projoCars
Pedal cars: Little wheels for big people
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, June 4, 2006
If you want to buy a classic car but lack the necessary jillions, you could always downscale to antique pedal cars -- although some of them are not cheap either. "The market is excellent. They're really hard to find and when you do find them, they're expensive to buy," said Matthew Vaznaian, a leading national and international dealer who owns Vaznaian's Antique Toys on High Street in Woonsocket. Most antique pedal cars cost in the thousands. "We are now seeing more and more car collectors entering the market," said Dave Kleepsies, owner of D & S Pedal Car Restorations in Phoenix, Ariz., the largest pedal car restorer in the country. "They may have 50 or 60 cars and are running out of room to store them and they figure they can buy a pedal car for a third of the price, restore it for a third of the price and they don't need staff to maintain it." The antique pedal car market can be divided into three groups by date: late 1800s to 1920; 1920 to 1940; and 1950 to 1970. Post-1968 models are not as desirable, Vaznaian said. "Up to then, they made Packards, they made Buicks, they made Lincolns just like the real cars," he said. Models from the very early years are rare and difficult to value, according to Kleepsies. "It's a funny little market," he said. "The decision to restore them is very questionable. They're very historical and very delicate." He said he only worked on such cars to save them, making minor repairs to bring them back to working condition. But he avoided giving them a complete paint job, for example, as collectors preferred them in as original condition as possible. On the other hand, restoring a car from the 1920s can double its value, he said. Cars from 1920s and 1930s are particularly valuable, with Packards made by American National Company and Gendron Wheel Co. (which merged in 1927) from the 1920s the premium collectibles. Such cars are practically miniatures of real cars in terms of the level of detail and their surviving numbers can be counted on one hand. Kleepsies added that pedal cars from this period are also rarer than post-war cars not only because they were made so long ago but because many were scrapped for the war effort during World War II. How much are such antique pedal cars worth? "I know a gentleman who has three cars and $200,000 invested," he said. Indeed, individual cars can command enormous prices, according to Vaznaian, who has been dealing and collecting pedal cars since 1989. "I'll tell you a story," he said. "A guy I know, he's from Tennessee and his name is Jack. I met him at show in Chicago and he said he had a 1924 Packard which he wanted to sell." Vaznaian said the car had been made by Gendron and was top of the line, with features that included a roof, split windscreen with a wiper, a rear-view mirror, chrome door knobs, roll down windows and a fat-man steering wheel -- which is what tilting steering wheels used to be called -- and bench seats. He said Jack told him he had paid $400 for the car and wanted to sell it for $35,000. Vaznaian said he'd sell it for a 10 percent commission. "It took me one week to find a buyer who also gave me 10 percent, so I ended up with $7,000," he said. "He goes down there and buys the car and the following year he sells it at a toy fair in Atlantic City for $110,000." That was six years ago. He said he knew the Packard was worth more than $35,000. "But the problem was I could not afford $35,000," he said. "I tried to get four friends to come in with me to buy it but they didn't want to." Kleepsies agreed that the electric-powered Packards from the 1920s commonly command such prices. Part of the reason is the craftsmanship, which is of a very high caliber. He said that in those days pedal cars were based on real cars with the manufacturers actually working with automobile companies in crafting model cars that were later production models. "So a 1929 Buick pedal car is actually a 1930 or '31 Buick," he said. For first-time collectors, the post-war market is more modestly priced, according to Kleepsies, adding that many collectors own only one car because of a sentimental attachment -- either they owned one as a child or it is a model of an old family car. However, he said, the promotional car market is particularly hot. These electric-powered cars were made as promotional giveaways in automobile dealerships across the country in the 1950s and 1960s. The first promotional car was a 1955 T-Bird Jr. made by the PowerCar Company of Mystic, Conn. "They have all the details of the real car," he said. "And car collectors will have them painted in the colors of their real cars." Vaznaian said he used to buy old pedal cars and refurbish them, but now he sells them as he finds them in estate sales and through ads he runs in local papers. He says the market is wide, citing customers in Europe, Australia, Canada, Mexico in addition to the United States. "As a matter of fact, it is such a big business in England, a guy there did a book called Juvenile Automobiles, which is the same name as my Web site," he said. Indeed, there is a strong interest in both antique pedal cars and modern pedal car racing in Europe, where annual champion races are held at Monza, Italy, and St. Etienne de Chigny, France, under the auspices of the European Federation of Pedal Cars. British antique pedal cars include the Austin J40 cars which were made by disabled Welsh coal miners in a venture supported by government funds, and Triang which were also built in Canada, South Africa and Australia under various names; before the war, the company and its cars went by the name Line Brothers. Meanwhile, if you simply want to buy a pedal car for your child, you can buy reproductions of the old classics costing in the low 100s. Certainly there is great variety, ranging from basic cars, many styled from the 1950s, to jalopies from the 1930s to planes and even boats. In addition, one company, Retro Pedal Cars, offers such accessories as race driving clothes, signs and vintage reproduction pedal car gas pumps "that will add flair to any basement setting." While Vaznaian said he no longer works on antique pedal cars -- he estimates it takes 40 to 50 hours to refurbish a single car, plus the cost of materials -- he continues to deal them from his store and has about 300 in stock. His favorite? The 1941 Buick manufactured by Steelcraft as well as that Gendron 1924 Packard -- or the one that got away. On the Web: www.dspedalcarrestorations.com www.river-road.net/oldcars/pedals/pedals01.html pelsworth@projo.com / (401) 277-7403
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