is selling in a couple of weeks in Scottsdale for the Armed Forces Foundation.

I don't feel too sleazy...What have you done?

later, matt

I don't think he said you were sleazy .. sounded like he was reacting to the appearance of Steve in particular ... i.e. judging the book by it's cover ... the sun glasses ( for whatever reason) and the slicked back hair style ...

I guess you'd have to get to know him in person to see if the look was a reflection of the person .... and yeah ... on appearances only he doesn't look like someone I'd trust to hold my drink while I went to the restroom

wbjones wrote: I don't think he said you were sleazy .. sounded like he was reacting to the appearance of Steve in particular ... i.e. judging the book by it's cover ... the sun glasses ( for whatever reason) and the slicked back hair style ... I guess you'd have to get to know him in person to see if the look was a reflection of the person .... and yeah ... on appearances only he doesn't look like someone I'd trust to hold my drink while I went to the restroom

It's BOTH of the main guys plus the fake "I care so much" hype around the Charity cars. It's PC content designed to make it look as if they aren't just money grubbers. I've learned to trust my instincts. I've been proven right many, many more times than I've been proven wrong.

As I said, some of the Charity cars could be very nice, I just don't like the fake caring "showmanship" and time devoted to them. But most of the Charity cars haven't been all that special. xFactor I have no idea about your cars, but most have been what I would call wannabes who ride the coat tail of a legitimate or well known cars. They appear to be flung together to "ride the wave". Call me cynical, but . . .

I love my DVR! I have been able to fall into a routine of how much to watch of each car and which stories to skip. I'll be able to watch a much larger amount of the show than in years past. Of course it might take me 2 weeks to do it, but that's OK.

What I like about the announcers is all the little details they give you about the cars, era, designer, etc.

It gets me jonesing to play around a little in the shop.

So "Pure Sleaze" has a lot to do with their hairdos, clothing, and mannerisms, and apparently your biggest gripe about them is that they raise millions of dollars for charity.

Yep. You are cynical, to the extreme.

SVreX wrote: So "Pure Sleaze" has a lot to do with their hairdos, clothing, and mannerisms, and apparently your biggest gripe about them is that they raise millions of dollars for charity. Yep. You are cynical, to the extreme.

Kind of ironic that this is the guy calling people he's never met sleazy, purely because of the way they look and that he doesn't like the way they go about raising huge amounts of money to help those in need. Sounds like the kind of guy I wouldn't trust to hold my drink while I go to the restroom...
Carguy, you need to actually do some research into these people and you will find that looks can be deceiving. They are both well respected in the car world, and they are both real car guys. And yes, their business is making money off of cars. There's nothing wrong with that in my book.