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'Inbetweener' Cars / Imminant future shite/classics


Matt

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Megane Mk1s are completely overlooked. You have to go to the continent now to easily spot a pre-facelift one. It must be one of the last Renaults with rear torsion bar suspension. Bonus points if you can find a Coupe with the De-tuned F4R engine (140bhp).

 

Some people on here might laugh, but decent Corsa Bs are thinning out and they have a niche following amongst late 30-somethings (like me) who had one as their first car. Originality is high on the agenda for the GSi and Sri models, with more lowly-specs being used for re-shells and vin plates being 'for sale' here and there.

 

A decently modified example in clear condition, whatever its origins, also commands a premium. I'm holding onto mine.

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Some people on here might laugh, but decent Corsa Bs are thinning out and they have a niche following amongst late 30-somethings (like me) who had one as their first car. Originality is high on the agenda for the GSi and Sri models, with more lowly-specs being used for re-shells and vin plates being 'for sale' here and there.

 

The Corsa B was the second car that sprang to mind in this category of 'inbetweener cars' (just behind the S1 Laguna, which was somewhat obvious to me as I've two lurking on the drive) - would agree that they've become surprisingly uncommon just in the last year or two, given that they used to be everywhere. I can well imagine the hotter ones have already started to rise in price and desirability, and rather like its Nova predecessor I reckon it won't be too long before all survivors start to fetch serious money.

 

Fifteen years ago I had friends sending fairly clean Novas to the scrappie for the want of a dab of MOT welding, simply because it was nearly as cheap to just buy another one. Corsa Bs may be just starting to climb out of this pit of despair. Three years back my neighbour's son was running a 3-dr example in Brocade Yellow with crusty GSi alloys, bought for £150 - I haven't seen any for sale that cheaply now. The only local example I've seen on the road recently is a late Opel-badged 5-dr, engaged in a perpetual three-way-tie for 'oldest wreck in the station carpark' along with myself and the owner of a Merc W201 estate.

 

My driving instructor had a fairly basic Merit example so I suppose I could be forgiven for a slight twinge of nostalgia - but I really didn't like him, or the car!

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Volvo 740/940.

£500 shitter 940s are still entirely possible, and the fact they made them until the mid-90s seems to be keeping the prices down even for 700s becuase I suppose a good few see them as cheap workhorse bangers etc. A good usable one is less than a grand still, and white room cars are going on £3-4K. I feel like the prices have to go up at some point, look at 240s.

The 740 is a bargain relative to its rival mk2 Granada wagon too - similar list prices when new, but a Granada wagon will set you back three or four times as much as a 740 now.

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Merc wagons in w123/124 flavours will set you back at least a couple of Volvos, and the Volvo is easily the better car.  Buy now!  I could quite happily see me having another one.

 

Also, Rover 600.  The only people I can see giving them any love at all are on here!

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Agreed - i read some research once that suggested on average people's incomes peak at 47.

 

Average age of Harley Davidson buyer? Yup, 47.

 

So anyone around that sort of age has peak income and is potentially having a midlife crisis and longing for their youth so it would make some sense that buying the car of their youth could be attributed to that. Ergo something they owned in their carefree mid twenties is potentially back on their spending radar.

 

It varies of course.

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Of the Rovers, the 800, 600 and 75 I can see being desirable in the future. If you get a good one. The 75 was actually a really nice car to drive, plenty roomy as well for someone of my dimensions (and my even taller brother's). The V8 MG version was quite a hoot. The 200/400 and later 25/45 I thought we atrocious cars, but I'm sure someone out there loves them.

Ford Cougar - I know it's a mk2 mundano in a party frock but it's again a really good motor to drive. V6 pretty pokey as well. Regret weighing my one in, mainly as I couldn't afford to have the rear suspension rebushed. Only made 10,000 worldwide IIRC.

 

I think the E110 shape (frog face) corolla is up there, my wife's one just will not go wrong, it's well made if a little bit bland. Loads seem to be in the Bognor & Chichester era in original frog-face or facelift form.

 

S-type Jag - its looks are divisive (I think it's ugly) but a good, well sorted one is a decent old barge to smoke around in, and they seem to be dirt cheap at the moment.

 

Peugeot 309 - massively massively underrated car for its era. Who cares if the 1.1/1.3's sound like a sack of typewriters? (It's called character) Better handling, roomier than many of its contemporaries (IMO) but only the GTi seems to be desirable. Find a nice 1.1GE in a fetching shade of hearing aid for the true giffer experience.

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I think the classic car thing will gradually peter out because attitudes to cars are, and have been changing for some time now.  (we spend enough time bemoaning the fact on these hallowed pages)

 

People buy cars they have some kind of emotional attachment to - because they used to own one or it was their first car or their Dad had one growing up.  I think its less likely people in the future are going to be saying "I really fancy getting another VW Polo like the one I had on PCP for 36 months in 2014"

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Peugeot 309 - massively massively underrated car for its era. Who cares if the 1.1/1.3's sound like a sack of typewriters? (It's called character) Better handling, roomier than many of its contemporaries (IMO) but only the GTi seems to be desirable. Find a nice 1.1GE in a fetching shade of hearing aid for the true giffer experience.

I used to recommend to anyone who needed motoring on a limited budget to get a Peugeot 309 diesel. With the early square-port engine, not a great deal of weight to pull about, no PAS and fairly skinny low rolling-resistance tyres, you could get an easy 50-55mpg, with 60mpg being on the cards if you keep your top speed down a bit and don't boot it. Insurance was cheap enough and they cost peanuts to buy. A decent size car and very easy to work on.

 

And now there are none left.

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Did they do a 1.1 309 in the UK?

 

 

Indeed they did. GE or XE spec only with the Simca engine & BE1/4 transmission, later it was badged the 309 'Style' when the TU1 & MA5 'box were fitted.

 

Could be ordered with "Special Equipment" IIRC. Basically a fag lighter and a clock.

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Ive always been a fan of the above what are they like to drive? I always imagine them being quite free revving and shit as opposed to say an utterly glacial 1.0 corsa?

They are reasonably revvy but as tooSavvy said you need to carry momentum. They are clearly geared for town use as they are fairly nippy at low speeds but there isn't much left to give after 70. The listed top speed for the 1 litre is 90 and frankly I don't have the balls to try that. They could do with an anti-roll bar something awful but good luck finding one of those in Europe as only the earlier GTI models had them. A lot of North American versions had them but have fun trying to import one but they say adding them radically improves the handling.

 

As for the mentions of the old shape Suzuki Swift on the other page, I've always hoped I'd win one in a roffle. They look like a bit of fun, and weigh about as much as a cardboard box, I'd imagine. 

 

 

About 800kg with a petite driver.

 

Some people on here might laugh, but decent Corsa Bs are thinning out and they have a niche following amongst late 30-somethings (like me) who had one as their first car. Originality is high on the agenda for the GSi and Sri models, with more lowly-specs being used for re-shells and vin plates being 'for sale' here and there.

 

A decently modified example in clear condition, whatever its origins, also commands a premium. I'm holding onto mine.

 

I wonder what will happen with the Max Power era stuff from the late 90's and early 2000's when 30-somethings like you mention start looking back with spare cash. That shit was cool and people dumped some epic money into cars like this but you just don't see them any more.

 

j85.jpg

Emphasis on the word was!

 

Fifteen years ago I had friends sending fairly clean Novas to the scrappie for the want of a dab of MOT welding, simply because it was nearly as cheap to just buy another one.

Same with Swifts like mine. They rot through the floor where the floor, sill and inner wheel well meet in the front. Catch it early and it's not too bad but I've seen a bunch scrapped for just that.

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I've said it before, but the Series 1 Laguna has been damn near worthless for a long time - and I've noticed that they've shifted category from 'still fairly common' to 'ain't seen another one for weeks' over the last eighteen months or so. Yet they're roomy, comfortable and capable cars (and I reckon pretty stylish).

 

With the oldest survivors hitting their 24th birthday this year, maybe that's not surprising... but I reckon there's bargains still to be had. Although KGF are now trying it on with low mileage valet victims for ££££, good solid ex-giffer examples can be picked up for buttons in the classifieds. But be quick before they do a R21 and just vanish completely...

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20151128_103614.jpg

I scrapped one last year. Should I kill myself?

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Cars like the Vectra B perhaps?  Earliest examples are now 23 years old, newest are 16 years old.  They were literally everywhere and now you hardly see any (especially prefacelift).  They're cheap to run and easy to work on.  They lend themselves well to engine conversions (eg. X32SE 3.2 V6 from the Omega or C20LET 2.0 turbo from the Calibra).  There were a huge number of trim levels and options available so upgrading was accessible.  eg. Cruise control, SRI sports seats, GSI recaros, Irmscher bumpers / skirts, SRI Remus DD backbox, CDX HID headlights, CDX leather interior, factory SatNav, etc., etc..  Done up, they were a bit of a looker with the long bonnet and the faired in wing mirrors so were popular with the "Max Power" modding crowd.  Prices have been in the gutter for the last decade so most have likely ended up scrapped.  In ten years time I can see them making a bit of a comeback.

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Nah, no need to go that far - a brisk bout of self-flagellation with a stout birch rod should probably suffice.

 

I sent one skywards too last year, so fret not.

 

But I gotta ask... was yours worse than mine?

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20160312_150104.jpg

 

attachicon.gifpost-17915-0-29254100-1510622885.jpg

Spotted in Lidl Veliko Tarnova this very afternoon...

post-8026-0-50200400-1518455367_thumb.jpg

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Nah, no need to go that far - a brisk bout of self-flagellation with a stout birch rod should probably suffice.

 

I sent one skywards too last year, so fret not.

 

But I gotta ask... was yours worse than mine?

 

attachicon.gifIMG_20160312_150104.jpg

 

attachicon.gifpost-17915-0-29254100-1510622885.jpg

It wasn't that rusty. But it ended up living outside my parents and being injected in by the local junkies, so yes. Somebody did a wee in it, as well.

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It wasn't that rusty. But it ended up living outside my parents and being injected in by the local junkies, so yes. Somebody did a wee in it, as well.

I have to say, once a vehicle has seen use as a surrogate urinal and shooting gallery, it's probably never going to have quite the same lustre again... and when a good one-owner car with MOT struggles to make £300, no-one's gonna beat a path to your door with a fistful of crisp twenties for a portaloo full of syringes.

 

I hear ya.

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Megane Mk1s are completely overlooked. You have to go to the continent now to easily spot a pre-facelift one. It must be one of the last Renaults with rear torsion bar suspension. Bonus points if you can find a Coupe with the De-tuned F4R engine (140bhp).

 

Some people on here might laugh, but decent Corsa Bs are thinning out and they have a niche following amongst late 30-somethings (like me) who had one as their first car. Originality is high on the agenda for the GSi and Sri models, with more lowly-specs being used for re-shells and vin plates being 'for sale' here and there.

 

A decently modified example in clear condition, whatever its origins, also commands a premium. I'm holding onto mine.

I bought on new in 1999 and put 100k on it in the first 2 years. It was garaged all of its life, and I gave it to my mum with new clutch, brakes and suspension. Even though there were no advisories on the MOT, her local garage persuaded her that it would not last another year, so she swapped it and bought a corsa! If I had known she was going to do that, I would have had it back from her. There was not a trace of rot on it!

 

Sent from my SM-J320FN using Tapatalk

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