If only I had the money at the time...

[soxboy]

....and of course was around at the time.

Simon Taylor's column in this month's Classic & Sportscar makes interesting reading about some prices in the early 1960s.

In 1962 a Mini Cooper was £640, a Hillman Minx was £926 and a Jaguar 2.4 £1489. In today's prices a Mini Cooper is £14,800, a Peugeot 308 2.2 £21,000(!) and a Jag XF2.2D £34,000.

However in 1962 for the same money as the Jag you could have had an Aston DBR1 (1959 LeMans winner), also reference to a Jaguar D-Type for £750 and a C-Type for £495!

I wonder how many people out there are kicking themselves about the ones that got away.

[harryowl]

aye. Was looking through the classifieds section of ony of my dads copies of motorsport maagazine from the late 60's. AM ab4's for £900, lotus XIs for for £500. What suprised me the most was the number lotus sevens for sale! a 1/3rd of all the ads must have been for them!

[iva cosworth]

Funnily enough there is a similar piece in this months Classic Car as well by Simon Kidston

[i think] about not being able to give away a Ferrari 250 GTO in the late 60s.

A car that is now worth £20M .

[a8hex]

Somewhere I've a period review of the XK150, and it the back almost the car ads you can buy a C-Type for less than the cost of a second hand XK140. I'm going to plead the excuse of not having been born yet for not having snapped up that particular bargain.

[Terminator X]

It's all relative ... you could buy a house "daan sarf" for £6k in the early 70's

[Kneetrembler]

Out of all the cars that I have owned the one that I regret selling the most was the DB6 which back in 1972 I paid £900 for it.

[LotusOmega375D]

... or you could have had the opposite luck back in 1989 and bought a Testarossa for 250k, a BB for 300k or a Mondial 3.2 Cabrio for 135k!

[alfa pint]

I know it's a different league to the aston martin / ferrari stuff being quoted, but when I was about 15 or 16 years old, there were shed loads of original mark 1 and mark 2 escort mexicos, RS1800s, RS2000s for a few hundred quid. I earned about £90 a week then and could have done it with a bit of saving. They're worth a bloody fortune now....

Anyone seen the price of minis these days too? I had 5 of the buggers when I was a kid; can't get one with an MOT for much less than a few grand.

[Dave Dax builder]

My house was £2000 in 1961 when it was built (before my time BTW).
Currently probably worth about £200K
If that Mini was £640 back then it would have to be around £64K now.
So in reality cars are dirt cheap these days, and if you'd bought one for investment back then your money would have been better in property.
Some cars have done much better, but they would have cost you the price of 2 houses in the first place. (Ac cobra 427 @ £4K in 65, now £2M ish)

[shirt]

i found an old copy of c&sc the other week. i say old, it was from 2002. dino 246gt for under 40k, 330gt's for half today's prices. madness!

i remember thumbing the same tomes as a tennage in the late 90's and seeing the lesser ferrari gt's at bargain prices. 250gte's, 330gt's for 30k etc. i thought i'd easily be able to afford one by now

[lowdrag]

Read thisadvert and weep:-



I have intimate knowledge of the first car, Lofty Eengland's dmontrator, which I spent three years trying to buy in 1995/8. It was eventually sold at auction for £63,000 as a dismantled wreck. Owned by Peter Neumark who bought it and restored it o pristine condition.

Oh, the advert is from The Motor 26/12/62

[Justayellowbadge]

Somewhere I have a review of the then current Zephyr 6.

The dealer advert below suggests that for the same money both a 250 GTO and a Bugatti T35 could have been sat on one's drive.

[Balmoral Green]

Don't even start on Vintage Bentleys, not even £1300, more like £130.

[neutral 3]

LOWDRAG, i well remember going into Ketteringams in the late 80s. It was like stepping back in time. Earl Metro Montego and Maestro Sales Brochures were still in their holders etc etc !!
I never imagined that they had Sold Loftys E . There Must be a Great story re them managing to buy her in 61 ???

There was a Very nice Primrose V12 2 plus 2 in there . It hadnt moved for 15 years aperently !!

Great Shame you didnt buy Loftys One, i well remember it coming up at that Auction.

[ADP68]

In about 2001 I was looking at selling my 1 yr old SLK and buying a DB6 i was looking at online from a dealer in a place called Ponteland, which is a long way from home. My wife said no, so I bought sold the SLK and bought a Silver Shadow. DB6 was an auto selling for £23k, now worth over £50k? Silver Shadow worth what I nought it for. I still remind her about her crap decision.

[Justayellowbadge]

ADP68 said:

In about 2001 I was looking at selling my 1 yr old SLK and buying a DB6 i was looking at online from a dealer in a place called Ponteland, which is a long way from home. My wife said no, so I bought sold the SLK and bought a Silver Shadow. DB6 was an auto selling for £23k, now worth over £50k? Silver Shadow worth what I nought it for. I still remind her about her crap decision.

I'm afraid the only way a DB6 would be 50K would be if it came in a number of boxes. Double that.

[blindswelledrat]

I always find these interesting topics.
As much as you wish you'd done it, 30/40 years running costs on the type of cars in question outwiegh the gains by miles.

[Justayellowbadge]

blindswelledrat said:

I always find these interesting topics.
As much as you wish you'd done it, 30/40 years running costs on the type of cars in question outwiegh the gains by miles.

A 250GTO would have cost 15M to keep in a barn?

[pwrc]

I have a stack of 1930's autocars right next to me, any requests?
here is my favourite


eta: for a bit of perspective, a current year (1935) rolls phantom II was listed for £2700

Edited by pwrc on Wednesday 2nd November 10:10

[mikey77]

In about 1975 I turned up my nose at a mint Facel Vega (IIRC) HK500 at £1,800 on the forecourt of a garage at Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire.