Unsold Chevys & MoPars up for sale

Miss your chance to buy a new Monte Carlo back in 1972? Or a new Dodge Shelby Daytona Turbo in ’89? Well, you have one...more....chance to not repeat your mistake.

This July, VanDerBrink Auctions is selling two collections from dealers who held back special cars when those cars were new. Some of these unsold new cars have a dozen miles. One car has none. Since these unsold cars are being auction from the original dealers, they are on MSO and the high bidder will effectively become the original owner.

Jim Gesswein has been buying, selling and collecting cars for almost 60 years. He owns Gesswein Motors, a Ram-Dodge-Jeep dealership in Milbank, S.D., and said that he was a collector “whenever a pretty car” came around.

Some of those pretty cars came off the truck as new and never left Gesswein’s hands. They include a loaded 1987 Dodge Shelby Charger 2.2-liter turbo with just 10 miles; a 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby Turbo with a five-speed, T-tops and just 11 miles; a 2017 Dodge Challenger Hemi R/T Plus still in the wrapper; a 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Wide Body with 0 miles; and a 2018 Dodge Charger R/T 392 Scatpack with 0 miles. There’s also a 1986 Dodge Omni Shelby GLHS (No. 6 of 500) with the 2.2-liter Turbo, five-speed and just 6,434 miles.

Loving cars is in Gesswein’s blood.

“My dad was in the car business back in the early 1940s when he started selling some used cars and he got into the new-car business with GMC and Oldsmobile, so I have been into cars early on,” Gesswein said. After his father died in 1961, Gesswein went his own route.

“I went to work for the Ford dealer for six years,” he said. “He asked if I could sell some cars and I said, ‘Sure, I will try it.’ Then I decided I should try it on my own. I didn’t have any money on my own and my uncle got me started with $5000 to buy some inventory and then another $5000 later, that’s how it got me where I am today.”

In mid 1986, Gesswein also became a dealer for Shelby Automobiles and that’s when he began holding back some of the new cars that came in his dealership’s doors. Two Shelby cars are among those being sold on MSO from Gesswein’s collection.

Gesswein was keen to older iron, too, and knew a gem when he saw it.

“Some were trade-ins and some were purchased because I found opportunity in them or had a soft spot for them,” he said. “I always looked for nice cars and low-mileage cars. Those are the vehicle that I primarily bought for myself as trade-ins and just kept them. There are some really, really nice cars with good stories behind them.”

His vintage iron up for bids in his July 18 sale includes a 14,398-mile 1959 Dodge Custom Royal 500 two-tone pink two-door door hardtop with a 318-cid V-8 and the seats still wrapped in plastic. Genuine muscle cars are also included with two restored B5 1970 Plymouth Superbirds with 440-cid V-8s (one with an automatic, one with a four-speed) and a one-owner Sublime Green 1970 Plymouth GTX with a 440-cid V-8, automatic and 36,623 miles.

Broughams from the 1960s and 1970s are strong in Gesswein’s collection. The 1970s include a 1970 Dodge Polara convertible with a 440-cid V-8 and 30,271 miles; 1973 Dodge Polara Custom Wagon with a 440-cid V-8; a rare 1978 Dodge Monaco Brougham two-door; a loaded 1977 Chrysler Town & Country Wagon with a 440-cid V-8 and 19,808 miles; 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham coupe with a 440-cid V-8 and 44,228 miles; and a 1978 Chrysler Newport four-door hardtop with a 400-cid V-8 and 25,191 miles.

Imperials are strong in Gesswein’s collection: among more than a dozen 1960s Imperials there’s a 1964 Imperial convertible; 1965 Imperial convertible; 1966 Imperial Crown convertible; 1966 Imperial Crown convertible; and a 1967 Imperial convertible with 10,979 miles. The collection also includes several Imperials from the 1950s and 1970s.

“In all honesty, when those [Imperials] were new, they were a bit overpriced and therefore they didn’t sell as many as Cadillac and probably Lincoln, and now people realize that it is a quality car and now there is interest in those cars,” he said. “They are just interesting cars that we don’t see often of that vintage.”

With such a diverse selection, Gesswein says people often ask him which are his favorites.

“It might be a little different with these cars, but I usually say my favorite car is the sold one in the driveway.”

After decades of collecting, and his brother who maintained the collection easing toward retirement, Gesswein is offering his collection at auction. The sale will be held in person on July 18 at Gesswein Motors in Milbank with online bidding also available.

Starting in 1932, the Beneventi family of Granger, Iowa, began selling new Chevrolets. By 1940, 5-year-old Don Beneventi was already working in the family business.

“When I was 5 years old, I used to steer 1940-’41 Chevys out of boxcars,” Beneventi told Old Cars. “They had to unchain the cars from the floor of the boxcar, jack them up and they had to have somebody to steer them. I wormed them out of a tight box car. My dad would actually come get me out of school to steer the cars. That is how long I have been into cars.”

It wasn’t until a couple decades that Beneventi started officially collecting cars.

“The first car I kept was in 1963 — a 1937 Chevy that my dad had sold new to a very good customer of his. She traded it in on a new Nova and I thought, ‘Boy, he sold it to her new,’ and I had a sentimental attachment to it. So that is how I got started. We said, ‘We don’t want to sell that — we want to hang onto it.’ That was the start of it.”

At that point, Beneventi started getting into Corvettes and other hot Chevys. However, it wasn’t until 1972 that he held back the first new Chevrolet from the dealership, deciding to keep the demonstrator instead of selling it.

“Black was a special-order color (on a Monte Carlo) in ’72 — I don’t have any idea why,” Beneventi said. “Black was available in ’70, ’71 and ’73, though. I like black cars so I ordered it just how I wanted it. I special-ordered it black. It was a big price of $39 extra to get it painted black. I drove that car as a demo in 1972 and in late summer of ’72 I decided I love that car. I thought, ‘By golly, I am going to hang onto that car.’ I think it had 2900 miles in ’72 and it has just a few over 3000 now. That’s the original air in the tires yet.”

The Monte Carlo was never sold, so it remains on MSO and still wears its original window sticker.

After that first Monte Carlo, Beneventi occasionally held back an interesting new Chevrolet while also acquiring vintage Chevrolets for his personal collection. One of those vintage Chevys is a well-optioned 1970 Chevelle SS 396 that stood out to Beneventi because it was very different from the many that he sold new.

“I sold a ton of 1970 SSes, a lot of 454s, with no air, no power steering, no power brakes. That is what they wanted. They wanted them to race,” he said.

Beneventi’s 350-hp 1970 Chevelle SS 396 is unusual to him since it is so highly optioned from new. He purchased his 57,000-mile example in 1987 with the Cowl Induction hood; air conditioning; automatic transmission in the console; bucket seats; factory 8-track tape player and radio; power steering; power brakes; and the windshield washer monitoring light system.

These cars were all displayed annually at a car show Beneventi hosted at his Chevrolet dealership for about 10 years. They were regularly maintained to keep them in good running order.

Citing the size of his collection and the march of time, Beneventi is making some changes. The dealership and its new and used car inventory has been sold to Willis Auto Group, and 22 of Beneventi’s collector cars and trucks are being offered at auction. The sale will include six of Beneventi’s hold-back Chevrolets on MSO; Chevys that Beneventi personally restored with his own blood, sweat and tears; and also a few old trade-ins that Beneventi sold new but couldn’t bear to let go of a second time.

Headlining the sale of MSO cars is the black-on-black 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo coupe special-ordered as a demonstrator in 1972. The Monte retains its window sticker and MSO paperwork and shows just 3,021 miles.

Other MSO cars include a 1975 Caprice Classic convertible with its window sticker and just 120 miles; 1987 Camaro RS convertible still in the shipping plastic with 1150 miles; a 1977 Camaro Z28 coupe still in the plastic with its window sticker and 456 miles; 1974 Corvette L82 coupe with the window sticker, 350-cid V-8 and automatic, leather interior and 3522 miles; and a Silver Anniversary 1978 Corvette ordered with red interior to accent the two-tone silver-and-gray exterior and just 478 miles.

The interesting trade-backs include the 1937 Chevrolet two-door sedan sold new by Beneventi’s father; a red 1976 Monte Carlo Landau coupe traded back in 1988; a 52,811-mile 1974 Chevrolet Laguna S-3 with a 454-cid V-8 ordered by Beneventi as a demo and traded back in 1980; and a loaded T-top 1979 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Landau coupe ordered as a demo and traded back in 1989.

Additional highlights include a 1932 Chevrolet coupe; a 1957 Bel Air two-door hardtop apparently built by Chevrolet with an experimental 1958 fuel injection unit; and several 1954 and ’55 Chevrolets, among others.

The auction will be held July 25 at the Beneventi Chevrolet (Willis Auto Group) dealership in Granger, Iowa, with a preview to celebrate the Beneventis and their Chevrolet affinity the night before. Online bidding is also available to off-site bidders.

www.vanderbrinkauctions.com
507-673-2517

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