Bay Area Home Report

The spacious property situated within the 300 block of Culet Drive in Danville was sold on October 18, 2024. The purchase price of $2,600,000 equates to $723 per square foot. Built in 1999, the house has 3,596 square feet of interior space. This two-story home offers a spacious layout with five bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Additionally, the house features an attached two-car garage, providing ample space for vehicles and storage needs. The property covers a generous 0.3 hectare plot.

These nearby houses also recently modified hands:

• A 2,241-square-foot home within the 200 block of Viewpoint Drive in Danville sold in August 2023 for $1,850,000, a price per square foot of $826. The house has 4 bedrooms and a pair of bathrooms.
• In March 2023, a 2,402 square foot home on Jasmine Way in Danville sold for $1,920,000, translating to a price per square foot of $799. The house has 5 bedrooms and three bathrooms.
• On Benjamin Lane, Danville, a 2,876 square foot home sold in August 2023 for $2,430,000, translating to a price per square foot of $845. The house has 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

This article was created by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, a software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a human-created template. Our property data comes from public records registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Bay Area Home Report

A house on the primary block of Verona Court in Danville has latest owners. The 1,808 square meter property, in-built 1951, was sold on August 26, 2024. The purchase price of $1,940,000 works out to $1,073 per square foot. This single-story home offers spacious living space with its five bedrooms and three bathrooms. In addition, the home has a garage. The property's plot covers a sizeable area of ​​9,000 square meters and has a swimming pool for outdoor enjoyment.

These nearby homes also recently sold:

• At Patricks Place in Danville, a 2,152 square foot home sold for $1,924,000 in August 2023, translating to a price per square foot of $894. The house has 4 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.
• In November 2022, a 1,772 square foot home on Mary Court in Danville sold for $1,495,000, translating to a price per square foot of $844. The house has 5 bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.
• A 3,716-square-foot home within the 100 block of Esther Lane in Danville sold in November 2022 for $3,265,000, a price per square foot of $879. The house has 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.

This article was created by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, a software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a human-created template. Our property data comes from public records registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.

The Chevrolet Camaro was introduced as a 1967 model, which I consider was as a consequence of two aspects: Ralph Nader's book “Unsafe at Any Speed” and the big success of the Ford Mustang, introduced in late 1964.

It took Chevrolet about two years to bring the Camaro to market, which is pretty quick within the automobile business. Chevrolet management held a big press conference to announce the brand new automobile on June 28, 1966, and announced that the brand new automobile can be called Camaro, as is common with model names starting with the letter C. An Automotive Press author asked, “What is a Camaro?” The answer was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”

In the 1967 model yr, Chevrolet sold 220,906 Camaros, a pleasant increase over the past Corvair model yr, 1965, when only about 6,000 units were sold. Of course, Chevrolet wanted to advertise its exciting latest automobile, and one approach to do this is to make it the official pace automobile for the Indianapolis 500 race, held yearly on Memorial Day weekend. This race attracts thousands and thousands of spectators world wide and between 200,000 and 250,000 people participate on this very loud event.

Since the track opened in 1911, there has at all times been an American pace automobile as a Stoddard-Dayton led the assembled starting grid across the track. Other pace cars used through the years with great reputations and names that may now only be present in history books included Stutz, Marmon 6, Duesenberg, Cole V8, Rickenbacker 8, Studebaker President, Hudson, Nash and just about all three major brands . I believe that the manufacturers are exchanging some serious type of compensation with Indianapolis 500 management to designate their automobile because the official pace automobile.

Manufacturers typically produce 2,000 to three,000 Pace Car replicas which might be sold through their dealers. That's the case with our feature automobile today. Bill O'Connor of Danville has owned this edition's replica 1969 Chevrolet Camaro convertible for about 14 years. “I found the car online in San Jose and it had just come out of an estate sale. It was almost done. There were only small things that needed to be fixed, for example the electric top didn’t work.”

O'Connor claims he isn't really mechanically inclined, but I consider he has greater than only a pair of pliers and a screwdriver in his toolbox. Over the years he has worked on 30 collector cars and currently owns half a dozen. O'Connor's has had several brands but has a penchant for Camaros. The first Camaro was purchased shortly after his marriage in 1979, when he found one with only 60,000 miles within the College of San Mateo parking zone and acquired it for $1,500. “That got me desirous about Camaros. Then I purchased a '67 Rally Sport Camaro, then we bought a '67 Camaro Convertible, then a '68 Camaro Convertible, then this one got here up and I assumed the value was right.”

The proud owner paid $40,000 for the car and estimates its current market value at $60,000 to $70,000. And he takes good care of this car. “I drive the car often in the summer and not much in the winter months. It has never seen water since I've owned it. I clean it with detailer and leave it waxed. The car is really reliable and suitable for highway driving.”

O'Connor's car features a 350 cubic inch V8 with a 4-speed manual transmission with power brakes and power steering. It is beautifully upholstered in orange and white to match the exterior colors. The owner estimates this car would have sold for around $3,000 when new.

The car was repainted and O'Connor added “OFFICIAL PACE CAR” stickers to the doors. He took me with him; The automobile is quiet, tight and fast, and likewise has the gorgeous sound of a Chevy V8 engine that’s music to most automobile lovers' ears.

Originally published: September 30, 2024 at 4:59 am

Bay Area Home Report

A house within the 1000 block of Alicante Drive in Danville has recent owners. Built in 1975, the 1,772 square foot property sold on August 20, 2024 for $1,905,000 or $1,075 per square foot. This single-story home offers a spacious layout with 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms. Outside, the home has a roof covering that consists of wood roofing/shingle materials. Inside, a hearth enriches the atmosphere of the living area. The property is supplied with forced air heating and central air-con. Additionally, the house has an attached three-car garage, providing ample space for parking and storage. The property's plot size is a formidable 0.3 hectares and contains a pool for added enjoyment.

Other homes that recently sold nearby include:

• A 2,423-square-foot home on the 300 block of Alviso Way in Danville sold in June 2022 for $2,210,000, a price per square foot of $912. The house has 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms.
• At Aptos Place in Danville, a 2,422 square foot home sold for $1,860,000 in August 2023, translating to a price per square foot of $768. The house has 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms.
• In June 2022, a 2,660 square foot home on Alicante Drive in Danville sold for $2,165,000, translating to a price per square foot of $814. The house has 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms.

This article was created by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, a software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a human-created template. Our property data comes from public records registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.

The first two Buick automobiles were in-built 1899 and 1900 not by David Buick, the founding father of the Buick Motor Co., but by an engineer named Walter Marr on the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Co.

The first Buick on the market was a 1904 model with a two-cylinder engine. The early success of Buick Motor is usually attributed to the overhead valve engine. Billy Durant became Buick's general manager and an important promoter, and Buick became the most important U.S. automobile manufacturer. Along with Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland (later Pontiac), Buick became the brand that ranked just under Cadillac in price and standing structure.

Buick has built some beautiful and great models throughout its long history. From the Thirties through the Nineteen Fifties and beyond, Buick was a real status automobile. When buyers had (or claimed to have) significant wealth, they were more more likely to buy Cadillacs; but when buyers had significant wealth but didn't want to point out it off, they were more more likely to buy Buicks.

In 2009, GM discontinued Pontiac and Oldsmobile resulting from financial reasons. Many have wondered why they selected these two as a substitute of Buick. I feel it's protected to say it's all in regards to the dollar. Buick is extremely popular in China. For example, in 2020, Buick sold 926,532 Buicks in China and 162,749 in America.

Our automobile today dates from the Thirties to the Nineteen Fifties and is a phenomenal 1940 Buick Special two-door convertible. The owner, mechanically gifted Bob Coates of Danville, bought this automobile in 1959. It was in poor condition and sitting at a gas station in East Oakland. He says he liked the design, which brought back memories of shopping for a brand new 1940 Buick coupe along with his father.

The gas station owner offered to sell the automobile for $25, $10 greater than the junkyard would pay for it. Coates, then a university student, bought the automobile after borrowing $20 from his father. The automobile ran, but needed a variety of work. The body, nevertheless, was in good condition, with only just a few minor dents and no rust.

“In 1959-1960, I went into the Army and left the car at a body shop in Hayward. I told them, 'Fix the car. Take your time, because I'm gone.' When I came back, the car was done, but then I had to get a top. I got a white cloth top and some plain black seat covers, and it was 'a pretty sexy car.'”

Coates is a patient man, and time marched on. He rebuilt the engine nearly 10 years ago and acquired all the inside parts latest for about $2,000. Around 2002-04, Coates put a period-correct interior and roof within the automobile. He also redid the dash and gauges. This Buick runs great with a rebuilt 248 cubic-inch inline-eight engine that makes 107 horsepower.

It contains a column-mounted three-speed manual transmission and switch signals as standard equipment, as Buick was the primary company to put in them as such. The very distinctive turn signals were mounted on the trunk lid with arrows flashing left or right. Front turn signals were added later.

Coates says that in 1940, 3,564 Buick Special convertibles were sold for $1,077, which is about $24,197 today. That's a bargain at today's prices, but a few of the extras were very expensive for that 12 months. A heater cost $33 ($741 today's equivalent), a radio $63 ($1,415), a clock $22 ($494), and a side-mounted spare tire $47 ($1,056).

In any case, this beautifully restored automobile looks prefer it just got here off the showroom floor. Coates' investment is kind of modest, as he did many of the restoration work himself. He estimates the present market value of this automobile to be around $65,000 – not bad for a $25 initial investment.

Italian Fiat automobiles have an extended history, dating back to the primary Fiat 4 HP in 1899.

Giovanni Agnelli was one among the founding members of the Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino, which became known by the acronym FIAT (later stylized as “Fiat”), and which Agnelli headed until his death in 1945. Fiat is Italy's largest automobile manufacturer, and for twenty years until the late Nineteen Eighties it was also Europe's largest automobile manufacturer and the third largest on the earth after General Motors and Ford.

During World War I, Fiat manufactured airplanes, engines, machine guns, trucks and ambulances for the Allies. During World War II, until Mussolini's fall in 1943, Fiat manufactured similar equipment for the Axis powers. In the Nineteen Fifties, Fiat returned to the U.S. market, offering cars like the unique Fiat 500, which were subcompacts by American standards, but in addition very cute and sporty models just like the Fiat 124 Sport Spider.

Sales were good, accounting for nearly 60% of total production, but Fiat's quality has a slightly dubious repute on this country because of rust and reliability. American automobile enthusiasts used to joke that Fiat stood for “Fix It Again, Tony,” so I used to be surprised to learn that Fiat won many international awards for its vehicles, including nine European Car of the Year awards, greater than some other manufacturer, and that it was rated as having the bottom CO2 emissions of any vehicle sold in Europe.

The featured vehicle on this issue is a 1961 Fiat 500 F owned by Angelo Dalo, a real Italian. You wouldn't imagine it if you see the automobile, but Dalo said the model was sold in Italy as a five-seater (the back seat would must be for 3 fairly young children). He owns two Italian restaurants, Agrodolce in Berkeley (agrodolceberkeley.com) and the newly opened Isola Osteria (isolaosteria.com) in downtown Danville.

Dalo says he paid $10,000 for this little Fiat a few 12 months ago to advertise his business, but in addition to make use of it as a trolley for the restaurants in Danville. Dalo, who was born and raised in Sicily, said this was the form of automobile he learned to drive in, and while we don't see many Fiats like this one here, they're all over the place in Italy. After all, Fiat has sold more cars in Italy than anyone else, in some years greater than 80% of the market.

“It's a 395cc (cubic centimeter) two-cylinder engine with a four-speed manual transmission, and it's all original,” Dalo said. “It was repainted about eight years ago, and the red vinyl interior is brand new.”

His only remaining project is replacing the leaking head gasket – otherwise the automobile is ideal. Dalo is a automobile collector and dealer who has owned about 30 classic cars over his lifetime, but says he definitely prefers Fiats.

“I have five or six of them. One is always being sold and one is always being bought,” he said. “They are tiny, so they are easy to store. They are not worth much, so if they break it is not a big problem.”

There is a big US military base in Sicily and a few US soldiers buy Fiats there and send them home on military ships after their service. Interestingly, the historical lack of success Fiats have had on this country makes them a more priceless collector's automobile today.

The automobile in front of Dalo's restaurant in Berkeley was brought back from Sicily. It was the primary automobile his 80-year-old mother got when she was 14. There are still a whole lot of Fiats in Italy and Sicily, but Dalo says you may now buy these cars more cheaply within the United States.

Have a vehicle of interest? Email Dave at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. For more of his columns or photos of this and other vehicles, visit mercurynews.com/creator/david-krumboltz.