Not shite, but quite a lot of shits? A weird visit to a Coys auction

[Guest Breadvan72]

At the beginning of this year, I I had to let the tax man have my beloved 1970 Jensen Interceptor, the only car to which I have ever had any emotional attachment.  All other cars are just cars.  Hey, the Jensen is just a car too, but this one meant something to my wife and me, being the car in which we sort of fell in LUUUUUUURRRRRVE during a 3000 mile European road trip in 2010.  

 

The car was up for auction at Coys at Ascot last Saturday.  A kind friend offered to put up a limited amount to buy it back, so I went with another friend to bid for it.  

 

The auction was mostly for uber mega super duper hyper amazatron classic cars  .   The Jensen had been left to deteriorate, and is minus an exhaust manifold and not running at present, but it is basically a sound car.  I  deliberately did not go to look at it.  

 

That was my first time at a car auction. The atmosphere all seemed a bit spivvy, I must say, and redolent of those posh classic car magazines that I occasionally buy when bored on a train journey and then want to throw out of the window because of the shallow snobbism and worship of stupidly big watches. Lots of well upholstered blokes with women who looked too young for them wearing sunglasses pushed up on their hair. The watches, of course, were big enough to be seen from space.  If I had to use one word to describe the ambience of the event, that word would be ... smug.

 

The auction was interrupted early on by a somewhat eccentric looking elderly bloke called Mr Potter who claimed that he had been cheated in relation to his classic Jag last year. The auctioneer handled the situation rather poorly and defensively, I thought. The bloke was bundled out by a large dude, with what seemed to me disproportionate fuss  and use of enormo bouncer dude vs  smallish and evidently somewhat  troubled old man.

 

Bidding for the Jensen took just a few seconds, and quickly came down to me and a guy who was probably a dealer.  I stopped at the 8K limit agreed with my friend, the dealer bagged it for 8.5 K (this is 9.725 K when you add in the premium paid to Coys by the buyer), and my friend and I got the Hell out of Dodge as quickly as we could walk.  I had briefly pondered bidding the guy up a bit more so as to net more for the taxman, but there was a risk that I might have won the auction and been over my limit, so I stopped.      

 

A really rich client had promised to pay me a big wedge on a case last week  (this multi millionaire has owed me the money for months), but didn't pay, so I couldn't go any higher.  Hey ho, it 's just a car!  An interesting outing, though.   

[Guest Breadvan72]

YVF 985H with (then future) wife, in Burgundy in 2010.

 

This photo is also known as "two old dogs and a bitch".


 

[chaseracer]

Very nice.

 

Are you still paying off the second mortgage for the fuel...?

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

Twelve days, three thousand three hundred miles, approx two hundred gallons (909 litres) of petrol, nine litres of oil, one litre of coolant, seven hotels, three friends' houses, twenty or so Martinis and a few Negronis, xxxxxxxxxxx litres of wine, one speeding ticket (Mont Blanc Tunnel -  forty five Euros), one zillion squished bugs, two broken windscreen wipers, one conked out stereo, one dodgy ignition (fixed by French RAC), one argument, countless laughs, and the car came back home, very dirty, with a rattling fan, and a wonky door, but still hooting and roaring.

[messerschmitt owner]

it'll have headed to that lot that rebuild Interceptors into as new cars, for which you then pay £150,000+

Sorry you didn't get to buy it back.

[brickwall]

Yep, tough luck mate. Always wise to stick to your agreed limit though.

[Guest Breadvan72]

No one buys the 150K Interceptors, so my one will most likely be quickly fixed up and sold on for about 15.   

[Guest Breadvan72]

If Mr Millionaire ever pays me I might even buy it from the dealer if he is one.  Daft, I know, but sometimes the heart rules.

 

 

 

PS:  I would rather pay the cash to the taxman than to some dealer, but, hey, some of it will end up with HMRC either way.  

[babydriver]

Tell Mr Millionaire if he don't stump up soon the Autoshite Mafia will be round to knee cap him, Hope you get your money soon and get your car back

[inconsistant]

Yeah, we'll all go round and leak oil onto his drive

[Guest Breadvan72]

I have an old car that is just perfect for leaking oil onto drives.    Oh, hang on....  no, I don't.

[Bren]

Sorry to hear you no longer have your Jensen.

 

I have vowed to own one before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

[Guest Breadvan72]

You could be in luck.   There will be a 1970 Mark II for sale from some dealer soon, I expect.  

 

I had a very late (fuel injected) Mark III in 2003-4, but the Mark II was better.

[Guest Breadvan72]

BTW, if anyone sees Jensen Interceptor II YVF 985H for sale anywhere online or in the real world, please let me know.

 

Ta muchly

[nigel bickle]

I hated mine.

 

I'll agree it certainly looked the part, sounded the pat- but it just wasn't to be trusted.

 

No fault ever occurred twice, but it broke down on every journey. Every repair was difficult or near impossible without full access to garage facilities.

 

We both called out our respective Recovery services so many times we were forced  to Green Flag at renewal 

 

It got to the stage my wife refused to travel in it, complaining that it was pointless always arriving late, dirty & dishevelled in a foul temper.

 

I dropped the price substantially to shift it on quickly, and was very glad to see the back of it.

 

I'd take a LOT of persuading to buy another. Moved on to the 67 Riv, -and love that.. Just wish I could afford to fuel it!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Like the little girl that had a little curl, when Interceptors are good they are very very good, but when they are bad they are horrid.  

 

 

Lots of them fell into the hands of bodgmeisters early in their lives.  You have to get one that has been owned by serial nutters with cash and has been looked after all of its life.  Otherwise fuhgeddabadit.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I've always thought that the real crooks in the motor trade are the ones peddling classic cars. Some slimefuck selling a pogged up Pagoda Merc for £30k seems worse than a streak of piss in a cheap suit flogging an ex Enterprise Insignia at an Arnold Shark branch near you.

[Junkman]

The drivetrain of an Interceptor should be fairly bulletproof, no?

I mean, I had pretty much the same setup in all my Imperials, and they - errr - oh God, the stories I could tell...

 

MOPARS SUCK!

 

Interesting parallel to Mr Bickle - my fav yank GM brand is Buick and none of the ones I've owned ever gave me grief, except the post-1986 one, of course, which was rubbish beyond anyone's belief.

[xtriple]

Always loved Jensons. Never owned one and I strongly suspect my chance has passed...

 

Once had the chance to buy an SP that was totally mint and utterly gorgeous apart from the fact the front suspension looked like it had escaped from a Range Rover, caused by the fact that some bugger had knicked the engine!

 

£600.

[dugong]

I've always thought that the real crooks in the motor trade are the ones peddling classic cars. Some slimefuck selling a pogged up Pagoda Merc for £30k seems worse than a streak of piss in a cheap suit flogging an ex Enterprise Insignia at an Arnold Shark branch near you.

 

Yeah, except the world's most shagged out Pagoda SL is still infinitely preferable to an Insignia. 

 

Actually, being inside the world's most shagged out Pagoda blindfolded while it was crushed is still preferable to handing money over to Arnold Clark.