What Collectable Car do You Most Wish You Had Bought When They Were Cheap?

Capri · 01-07-2014 6:43am #1

http://hooniverse.com/2014/06/30/hooniverse-asks-what-collectable-car-do-you-most-wish-you-had-bought-when-they-were-cheap/

What Collectable Car do You Most Wish You Had Bought When They Were Cheap?

If you recall, back on Friday we pondered the sudden and seemingly incomprehensible increase in values that VW’s long-derided Thing has in recent times enjoyed. The Thing isn’t the only thing that has seen prices suddenly take off like a rocket. If you’ve been tracking Porsches of late, the air-cooled ones I mean, you will note that what was once in the realm of possibility for many a modest wallet has now left the value-mart parking lot.

I was recently looking at acquiring a 914, and had fully expected that decent drivers were still solidly entrenched in $4-$8K range, where they had seemed to dwell for years. To my shock and disappointment, those cars are now commanding $12-$15K, and really nice ones go for far more than that. And 911s too have seen their values jump by a third or more in the past couple of years.

I should have pulled the trigger sooner on that mid-engine German. Then I’d be the one sitting on a rapidly appreciating asset instead of people who aren’t me. What about you, with collector car prices suddenly seeming to be springing all over the place, is the one particular car or truck that you’ve always wanted but now find is out of your price range?

wildefalcon · 01-07-2014 7:03am

Rover 75.

corktina · 01-07-2014 7:51am

wildefalcon wrote: »

Rover 75.

now's the time (and always will be...)

jimgoose · 01-07-2014 7:57am

From a purely financial point of view, a Mk. I two-door Escort. Those things were all over the place when I was a youngfella and no-one gave a tuppenny damn about them. Now they come from England to exhume knackered old bodyshells from barns in the arsehole of nowhere and pay proper dolla for them. Same goes for Enlish Axles by the way - once they were under every crappy little trailer and greyhound box you'd see, and now they're finally running out and starting to command actual money.

As for what I'd actually want to drive nowadays, a Mk. I Granada with a big-ish Essex or, failing that, Cologne. My father had a couple of them and, like that, we didn't think too much of them - when they died, they were scrapped IIRC. They're a rare mare nowadays - it appears that many more Granada Coupés were saved than the three-box.

macplaxton · 01-07-2014 11:33am

corktina wrote: »

wildefalcon wrote: »

Rover 75.

now's the time (and always will be...)

What's wrong with Rover 75s? A fine old bus....

:D:D

Rover 75 aka Rover P3 first reg Sep 1949 2103cc[GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], by Charles01 (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons

Tzar Chasm · 01-07-2014 1:43pm

jimgoose wrote: »

From a purely financial point of view, a Mk. I two-door Escort. Those things were all over the place when I was a youngfella and no-one gave a tuppenny damn about them. Now they come from England to exhume knackered old bodyshells from barns in the arsehole of nowhere and pay proper dolla for them. Same goes for Enlish Axles by the way - once they were under every crappy little trailer and greyhound box you'd see, and now they're finally running out and starting to command actual money.

As for what I'd actually want to drive nowadays, a Mk. I Granada with a big-ish Essex or, failing that, Cologne. My father had a couple of them and, like that, we didn't think too much of them - when they died, they were scrapped IIRC. They're a rare mare nowadays - it appears that many more Granada Coupés were saved than the three-box.

I almost cry sometimes when I recall the quantity of mk2 escorts we destroyed in the fields as kids, in the late eighties ane early 90's we could pick them up for under 50 pounds, two doors were common enough round here, we raced them and crashed them and dumped them in a ditch. There was a ot of wanton destruction of those cars.

DakarVert · 01-07-2014 1:50pm

Sierra Cosworths and Mk1/Mk2 Escorts are getting to rediculous levels now.

DakarVert · 01-07-2014 3:36pm

LIGHTNING wrote: »

That is mostly due to the Rally scene. Mk2 Escorts have always been mental money in this country. In the same way that AE86`s are very expensive due to the drift scene.

Not always mental money.

Many a farmer used an Escort to block a gap in a ditch.... It's gone to the stage now where there being removed from ditches to be restored/doner cars.

Tzar Chasm · 01-07-2014 4:42pm

DakarVert wrote: »

Not always mental money.

Many a farmer used an Escort to block a gap in a ditch.... It's gone to the stage now where there being removed from ditches to be restored/doner cars.

exactly there was a point in my youth when a 4 door 1.3 could be had simply by showing up in the yard with a can of petrol and offering to take it away

The other ones I most vividly remember destroying were a pair of mk2 jags, they were truly on their last legs, but still gorgeous cars. We rallied them round the fields til they gave up the ghost and then they were dragged into a corner and user as chicken coops

PLUG71 · 01-07-2014 4:50pm

In 2005 I bought a low milage RS2000 Custom which I have to say was in exceptional condition and I paid £1500.

Due to a loss of job I sold it 3 months later for the same price.

Gutted now because it would be worth around €10000.

mb1725 · 01-07-2014 6:16pm

Was offered one of these in this colour for handy money back in the early 1980's but didn't have the room and was more interested in women:

.............. wouldn't have cost me a fraction of what women have over the years! :pac:

davycc · 01-07-2014 7:19pm

S13 200sxs and ae86 corolla gt when tidy ones were 1500 punts:(

colm_mcm · 01-07-2014 8:11pm

Saab 900 Turbo. The one that got away

Also £1000 twincams

w124man · 01-07-2014 8:21pm

Back in the pre Thatcher days I scrapped two E Types cuz they were rotten .... :eek:

mb1725 · 01-07-2014 9:31pm

w124man wrote: »

Back in the pre Thatcher days I scrapped two E Types cuz they were rotten .... :eek:

:eek::eek::eek:

jca · 01-07-2014 10:09pm

w124man wrote: »

Back in the pre Thatcher days I scrapped two E Types cuz they were rotten .... :eek:

That's how most of them died unfortunately.

carchaeologist · 01-07-2014 11:49pm

I have a few Capris I paid little for back 12/14 years ago.
Smashed up a tidy MK1 Escort for fun 20 years ago tho, think many fellas did.
Good few RWD Starlets got the chop too...

MRBASS · 01-07-2014 11:52pm

i remember me grandads garden stacked high with mk1 escorts and various cortinas and the likes,the place covered in parts.and i also remember the truck arriving to clean them all out,,many years ago...would have been worth a few shillings now days

kev1.3s · 02-07-2014 7:00am

I know it's pushing on a bit but I remember about 97 I was in my first job and I bought a classic mag witch had a lancia stratos feature in it, one of the cars tested was a lime green one belonging to a guy who had several and on the article it mentioned that It was currently for sale for about £10,000.
I remember thinking it was not beyond the me to go to the credit union for a loan but in the end sense or as it turned out a lack of vision talked me out of it.

Type 17 · 02-07-2014 7:04pm

In the late 80's a friend was looking at an Opel Kadett C coupe GT/E - for those who don't know it, they came from the factory with a 2 litre fuel-injected engine and a 5-speed gearbox, rather than the 1.2 carb/4-speed of the ordinary coupe's.

They were all LHD, but this was one of around ten which were converted to RHD in the UK, and also came with a dog-leg ZF 'box, straight-through exhaust, rally seats & harnesses, and a full roll-cage. It had been raced at Mondello, and the evening that we took it around Dublin city centre, it was still on slicks (it was a dry night). We found a guy in a Porsche at a set of lights and revved at him, but he declined to race us when he noticed there was a number on the door of our car!

My friend didn't buy it in the end (it needed engine work as it had overheated during a race when the rad got a knock), but they're extremely rare now (most were raced) and we still look back on it as a missed opportunity.

CianDon · 03-07-2014 1:22am

Ive seen photos taken of old Autotraders and you'd be sick looking at the prices of some yokes. I know theres one in particular from the late 90's where theres 3 sub 1000 pound MK2 Escorts and 7 sub £1000 genuine UK Spec AE86's :eek:

Nekarsulm · 03-07-2014 9:23am

Remember looking at an Austin A40 (the Wallace & Grommet type) when I got my provisional licence. Think it was 300 Punts at the time. Insurance company said no. Then there was a Laser Capri and a BMW 2002 that I should have bought, one was rusty, and the other the garage owner insulted me so I walked away in a huff :rolleyes: Both of those were under 1000 sterling. There was a Jetta Mk2 Pacific I sent to the scrap yard cause the engine blew up. Perfect body wise.

The Big Red Fella · 03-07-2014 10:05am

Fiat 131 2000t/c racing & Fiat 131 supermirafiori 1600t/c series 2!:mad:

corktina · 03-07-2014 11:19am

Mondeo ST200...oh wait, I did...

Alfasudcrazy · 04-07-2014 9:31pm

My regrets are not getting a Mk II RS2000 - was waiting for the 30 years etc and they gradually got dearer.

Also regret not picking up a nice Mk II Granada 2.8i Ghia (pre face lift) - they are not that expensive still but good ones are very rare.

carchaeologist · 04-07-2014 11:07pm

corktina wrote: »

Mondeo ST200...oh wait, I did...

Was one of these crushed in my local scrappy last year.

carlosfandango · 05-07-2014 1:09am

I paid £2,000 for my fiat 124 spider in about 1989. It was expensive for me at the time (I was driving a 127 I'd paid £30 for as my daily!) but I still have it & love it. Best money I ever spent.

I had a '69 911s that I sold a number if years ago, it recently changed hands for in excess of £50k stg... Themselves the breaks..

CFD

toastedpickles · 05-07-2014 1:21am

colm_mcm wrote: »

Saab 900 Turbo. The one that got away

You can drive mine when i have it sorted

hi5 · 05-07-2014 9:26am

I heard Jay Leno say in an interview recently that he got one of his Muira's for free, as the the owner had an expensive repair bill that he couldn't pay and the car just wasn't worth it at the time.

some cars have doubled in value since 1999

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2601411/Ten-classic-cars-doubled-value-five-years.html

Blue850 · 05-07-2014 1:02pm

A Fiat 127 Sport for £250, and in rare silver too, although I later found a non running 127 1300GT for £200, one of only three sold new in Galway and the only one left, tucked away in a garage for almost 20 years now :rolleyes:

A Saab 99 Turbo that came into the garage I worked in for an insurance report, young lad who had bought couldn't get a quote on it and offered it to us in the garage for small money.

A really clean MK2 Triumph 2000 in the first scrappage scheme, could have got it for a grand off the garage but I couldn't get insurance on it

Capri · 05-07-2014 10:39pm

hi5 -some cars have doubled in value since 1999

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/c...ive-years.html

Lot of that is exotica, like the deTomaso Pantera I passed on because it hadn't got enough seats like my 3.0 Capri

Wonder what stuff that's cheap now will appreciate in a couple of years (sound of mad rush to snap up *&%*&'s off DD

:p )

What Collectable Car do You Most Wish You Had Bought When They Were Cheap?

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