Car price in 1953

V480

Hi there,

Bit of a boring question perhaps but hopefully somebody may have the answer...if someone were to purchase a car for 220 pounds in 1953, what would that equate to in todays money?? I was trying to find some kind of 'currency converter' style website that could give me the answer but there doesn't appear to be any.

kasper

just find out how many pints of the dark stuff you could buy for that money in 1953 and calculate from that

unkel

I always like these comparisons - surely someone here will give us a clue!

In the Guinness museum a few weeks ago, a typical worker in 1940 earned about 100 (don't ask me what - shillings?) per week. They paid no tax, about 10 rent, 20 on bread!!!, 10 on other groceries, 20 on fags and drink and I can't remember the rest. So they didn't have cars, or big screen TVs, or jetting holidays to the sun, but sure they must have had a much easier and more relaxed life than we have with our smartphones, cable tv, internet and several jetting holidays per year?

kasper

so unkel how much were you paying for a pint of guinness in 1953 ?

wayne0308

Not sure how accurate these basic wages are... Seems a bit high for farm labourer's given that the Guinness guys were on 100 shillings a week. (20 shillings in a pound, 12 pence in a shilling). Must be an average basic wage for all workers at the farm.

Guinness employee's were supposed to be fairly well paid by industry standards I told.

But anyways here's the data.

http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0168/D.0168.195805280048.html


So by this, that car would have cost nearly a years wages for a farm worker. Although these figures are from 5 years later. The average wage could have risen a decent bit.

Joe 90

If its any help I remember reading about some famous Irish trade unionist who said that he would not be happy untill the average working man earned £10 per week.
My first summer job in 1962 was at first year appretice ages, 1s 21/2d per hour. For those who don't remember £sd thats a shade over 6 pence sterling.
When I was a few years older, late 60s I can remember a bottle of Harp or Black Label was 2s 3d. Draught beers were not found everywhere but 4s, 20 pence sterling, comes to mind.

I remember going around Donegal in teh early 60s with my fathers trucks and a frequent stop fot dinner was Boyces in Letterkenny. Dinner was 4s and consisted of soup, a meat and potatoe and veg of some sort, a desert of some sort and tea and a biscuit.

At one time cars were cheaper in the Republic than in the North. Whereas now the Guards and Customs are out to hang you if you live in the South and try to drive a foreign car it was the Northern customs who took exception to someone from the UK driveing a Southern car in those days.

I can remember a Leyland Comet truck bought new as a chassis and cab being £3550 in 1962.
Red diesel 1s 21/2 a gallon, late 50s or early 60s.
A Triumph 1300, the one I did my driveing test in, was £981 in 1967.