Vintage Cars: Durant star six sedan, old cars price guide, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

Question
How can I find the value of a 1926 Durant Star Six Sedan?

Is it considered rare or desirable?

Answer
For the value of the car, I would look at the publication "Old Cars Price Guide" which is published monthly, or if you can find a copy of the NADA Gold Book, that might help as well. If you are purchasing the car, I would strongly suggest spending a few dollars on a professional appraisal, and I would also contact someone from the marque club who is familiar with that car - each club has a list of "experts" who are extremely knowledgeable about the cars and are generally quite willing to help you. If you're selling, contacting the club is the best approach, because you will probably find someone interested in purchasing the car through the club - a ready market.

As far as rare or desirable, I think this is a question that can best be answered along the lines of "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder". Certainly, the Star is not what you would consider a "blue chip" collectible car, but they are interesting cars nonetheless. If you show up at a car show with one of these, you can pretty much be guaranteed to be the only Durant product at the show (not counting the GM products, of course! - Billy Durant founded GM, only to lose it in 1910, regain control in 1916, and then lose it again in 1921, at which time he founded the Durant Motors conglomerate), and you will definitely draw a crowd. Any Durant product can be considered rare, and to Durant enthusiasts, they are definitely desirable. However, to the collecting public in general, I would not classify them as particularly desirable.

I am a Hupmobile guy, and Hupmobiles fall into pretty much the same category - interesting cars, but not particularly desirable. I have 2 Hupmobile Skylarks currently, but at one time I had two others as well. Four Skylarks out of a total production of 354 is pretty impressive to be sure, but it certainly is not an investment. The best Hupmobile Skylark in the world sold for about $35,000 a couple of years ago, and a good original example can't be expected to fetch any more than about $25,000 today. Does that diminish the desirability of the Skylark? Certainly not to Hupmobile enthusiasts like myself.

In looking at the Standard Catalog of American Cars (published 1985), a top condition Skylark was valued at $9,000, while a top condition 1926 Star Six Sedan was valued at $6,000. Using a 300% inflation factor, I would think that a top condition 1926 Star Six Sedan would fetch $15,000 to $20,000, depending on the buyer.

Hope this helps