Bill, as a (former) CMC owner, there are good and bad things about them that you generally don't find in a turnkey car from a production manufacturing company -- even the smaller companies out there which offer turnkey cars have consistency that CMCs never will.
About twenty to thirty years ago, Classic Motor Carriages sold true 'kits' to people. The company didn't have the best ethics or follow-through, and there were some serious headaches involved with making what you were sold functional as a 'car.'
They were out of Florida, but they had a good marketing idea; they put a couple done cars here and there at airports, and their target demographic was anybody who read Popular Mechanics and the like.
People of ALL skill levels bought these things, and it sometimes comes through in the 'finished' car that the owner/operator/driver/mechanic wasn't any of the four.
The VIN might be a headache, also. Mine came back to a Winnebago camper, and so wasn't legal in any state for registration. Recreational vehicles, apparently, are a little bigger than kit cars. Who knew? (I have seen to that, but it was painful.)
The long and the short of it, for a CMC, is that you're really going to have to have the car checked out by a mechanic who's familiar with Volkswagens. They're a fiberglass body mounted on a shortened chassis, so you'll want to have someone (or maybe yourself, if you're confident and knowledgeable) check the welds in the middle of the car. If you're an electrician, you're okay to check the volts and wires ... But I'd have that looked at, too.
They're a good-looking, durable body, but they can hide all kinds of land mines in there. Look at where the wires connect to the fixtures and gauges to see if there's an old wiring harness in there underneath the one in use now -- and so on.
All in all, if you're not scared to jump right in and tinker, that's a great deal for a used CMC. Just a fiberglass body to do one yourself would cost a few thousand bucks. In parts alone, you'll be ahead of the game.
It helps that the car has a great overall appearance. For future reference, that grille in the rear decklid is a giveaway -- only CMCs use that cast aluminum thing. Everyone else has a more refined, vaned grille, closely matching the originals' construction and shape.
Us CMC guys call that thing a hibachi.
