A blast from the past - 90's AutoTrader

[Baz Tench]

Drive Blind said:

I remember Nova SR's usually commanding silly prices whereas the similar Fiesta 1.4s or a 205XS would be half the price for similar age.
Any comedy Nova SR prices?

I remember that too. I think they were relatively cheap to insure compared to their rivals at the time, hence the silly prices.

[s m]

Baz Tench said:

Drive Blind said:

I remember Nova SR's usually commanding silly prices whereas the similar Fiesta 1.4s or a 205XS would be half the price for similar age.
Any comedy Nova SR prices?

I remember that too. I think they were relatively cheap to insure compared to their rivals at the time, hence the silly prices.

Some Nova SRs

[Baz Tench]

S M, do you have a hangar full of old mags or something? You always seem to be able to instantly pull an article about any oldish car!

They are great to see though.

[MarkRSi]

Blimey that Autotrader in the OP looks familiar - I was guilty of looking through Autotraders before I could drive thinking of what my dream garage of bangers would be

[swisstoni]

Before Autotrader there was Exchange and Mart. No pictures in the car section as far as I can remember - just some VERY well chosen words. Every word cost money.

[Nickyboy]

£49k for a Countach? Need to get my time machine working

[Adz The Rat]

That white Nova SRI looks remarkably like the one I bought around that time.

[poing]

sdkrc said:

Love these and spent a fortune on them as a kid, most of my pocket money and paper round money went on car mags including autotrader.

Pretty sure that Uno is actually a 126 in the picture.

[croyde]

Nice to see that TVR pricelist.

My uncle picked his up from Blackpool around the same time, late 70s. Thought it would be ok to drive it on no plates all the way home to Holland.

All the police said when he got stopped was "Are you a member of the royal family sir?"

So a bit under £9k which was still more than what my dad earned in a year.

[s m]

Baz Tench said:

do you have a hangar full of old mags or something?

I suppose I do have quite a few

[Drive Blind]

s m said:

Some Nova SRs

Cheers, but your example appears to be from 2001-ish.
From memory it was around 93-96ish, where anything GTE/GTi/16V was uninsurable for the average boy racer unless they had deep pockets. This pushed up the prices of the warm hatches the next tier down.

Thanks anyways

[s m]

Drive Blind said:

s m said:

Some Nova SRs

Cheers, but your example appears to be from 2001-ish.
From memory it was around 93-96ish, where anything GTE/GTi/16V was uninsurable for the average boy racer unless they had deep pockets. This pushed up the prices of the warm hatches the next tier down.

Thanks anyways

Yes, 1993 was when the insurance went a bit crazy thanks to stuff like Blackbird Leys on news etc

I can remember talking to an insurance broker - he had something like 300 Cosworths on his books ( they were a very common car then ) and had had a claim of some sort on all but about 5 or 6 of them in the previous year

[tr7v8]

That started as Thames Valley Auto Trader, in the middle 80's a mate & I worked in IT but made money buying & selling cars. Normally £80-£90 MOT failures which we'd sort out put a years ticket on & sell for £300-£450.
Every thursday morning we'd both buy a copy & then phone the others office & spend 40minutes plus discussing what we would go & look at for the weekend.

[williamp]

Hey OP. Can we see a shot of the Aston martin page please?

[sdkrc]

I've only got Novas from 98-99 and there aren't too many crazy prices.
I think you're right and 94-96 might have been a bubble.

[paulwirral]

essayer said:

Didn't dealers used to bung AT so they'd get it the day before the public saw it?

Our local newsagents shop was behind our builders yard , he used to drop one off on Wednesday night if they were delivered in time , we got quite a few fixer uppers that way .

[sdkrc]

williamp said:

Hey OP. Can we see a shot of the Aston martin page please?

I'm afraid the Astons are probably in the Top Marques from the same era...or maybe the southern editions of AutoTrader.
I'm convinced I saw an ad for a Virage without a photo so will keep an eye out for that again.
Here are some consolation specials:

[NiceCupOfTea]

Any chance of a pic of the Saab pages, especially the older classic 900 -93?

[ali_XFR]

Rovers please. 800s, Vitesses, 200/400s - my first car was a 1992 216 gsi- 109bhp of Honda powered beige-ness!

[LaurasOtherHalf]

sdkrc said:

I've only got Novas from 98-99 and there aren't too many crazy prices.
I think you're right and 94-96 might have been a bubble.

Indeed they were, I turned 17 in '93 and as far as I remember it was only a Nova SR or Fiesta Supersport that could be insured (group 6?) by a new driver that was even remotely sporty.

As they were older, the Supersports were tough to find as most were rotten so a Nova SR was hot property for most of us. Being in Cumbria, I had to get my hands on the north east and north west editions every thursday to try and get one (finally found one at a dodgy newcastle dealer called Bob Roberts).