Generally speaking there are three arbiters we use to assess a vehicle's used value and marketable desirability: model, condition and provenance. And of these three, perhaps the greatest is provenance. After all, such is our modern-day obsession with fame and the famous, how many tired old pieces of second-hand junk have been successfully sold for way in advance of their true worth by the addition of a celebrity owner somewhere along the way?
Indeed the interweb is legion with stories of cars that have fulfilled this brief - and ex-owners who have prospered thus - with the very fact that the Queen's gloved hands or the Pope's pellegrina or Beckham's feet have at some point come into contact with a part of the said car's interior enough to propel prices to the semi-stratospheric.
I have never owned a car that before me had been owned by a celebrity, but I have owned three vehicles that previously belonged to LJK Setright, and in this field - our field, the one you're in now, motoring - he was I suppose something of a celebrity. Alas I never noticed that this brush with motoring fame had any effect on the prices of these vehicles I owned, either in the buying or the selling of them, so perhaps his reputation hadn't spread far enough beyond the confines of our tiny idyll for it to impact on the trade or the public or whoever it is that decides that such associations are good.
It seems to have worked for young Jonny Smith, though, that well-known TV and internet motoring pundit whose Polski-Fiat 126P is up for grabs in our classifieds, and whose ownership of it seems to be very much a crucial factor in the selling of it. Whether or not his name does in fact add extra pounds to the little car's price is perhaps a matter of debate, but £3195 doesn't sound like such a far-fetched amount for something so unquestionably rare and, in its own quirky 24hp, 65mph sort-of way, so imminently desirable. Yes, it may well be a lethargic performer, its rear-mounted parallel twin engine full of character but ultimately lacking in puff, but few cars are as much fun as the diminutive 126; you just have to remember to drive it flat out everywhere.
The 126P was no more or less than a Fiat 126 built under license in Poland, and this wonderfully original 1990 example was brought to the UK for Smith in 2016. It looks pretty immaculate, well, at least on paper it does. Indeed it's described as a cult classic, but whether or not that's referring to Jonny Smith or the car I'm not sure. With a little imagination you can of course seek it out on the internet, and even see the car being driven by Jonny and his 'Smith and Sniff' website cohort Richard Porter. Indeed with that kind of provenance it's effectively had two celebrity endorsements for the price of one. Bit of a bargain then, I'd say.
SPECIFICATION: POLSKI-FIAT 126P
Engine: 652cc, twin cylinder, air cooled
Transmission: Four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 24
Torque (lb ft): 30
MPG: N/K
CO2: N/K
First registered: 1990
Recorded mileage: 36,000
Price new: N/K
Yours for: £3195
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