Questions on the Tucker car.

[John Dore]

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[TuckerCar]

OK, I'll give this a stab...

1. Of the 47 remaining cars - how many are in private hands, and therefore might potentially come up for sale someday? I assume the museum cars will never be sold, and I hear also that some private cars are intended to be donated to museums in the future, therefore the number of cars which might actually be offered for sale at some point must be quite low?

I'll let you do the math - http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/see_a_tucker.php

2. What is the highest recorded mileage which a Tucker has driven?

Really don't have any records on this one, except that Tucker 1014 was reported to have 110,000 miles on the odometer back in 1954. No information on what was rebuilt or repaced at that point.

3. In general, were the cars driven as if they were just any other car for the first decade? Or, were some/most cars bought as investments after the company folded, and stored instead of driven?

Perhaps with the exception of the Tuckers that Mr. Jones used to take on the road to County Fairs, I don't think any of the cars were purchased back then with the intention of making money.

4. Compared to another car from the same period, how reliable was the Tucker car as an everyday driver? I guess nowadays they are harder to maintain than a Ford of the same era, as some Tucker parts are rare...?

Since the cars were basically prototypes, there were lots of kinks to work out, as well as lots of differences from car to car. Nick Jenin converted 1046 to and Oldsmobile chassis in the early 1950s so his daughter could get the car serviced easier. I guess that speaks more to finding a good mechanic than the reliability of the car itself.

5. Are there any Tuckers in private hands which are driven regularly? How many miles per year are covered in this case?

I'd say the best example of a Tucker that is driven regularly is 1041 owned by TACA members Bev and Dorothy Ferriera. They are very adamant that the car be driven and not trailered, and while Bev is getting older and does not drive it as much as he used to, they were very active in taking the car to local car shows. At our last convention in Las Vegas, Bev drove the car all the way from San Francisco with an air conditioner hanging out of the window. He did a few laps around Las Vegas Motor Speedway and as I recall, when he got out with a huge grin on his face, he said he had it up around 95 mph. I wish I had videotaped that.

6. What is the consensus on replica Tuckers - are they good for the image of the car? As owning an original Tucker is unlikely to happen for 99.9% of Tucker enthusiasts (due to their value and rarity), would most people here still like to own a fiberglass replica?

There isn't much to come to a consensus over. The only successful replica was Ida's, and at $200,000 if you could afford that, you could probably afford a real one. But it was a beautifully done car.

7. What was the average value for a Tucker before the movie came out, and how long after the movie's release was it before they started to sell for hundreds of thousands of $$$?

Tuckers sold for about $60,000-$80,000 before the movie. I remember seeing one for sale right after the movie for $1,000,000. It never sold for this, but I think back then they settled in around $200,000-$300,000. Of course now they're more like $500,000-$700,000 for a nice car.

[John Dore]

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[TuckerCar]

If there was one for $30K, I'd get one too!

[Ganaraska]

I have read several articles on the Tucker car over the years. As far as use or mileage goes they seem to fall into 2 categories. One type is the car that has spent all its time in museums and has less than 20,000 miles on it. The other is the car that was always in private hands and has over 100,000 miles on it.

What car holds the record I don't know but I believe one car has 200,000 miles on it.

Most owners bought their cars as collector's items and intended to drive them only occasionally, in shows and parades. But as soon as they drove them they got hooked. Soon they were driving them more and more as regular transportation.

Have seen this basic scenario repeated in more than one magazine article concerning different Tuckers.

This speaks well for the cars' ease of handling and practicality for everyday use. Engines for example were derived from an aircraft design and were very reliable and long lived.

No doubt there were flaws in the car that would have been corrected if they had gone into production but nothing major.

Possible the most questionable feature was the torsion rubber suspension. This has been replaced on many cars by steel springs. But it is only fair to remember that cars back then were designed for a life of 10 years or so and they are now 60 years old. The rubber suspension was probably good for 10 years, and if the Tucker had remained on the scene new rubber springs would have been easily available at Tucker dealers' parts departments.

Whether Tucker replicas are good for the image is irrelevant, as the car the company and Tucker himself are long gone.

It is quite a compliment that the car is still remembered and desired all these years later. Personally I consider the commitment to the car astonishing, when you consider the company only lasted a few years and never really got into production.