Last Friday we ran a story that was picked up on the Hot Rods By Boyd (HRBB) webpage concerning a car that was sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale last month. We tried very hard to stay neutral and just present the facts that were offered when reporting the story.

The entire argument centered on a 1929 Roadster sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January. According to Chris Coddington, Barrett-Jackson advertised the roadster as a car that was originally built by Boyd Coddington. According to Chris Coddington, the entire story around the roadster was untrue and he reached out to the car seller, Kindigit Designs to corroborate the story. Coddington went on to state that Dave  Kindig provided a letter showing that the body and chassis was purchased from Boyd Coddington but the car was assembled by Covington Customs.

Barrett-Jackson’s lot description: “Lot #1035 – This 1929 Ford Model A roadster was originally built by Boyd Coddington for a good friend of his, Vern Luce. Vern was one of Boyd’s first clients and had many cars built by Boyd’s Rod Shop. This roadster has many custom touches, such as a custom-built chassis, Boydster independent front and rear suspension, one-off true knock-off wheels, Marcel’s custom body mods including, three-piece aluminum hood and sides, custom floor, shortened rear body, modified body revels, shortened grille, pinched and stretched front end. Finished in Boyd’s Red, the body is excellent. As Boyd was finishing the roadster, Vern passed away. Boyd purchased the car from Vern’s widow. Before the car was complete, Boyd passed away and the car was only in need of a windshield and upholstery. The car is finished to the specifications that Boyd would have finished it. 5-speed manual transmission.”

After the auction was over and the car was sold, Chris Coddington called Covington and got more information. Convinced that Boyd Coddington had not built the car, Chris Coddington approached Kindig to rectify the situation. The Kindigit camp was quoted as saying that the car had been repurchased by Boyd Coddington and before it was completed, Coddington passed away. At that time the car only needed the “windshield and interior. The car was purchased by Kindig and finished to the specifications that Boyd would have finished it.” Chris Coddington disputes the Kindig version of the story and took the matter up in social media.

Our original story, with Chris Coddington’s full unedited press release, can be found here: OP/ED: Where Does The Truth Begin Or End With Auction Cars?

It is important for everyone to remember, we are not taking a side, simply reporting the information that is presented to us. It doesn’t matter what we think, and soon enough, we’ll explain why.

Reporting While Keeping Neutral

This is always a difficult proposition for a media company, especially when you are only working with one person’s version of the story. When you are getting the story from one party, that is their version of the story. There is always another version of the same story.

So we presented the facts that we had at the time, trying not to point a finger in blame at either side, but rather, cast blame on everyone for not handling things behind closed doors. We were wrong. I was wrong.

In trying to not place specific blame and staying in the center, we missed the real point of the story. As is the case frequently, we were standing in the middle of the forrest and we managed to miss the trees.

What Is The Real Point?

There was one element of the story that became obvious when we started viewing the comments left by our loyal readers. With each comment that was posted in response to the story, our sage readers reminded us that it only matters what the car buyer thinks. If the person that bought the car is happy with their purchase, who are we – or anyone else – to say if the sale was right or wrong? To date, we have not heard from the car buyer, and we have to wonder if all the social media buzz hasn’t made this car even more valuable to the new car owner.

Our wise readers were pretty unanimous in their opinion. If a hot rod is totally bad ass, and you buy it because it’s bad ass, who cares if Boyd Coddington or Lloyd Boddington built it? It’s still bad ass. The only person that can say if they were happy or unhappy with the way things went down is the person with the winning bid. From what we have seen of the hot rod, it is bad ass, so take that for what it is worth!

Let us leave this story having learned a valuable lesson from our readers. If you are buying something because of a name, or who had their ass in the driver’s seat, then you are buying a hot rod for the wrong reason. Buy a car because its bad ass, you like it, and it makes you happy.

Lesson learned.