oldest new car on sale

colm_mcm

Was stuck behind a 10 reg octavia tour today and it struck me that that shape has been sold for 14 years now. This must be the oldest new car on sale in Ireland?

Of course you have the land rover defender still soldiering on.
The Toyota hiace is largely unchanged since 1995 and the new vw beetle is on sale for 12 years now

ThisRegard

Surely that's not right, the Octavia has been sold since 94 ? I would have said 98/99 ?

colm_mcm

Sorry mistyped that. Out since 96 but we didn't get them till 98 or so.

Mildly impressive when you imagine what a 10 reg 97 model corolla would look like

bazz26

ThisRegard wrote: »

Surely that's not right, the Octavia has been sold since 94 ? I would have said 98/99 ?

The Octavia was only on sale in Ireland since 1998, it was on sale in Eastern Europe well before that. 1996 I think was the year it was launched.

The recently retired MkI Saab 9-5 has been on sale since 1997 and even that was based on the 1989 Opel Vectra. Another one I could think of is the Merc G-Wagon, mostly unchanged since 1979.

mickdw

colm_mcm wrote: »

Sorry mistyped that. Out since 96 but we didn't get them till 98 or so.

Mildly impressive when you imagine what a 10 reg 97 model corolla would look like

Now I detest the toyota corolla however I feel a 10 reg, 97 model corolla would look marginally better than the mark 1 Octavia.

homer90

Mark 1 golf - iirc there are one or two floating around. May be 08/09 tho.

colm_mcm

Mk1 golf would be citi golf from south Africa which wouldn't really count. There are oamy old cars still in production for other markets

jaffa20

mickdw wrote: »

Now I detest the toyota corolla however I feel a 10 reg, 97 model corolla would look marginally better than the mark 1 Octavia.

The old corollas all look much better than the newer models imo. The same for the avensis.

The Landrover Defender must be one of the oldest if not the oldest.

frank gooding

Winner the defender

When did the G wagon come out?

VolvoMan

bazz26 wrote: »

The recently retired MkI Saab 9-5 has been on sale since 1997 and even that was based on the 1989 Opel Vectra. Another one I could think of is the Merc G-Wagon, mostly unchanged since 1979.

I'd say it would be inaccurate to say that the original 9-5 was based wholly on the Vectra A. The car was launched two years after that car's successor, so I'm sure there were a lot of modifications made to the platform in that time.

The same argument could be made for the Volvo S80 (launched in 1998). The platform of that car was adopted by Ford and still lives on in many American models today such as the 2010 Taurus, albeit highly modified.

jaffa20 wrote: »

The old corollas all look much better than the newer models imo. The same for the avensis.

You really reckon the horrible bug-eye shape would look better than an Octavia Mk1 today

GTE

bazz26 wrote: »

The Octavia was only on sale in Ireland since 1998, it was on sale in Eastern Europe well before that. 1996 I think was the year it was launched.

The recently retired MkI Saab 9-5 has been on sale since 1997 and even that was based on the 1989 Opel Vectra. Another one I could think of is the Merc G-Wagon, mostly unchanged since 1979.

Was the Octi ever based on the A4 chassis?

I always thought it was a Skoda version of the Bora but if it is as old as that then it must have been based on the A3 at first?
EDIT: Though on a trivial google it seems the Mark 4 Golf did come out in 97ish. Not too much of a difference and Im sure it would have had better parts like I believe there are drum brakes on the rear of the Skoda and discs on the VW.

Mark 4 Golf is still going in Canada but that has new lights. Mark 1 or 2 is still going in South Africa which I think is the same deal as the Skoda Octi Mark 1 being rebranded as the Octi Tour.

If I needed a wagon for work that I could count on and needed cheap the Octi Tour would be a good consideration. Still based on the 1.9 PD platform so if you take care of the engine from new then you wont have that much of the crap you can get with used ones. I was always a fan of that shape Octavia. Not so much a fan of any after that.

jaffa20

VolvoMan wrote: »

You really reckon the horrible bug-eye shape would look better than an Octavia Mk1 today

Sorry, i meant the older corolla and avensis looks better than the curent corolla or avensis.

Conor_M1990

The MK1 Golf Citi stopped production a while back The Octivia is been sold on a different platrom since 04 its based on the same cars (VAG Golf etc). Some one meioned the G wagon. The oldest New car you can buy in Ireland AFAIK is the New beetle hasnt been changed in 12 years or so The G wagon is still been produced but I dont think yo can buy it over here open to correction tho. The 70 series landcriuser is also still been produced

The Real B-man

VW Polo? few chassis changes but its pretty much the same shape since the Mk3 (1994)

Eric Cartman

tata pickup - looks like an 80's hilux
volvo v50 - probably still using the same chassis as the 850 and further back

colm_mcm

Tata not on sale here, v50 is based on ford focus.

The polo has had 2 entire model changes since the 90s.

Don't folks understand the topic ? Reading some of the replies here must be how teachers of really thick kids feel correcting their homework :pac:

Oldest new car currently on sale ? So far winnner is whoever suggested the Beetle.

R.O.R

RoverJames wrote: »

Don't folks understand the topic ? Reading some of the replies here must be how teachers of really thick kids feel correcting their homework :pac:

Oldest new car currently on sale ? So far winnner is whoever suggested the Beetle.

Are you discounting the Hi-Ace because it's a van, or because it's had a minor facelift, and got nice velour inserts on the doors now?

R.O.R

R.O.R wrote: »

Are you discounting the Hi-Ace because it's a van, or because it's had a minor facelift, and got nice velour inserts on the doors now?

Forgot about the Hiace you suggested
Apologies

Edit, the OP suggested the Hiace.

bijapos

Morgan 4/4 has been around since 1936, but I don't know if they have an official dealership here.

unkel

Lotus 7? Around since the 50s and still available today in the likes of the Caterhams...



I don't think anything modern in the same price range can out-maneuver it today.

Fizman

Isn't the current 2010 Audi A3 essentially the same car from 2003? Apart from a front grille facelift? I know there was talk of a new Mark but I haven't seen nor heard of it in a while.

07Lapierre

Would the Porsche 911 fall into this category? first introduced in 1963 i believe.

_Kaiser_

jaffa20 wrote: »

Sorry, i meant the older corolla and avensis looks better than the curent corolla or avensis.

Have to agree, the 94-97 era Corolla looked a lot better than the one that followed it. The Carina E and mkI Avensis were nicer than what followed as well.

Ditto the Honda Civic and Mitsubishi Colt from that era.

Big Nasty

The Focus is out since '98 and pretty much unchanged bar the '04 facelift. Still looks pretty fresh today:

Tea 1000

Fail for the Focus, it's a different model from '04 on.
The original Beetle, can that still be bought new? I didn't think so.
However, I have seen as new as 01 in the Mini. There's a chance that those can still be bought brand new.

Big Nasty

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Fail for the Focus, it's a different model from '04 on.

Technically the '04 is a MkII but realistically it was just a facelift. In fact I didn't even know it was considered a different mark until just now.

bazz26

The 2004 onwards Focus has a totally different chassis to the original 1998 to 2004 model. Some engines were carried over but that is about it.

Big Nasty

bazz26 wrote: »

The 2004 onwards Focus has a totally different chassis to the original 1998 to 2004 model. Some engines were carried over but that is about it.

Point taken but both models still look very, very similar.

bazz26

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Point taken but both models still look very, very similar.

Ok but to be honest in that case the Golf hasn't changed much then since the MkI either. They all look similar though each generation bar the MkVI has a different chassis which imo defines a new and different model.

Big Nasty

bazz26 wrote: »

Ok but to be honest in that case the Golf hasn't changed much then since the MkI either. They all look similar though each generation bar the MkVI has a different chassis which imo defines a new and different model.

True enough, especially with the Mk II & III - again looked more like a facelift.

Tea 1000

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Point taken but both models still look very, very similar.

They're quite different to be fair. And the whole point of this thread is the oldest car you can buy brand new. The current Focus is only since 04, and facelifted anyway in 09.
The original Beetle or Mini are the strongest contenders, as is the Mk1 Golf, which you can buy in Mexico, although that may have ended a year or two ago.

bijapos

Tea 1000 wrote: »

The original Beetle or Mini are the strongest contenders, as is the Mk1 Golf, which you can buy in Mexico, although that may have ended a year or two ago.

They stopped building the Beetle in Mexico in 2003, the original Mini was last built in 2000.

The Morris Oxford from 1956 is still built as the Hindustan Ambassador in India and has a distributor in the UK . I've seen one on an Irish plate somewhere.

VolvoMan

Cars like the Volkswagen Citigolf and Hindustan Ambassador are exceptions. Sure the Peugeot 405 and 504 are still assembled and available for sale in many third-world countries.

Regarding cars for sale in Western countries, I reckon you'd do well to find a car older than 2002/3 in the industry at present. The first one that springs to my mind is the SAAB 9-3.

G Luxel

The 504 is gone, the last version was a pickup in 2009. There was also the Dacia 1300 or Renault 12 and that was dropped a year or two ago. I recently spotted a 10 C Primera, a 10 C Avensis(last built in 2008) and someone is driving around in a 07 C Mercedes W-124, so that was in production for a really long time.......a recent post in Wiki states that Graham Walker Ltd is still producing Reliant Scimitars to order......and somewhere in Iran, a factory is producing Renault 5 mk1's......

johnos1984

G Lux don't forget the Iranian built Hillman Hunters

G Luxel

johnos1984 wrote: »

G Lux don't forget the Iranian built Hillman Hunters

they arent made there anymore, not since 2005...(except the Pickup) but...they are being built in the Sudan....

Going back to the OP, the original 97 Octavia isnt listed on Skoda.ie website, so its a case of the last of them still being registered in 2010?

Heres another vehicle thats for sale and 20 years older than the Octavia.

colm_mcm

I would have thought they'd be all gone by now. THe new one has low vrt
Saw a 10 reg old model Picasso recently

bazz26

The Merc CLC Class, it's still based on the original C Class Sportcoupe which was an Audi A3 rival and launched back in 2001.

L1011

I saw a 10 reg Citroen Xsara in Lahinch in July, but thats NOS rather than still on general sale obviously