More old classic prices
Discussion
I know this has been discussed before on here many times, but you can't resist the temptation to talk about those days when they were "cheap".
Just flicking through an April 2001 issue of PCs magazine I came across an ad for two Capri's (an 84 and 87 model) one said to be in great condition, MOTd and with lots of history, and the other with no MOT or tax. Selling for £500 and £200 each lol. Try finding a Capri today for 500 and 200 quid, you'd be looking at anything from a few grand to 15 grand. How come they were selling them so cheap baffles me, they musnt've needed the money, unlike today were they want an arm and a leg for some shopping trolley some Austin Metro.
There's another Capri on the same page for £995.
And another for £725. Good condition, two owners.
Other bargains included:
Immaculate Citroen DS21M Pallas, 91,000kms, zero corrision, LHD, a steal at £4,750.
Jag XK120 DHC, LHD, £16,000. Today you're talking anything from £70,000-120,000.
Jaguar XJ6 Coupe at £7500. Today around the 25-30 grand mark.
Jensen Interceptor MK3, body off restoration, extensive history, etc for £8950. A Jensen in said condition today would be around 40 grand.
Reliant Regal 3/24, 1966, 9000 miles from new, very original, £895. Even those Del Boy Regal vans aren't exactly being given away today as the ones I see for sale are asking around the 5 grand mark or even more.
1967 Splitscreen VW Campervan for £6,800. Compare that to the ridiculous money VW Campervans (and not just early rare examples) are fetching today, £20-30,000 is just insane.
Scimitar's seem to be one of the few that haven't budged in value...until very recently that is. The other day I was browsing through a current edition of PC magazine and there were a few Scimitar GTEs for sale between the 5-12 grand. One was an 1983 SE6b, 97,000 miles for 6 grand, and another, 6a for £12,000. To think I sold my dads SE6b two years ago, Cologne engine, all the seats were original, 93,000 miles, galv chassis for a miserable 2 grand lol.
Just flicking through an April 2001 issue of PCs magazine I came across an ad for two Capri's (an 84 and 87 model) one said to be in great condition, MOTd and with lots of history, and the other with no MOT or tax. Selling for £500 and £200 each lol. Try finding a Capri today for 500 and 200 quid, you'd be looking at anything from a few grand to 15 grand. How come they were selling them so cheap baffles me, they musnt've needed the money, unlike today were they want an arm and a leg for some shopping trolley some Austin Metro.
There's another Capri on the same page for £995.
And another for £725. Good condition, two owners.
Other bargains included:
Immaculate Citroen DS21M Pallas, 91,000kms, zero corrision, LHD, a steal at £4,750.
Jag XK120 DHC, LHD, £16,000. Today you're talking anything from £70,000-120,000.
Jaguar XJ6 Coupe at £7500. Today around the 25-30 grand mark.
Jensen Interceptor MK3, body off restoration, extensive history, etc for £8950. A Jensen in said condition today would be around 40 grand.
Reliant Regal 3/24, 1966, 9000 miles from new, very original, £895. Even those Del Boy Regal vans aren't exactly being given away today as the ones I see for sale are asking around the 5 grand mark or even more.
1967 Splitscreen VW Campervan for £6,800. Compare that to the ridiculous money VW Campervans (and not just early rare examples) are fetching today, £20-30,000 is just insane.
Scimitar's seem to be one of the few that haven't budged in value...until very recently that is. The other day I was browsing through a current edition of PC magazine and there were a few Scimitar GTEs for sale between the 5-12 grand. One was an 1983 SE6b, 97,000 miles for 6 grand, and another, 6a for £12,000. To think I sold my dads SE6b two years ago, Cologne engine, all the seats were original, 93,000 miles, galv chassis for a miserable 2 grand lol.
Edited by Jukebag on Sunday 6th October 11:14
My dad brought in the March 1977 edition of Thoroughbred & Classic Cars magazine when I was ten years old and that was the first time I'd heard of Facel Vega and have been in love ever since. Unfortunately the days of a £1250 HK500 have long gone.
Lots of sub £2k E-Types and affordable DB Astons.
Still have the magazine though.
Edited by vixen1700 on Sunday 6th October 11:36
When they say that during the 70s nobody wanted an Aston DB series and that you couldn't give em away, they weren't joking. To think they were selling them for the same price as that MGB GT, and MGBs are regarded as the most common and affordable of classic sportscars that one can buy, it's to comprehend. You can still buy an MGB for that kind of money 40 plus years later. Money's not everything of course.
Isn't the current equivalent of a DB6 for £2395 in 1977 a V8 Vantage or DB9 for around £25k today?
Both eminently do-able - get your money out!
But you will probably have had to do a full resto on the DB6 at least twice in that period, the second one to a much higher standard and much higher cost to reflect the uplift in values.
If I was taking a time machine back to swinging 70s London I'd leave the cars alone and put my £2395 towards a house in Notting Hill or Brixton. Or a vacant lot on the Isle of Dogs.
Both eminently do-able - get your money out!
But you will probably have had to do a full resto on the DB6 at least twice in that period, the second one to a much higher standard and much higher cost to reflect the uplift in values.
If I was taking a time machine back to swinging 70s London I'd leave the cars alone and put my £2395 towards a house in Notting Hill or Brixton. Or a vacant lot on the Isle of Dogs.
It's fascinating to see what some cars make nowadays.
I sold a tired 1977 MK2 Escort RS2000 in 1984 for about £2,500 - suitably smartened up it would be worth around 10 times that now. But it would probably have needed at least 2 total rebuilds in the meantime!
Sold my 1981 Capri 2.8 Injection on less than 50K miles in 1990 for £2,800 - but that would also have needed major rust attention long ago!
But the best one I remember was when my Dad bought a 1970 Fiat 125 in 1972 from a "bomb-site" trader in Tooting. On the other side of the road was a showroom with a J Plate Ferrari Daytona priced at £5,950! Then again maintaining one of those for the last 47 years would have added up!
I sold a tired 1977 MK2 Escort RS2000 in 1984 for about £2,500 - suitably smartened up it would be worth around 10 times that now. But it would probably have needed at least 2 total rebuilds in the meantime!
Sold my 1981 Capri 2.8 Injection on less than 50K miles in 1990 for £2,800 - but that would also have needed major rust attention long ago!
But the best one I remember was when my Dad bought a 1970 Fiat 125 in 1972 from a "bomb-site" trader in Tooting. On the other side of the road was a showroom with a J Plate Ferrari Daytona priced at £5,950! Then again maintaining one of those for the last 47 years would have added up!
I don't get how adjustment for inflation comes to a figure of say 25k in today's money. The second home I grew up in in the mid 80s, a typical red brick terrace, cost just £10,000. During that time we had an extension built on the kitchen which (I've still got the plans and receipt) which cost about £3,000, so you're saying 3k today would equivalent to 25k? I really doubt it as there's no way we had money like that or could ever pay that off. 3k then was more or less what it is today.
Even 10k for an house wasn't an earth shattering amount of money back then (10k today to most people I know, your typical family with kids in a working class area would be slot of money, which shows how poor we're becoming) and my parents were easily able to pay that off within a couple of years by the time we moved in the early 90s to a semi that really showed us how much of a death grip (aka mortgage) buying a house had increasingly become, and it's getting worse for many homeowners as prices are getting out of reach for most of us, and I think that's the plan imo to rid people of owning their own property where all there is are tiny Lego brick, mostly rented or council owned, style apartments which are very commonplace now. No way would 10k be the equivalent to 90-100k (a typical terraced house price where I live) today, because it would've took twice as long to pay it off.
I know I'm going off topic there, but just making a point about current and past values. Just my opinion of course.
Even 10k for an house wasn't an earth shattering amount of money back then (10k today to most people I know, your typical family with kids in a working class area would be slot of money, which shows how poor we're becoming) and my parents were easily able to pay that off within a couple of years by the time we moved in the early 90s to a semi that really showed us how much of a death grip (aka mortgage) buying a house had increasingly become, and it's getting worse for many homeowners as prices are getting out of reach for most of us, and I think that's the plan imo to rid people of owning their own property where all there is are tiny Lego brick, mostly rented or council owned, style apartments which are very commonplace now. No way would 10k be the equivalent to 90-100k (a typical terraced house price where I live) today, because it would've took twice as long to pay it off.
I know I'm going off topic there, but just making a point about current and past values. Just my opinion of course.
Edited by Jukebag on Monday 7th October 09:37
Edited by Jukebag on Monday 7th October 09:39
vixen1700 said:
My dad brought in the March 1977 edition of Thoroughbred & Classic Cars magazine when I was ten years old and that was the first time I'd heard of Facel Vega and have been in love ever since. Unfortunately the days of a £1250 HK500 have long gone.
Lots of sub £2k E-Types and affordable DB Astons.
Still have the magazine though.
Edited by vixen1700 on Sunday 6th October 11:36
I wish I could find a magazine like that for a quid off eBay. Ones I see are listed for a few quid and even as much as £5, and about £8 for postage on top of that. I can order a book from Amazon and the postage will only be about £2.80. Where do these sellers come up with these silly postage costs?.
Touring442 said:
I've just bought the January 1977 T&CC from Ebay for a pound. Two things strike me; the prices of the cars, and the quality of the writing, both in relation to 2019.
You are not kidding. Some of the regurgative froth spouted by the masses of newly hatched Youtube generation car journos is embarrassing. Possibly why I buy very few car mags these days. Howwever its nice to find someone like John Simister in Practical Classics.Because postage doesn't involve commission, so sell for a cheap price and jack up the postage. The seller doesn't get ripped off by fleabay that way. But if you want cheap cars - and these are only one year old - look at these. One is the Lofty England demonstrator chassis #4 too.
Or how about these two from 1968?
As regards inflation, I use the Bank of England calculator, and since 1968 the figure is 17X or £10 is £170. if we go back to the two E-types they have well outstripped inflation where £1,395 would today be less that £30,000. That #4 is worth at least £500,000 today. My first house, bought for £6,200 in 1972 should be worth £73,000. That very same house is on the market at a tad over £200,000!
Or how about these two from 1968?
As regards inflation, I use the Bank of England calculator, and since 1968 the figure is 17X or £10 is £170. if we go back to the two E-types they have well outstripped inflation where £1,395 would today be less that £30,000. That #4 is worth at least £500,000 today. My first house, bought for £6,200 in 1972 should be worth £73,000. That very same house is on the market at a tad over £200,000!
Jukebag said:
I wish I could find a magazine like that for a quid off eBay. Ones I see are listed for a few quid and even as much as £5, and about £8 for postage on top of that. I can order a book from Amazon and the postage will only be about £2.80. Where do these sellers come up with these silly postage costs?.
They are about. I just put in lowest price+post, stick in a derisory bid and just wait. I bought about 10 mags 1969-1985 this way and not crap either - CAR, Motor, Autocar and T&CC. They work out at about 3 quid all in each.MOTOR's 1970 Motor Show guide is excellent, a detailed description of the Cortina Mark III and a full road test on the 1750 Maxi which, despite what many will say, was a very good car for its day.
The writing is superb as well; Autocar/Motor trying to be fairly impartial, CAR ripping into anything not up to par (the crucified the Cortina) and LJKS who was simply unique.
Paul Michaels of Hexagon fame could write a very, very good book about the motor trade. He is certainly one of its characters and razor sharp with it. His decision to abandon all of his franchises in favour of one - BMW - in the seventies..........
I do believe he told them to p
s off a few years ago when they started demanding some outrageous new premises development.
I have a superb Hexagon brochure from the mid eighties when things were really booming and he opened a restaurant and wine bar. The good old days!
I do believe he told them to p
s off a few years ago when they started demanding some outrageous new premises development. I have a superb Hexagon brochure from the mid eighties when things were really booming and he opened a restaurant and wine bar. The good old days!
Touring442 said:
Paul Michaels of Hexagon fame could write a very, very good book about the motor trade. He is certainly one of its characters and razor sharp with it. His decision to abandon all of his franchises in favour of one - BMW - in the seventies..........
I do believe he told them to ps off a few years ago when they started demanding some outrageous new premises development.
I have a superb Hexagon brochure from the mid eighties when things were really booming and he opened a restaurant and wine bar. The good old days!
Just looking at some period stickers for my Mini and came across this one...I do believe he told them to p
s off a few years ago when they started demanding some outrageous new premises development. I have a superb Hexagon brochure from the mid eighties when things were really booming and he opened a restaurant and wine bar. The good old days!
https://www.isaydingdong.co.uk/ourshop/prod_686482...
|https://thumbsnap.com/C16mvGassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff