Filed under: Time Warp, Auction Action
Murdered man's authentic KITT up for sale
With all this talk about the new Knight Rider and KITT returning as a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, we couldn't ignore this rather bizarre story about an authentic KITT used in the original series that's up for sale on eBay. The car's owner was a wealthy real estate developer named Andrew Kissel who was murdered last year. His killer was never caught, and the administrator of his estate has since been selling his assets to pay off debt. After having thought that all of Kissel's "toys" were sold, the lawyer in charge of his estate found this original 1984 Pontiac Trans Am KITT car used in the TV show. It is literally the last asset of Kissel's estate, and his lawyer has put the car up for auction on eBay Motors. It began with a starting bid of $20,000 and as of writing this is up to $25,100 with five bids. The eBay Motors auction page, however, has caused some to speculate as to whether or not the car is the real deal. There are no pictures of it, it's listed as a "Grand Am" and the lawyer claims he can only fax pictures to interested parties. Despite the dubiousness, the auction appears legit to us, and a resourceful Jalopnik reader did a little research on the VIN that seems to back up that this is the car referred to in news reports. Considering that Kissel reportedly paid $69,000 for the car just two years ago, someone could wind up with a killer bargain on a rare car with a crazy bonus story to boot.
Thanks for the tip, Keith!
[Source: Courant.com, eBay Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jeff 10:15AM (12/21/2007)
Ummm.... Let's see.
Seller with 0 feedback
Vin has been published in outher sources.
no actual photographs other than a faxed copy.
Yep, I'm going to bid and wire transfer money to him right away. Wonder if his bank is off shore?
Reply
Chizzle 10:37AM (12/21/2007)
Oh great, ANOTHER special edition F-Body?! ENOUGH already. GM should be improving the rest of their product line instead of just to milking their only successful vehicle to death!
Reply
Shipey 10:42AM (12/21/2007)
ZOMG if I see one more "special edition" '84 Firebird post I'm gonna puke!
Seriously, Autoblog, you should think about re-naming the site F-Blog. Or Autobird.
GTX141 11:15AM (12/21/2007)
So, they guy can manage to get a picture of Snoopy on eBay, but no car images.
This is either complete BS, or it was created by an 80yr old CT lawyer who should have retired 20 years ago.
"Compu-whaa? Oh, one of those fancy electronic typewriters that has innernet!"
Reply
Yubastard 11:38AM (12/21/2007)
LOL the professor from Futurama.
C.W. 11:20AM (12/21/2007)
someone have the seller fax pictures and post them.
and also get the number of the law firm who is handling his estate and see if this guy is legit.
Reply
Yubastard 11:37AM (12/21/2007)
remember the story by Stephen King (I think) about the girl's soul living in the car? was it Christie? hmm, I got really scared by that when I was a kid.
Can you imagine KITT talking to you and it's the owner? ZOMG! that would rock! A rare car with a history AND a soul!
I feel tempted, let me tell you that much.
Reply
WillDaThrill 12:04PM (12/21/2007)
Christine. Yeah, I think it was Stephen King too.
Michael Adams 12:50PM (12/21/2007)
I just finished reading the book "Never Enough" which is the story of the murder of Andrew Kissel's brother, Robert by his wife. Andrew's murder is brought up in the last few chapters and they are both really tragic and unpleasant stories. There was a brief mention of how Andrew loved exotic cars so maybe this is a real deal, but still is a bad representative of an ugly era of cars, even if it wasn't a KITT clone.
Reply
500 12:50PM (12/21/2007)
Let me guess, is the car located in Nigeria? Perhaps owned by a Nigerian prince who, due to tragic circumstances must get this car out of Africa, and you can take possession of the car for a small fee and your bank account number?
I know it's not, I read the auction, but something is sketchy here. Unless the lawyer really is just a clueless old guy, and someone is going to get the deal of the century. I wouldn't bid on this car no matter how much I wanted a KITT replica.
Reply
earnlund 1:13PM (12/21/2007)
Ok so i ran a car fax on this original car. It has a odometer roport on it. At one time the car went from 50,000 miles to 20,000 miles. Either way it is above the 5000 miles stated on the advert. I think it i probably a fake. I am guessing that it is something completely different than is advertised as.
Reply
Luis 2:25PM (12/21/2007)
Creepy...
Reply
sarah 3:45PM (12/21/2007)
Andrew Kissels death was suicide made out to be a murder. In short, he paid someone to shoot him and this allowed his kids to cash in on his multimillion dollar insurance policy.
Read it up.
Reply
Michael Adams 5:17PM (12/21/2007)
I don't doubt he probably asked someone to kill him, but I still think it's a tragically sad tale, exacerbated by greed and selfish people on many fronts.
Benfolio 5:06PM (12/21/2007)
Ended early? Didn't meet reserve?
Yeah, that was a fake, ladies and gentlemen.
Even old lawyers have young grandsons to help them with eBay.
Reply
tekdemon 11:46PM (12/21/2007)
Wow...I remember reading about his brother's death.
Dunno if I'd want to buy into the Kissel luck of having a murderous death though.
Reply
tekdemon 11:50PM (12/21/2007)
Wow...even more disturbing...Andrew was the guardian of Robert's children after Robert was murdered (since their mother is serving a life sentence in jail)...and now he's been stabbed to death horribly.
Those poor kids are going to need a lot of therapy to get over this one.
Reply
Kieran 3:06AM (12/22/2007)
I can tell you without a doubt that it's a fake (and even if the seller has the car, it's not a genuine prop car from the show as he claims).
He lists the VIN from an '84 Trans Am, sure, but what you may not know is that Universal Studios removed the VIN plates from all of the Trans Ams they used to film Knight Rider, and replaced them with studio number tags. They wouldn't come up in a history report, because they've never been street legal or had plates put on them.
Plus, Knight Rider used '83 Trans Ams.
Reply
John Ward 9:19AM (12/22/2007)
Kissel's brother was also murdered. You might remember the "Milk shake murder" in Hong Kong a few years ago. His wife did him in with a drugged & poisoned milk shake. This car seems to lack documentation that it is real. I couldn't part with $25k without proof it was the real deal.
Reply