Another ship missed?

[Stroller133]

Are Reliant Scimitars on the verge of becoming both rare and worth serious money? Always thought I'd like one at some point and took it for granted a grand or so would get one with some MOT. Only about 6 for sale on eBay and only one with mot at £3700!

[saucedoctor]

No test on this one, but it looks good and he needs the money by the sound of it

 

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C542774

 

Go see him with £1500 and say "'old ahht yer aaand"

[spike60]

Some years ago as a family daily I had '79 SE6 auto with PAS, dark blue with black velour and 'twas a lovely thing. In recent years when I've looked 3/4 of them are spares or repairs, project etc and the few I've been to have been absolute sheds, I wouldn't have wanted them given. I drove a manual '72 years ago and that was a beast, very heavy to drive. Can't imaging time has improved it either.

[Stroller133]

The linked one looks better than any on eBay! Unfortunately I'm not in a much better financial position than the seller!

[coalnotdole]

Prices for Roadworthy GTE's have been climbing steadily in recent years as sadly cars in nice condition are actually in short supply... lots have survived but we seem to be at the stage where the number of projects outweighs the runners by a long margin. I can't remember the last time I saw a tidy Se5 car sell for a low figure as If I'd seen It I'd almost certainly have bought it! Values of nice cars still have some way to go before taking on a project car could be said to make any kind of financial sense.

 

For a few years now the bargain projects have been popular with the breakers as a tatty example is worth more in parts, I'd prefer the cars to be saved but in reality there are too many out there still and in reality the breakers are doing their bit to help decrease supply.

 

There are exceptions the Scimitar GT and GTC command reasonable money at present... to the point where I'm sinking £5k into a coupe with at least a reasonable prospect of seeing that again come sale time...

[dollywobbler]

Yup. They're bound to go up as I sold an absolute minter for £1700 a couple of years ago. Actually, it was three years ago now. Blimey.

 

I expect Rover 400 saloons will be the next big thing.

[Stroller133]

Now, or after you have sold yours?

[dollywobbler]

About six months to a year. They're the next Ferrari. Probably.

[vulgalour]

Since I was 16 I've wanted a completely standard 1200cc Beetle.  They used to be fairly easy to find and fairly cheap... not any more.

 

If you want it, buy while you can.  Waiting will make it unobtainable.

[dollywobbler]

Both Rover 600s and Citroen XMs fall into this category. I'd like both. I'd better get my skates on.

[Junkman]

About four years ago, I bought a relatively orderly SE5a with a year's ticket for £1,100 for a friend in Germany.

 

 

 

He did relatively minor work on it to make it pristine, it needed a new carpet, brake work, some gearbox work,

and a few ball joints and track rod ends. He also got the bumpers rechromed by Beckmans in Eskilstuna,

which was by far the biggest outlay he had.

He passed away last Christmas. His widow recently sold it to a German collector for €2,500, which

translates to about £1,950 in real money, and I daresay, this is what you have to budget for a good one

nowadays.

However, watch prices go up with not inconsiderable velocity in the near future, these are arriving on the

radar of the mainstream collectors.

[chaseracer]

Are they still getting thinned out in the old-fashioned way...

 

 

...or have things improved on the spontaneous combustion score?

[Rocket88]

I've just sold a scruffy Scimitar GTC through Brightwells..................I was astounded by how much it went for............. 

[Joey spud]

The one on car and classics was on ebay a couple of weeks back and sold for £1180 but the buyer never got in touch.

The elders of scimweb advised the chap to put it on c+c for £2k plus which i dont think is overly expensive.

 

I have recently jumped aboard the scimitar ship,as i have been watching values for a few months now and tidy tax free ones are starting to make good money,well good money for a Reliant.

 

In my opinion they are for winners,

 

 

 

I bagged this SE5 for £1100 last month and am well happy with her.

One owner for its first 42 years and has had a shed load of work done on her even a repaint a few years back.

The chassis is sound and unwelded and the interior honest too.

 

Best of all is its a tax free cheap to insure three litre sporty number thats a bit different,lets be honest we drive old stuff to stand out from the crowd and stick two fingers up at society and what better way than to use a ford v6 powered fibre glass bodied car from Tamworth.

[plasticvandan]

do find it ironic that the three wheelers are now fetching more than the gtes lol

[Inspector Morose]

It follows. Less is more innit?

[vulgalour]

I long for a Rialto too, but the price of those has gone silly too for what they are.  I blame a lot of that on the Trotter brigade what with [rant redacted].

[HillmanImp]

I think we had a conversation about this recently on another thread. I don't think you can get much better for your buck.

 

Only a months MOT on this one but quite nice looking, sold for £1,180:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Reliant-Scimitar-GTE-SE6-1979-3-0L-no-reserve-/251647592696

 

 

 

Taxed and tested but need fuel filler neck repalced, sold for £886.66:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Reliant-Scimitar-SE6A-3-0-/281423549252

 

 

Little more expensive but not much at £1,750

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RELIANT-SCIMITAR-SE5a-GTE-WHITE-/271560185866

 

Like anytning, Ebay is a little desperate and is generally slightly under the classified sale value but I would not say that ship has sailed quite yet.

 

I hope not anyway as I want to get one next year with my mate as a joint classic.

[dugong]

I thought it was some kind of unspoken urban code that scrapyards across the land had to have at least one Scimitar each - complete, chopped in half or missing a random section of bodyshell.

[dollywobbler]

Vulgalour - all is not yet lost. I'm still mightily tempted to save this poor thing and de-twat it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-RELIANT-ROBIN-LX-YELLOW-TROTTERS-CAR-VAN-/161422804941

 

£800 Classified ad. Seems decent value to me.

[Stroller133]

I grew up in Tamworth and my dad had Robins when I was young, so I've always been aware of Reliant. After years of embarrassment I'm still not prepared to have a three wheeler though.

[Station]

The only experience I've had of these is that they have a horrible interior that's falling to bits, smelly carpets, vinyl seats and an lacklustre engine that does about 15mpg.

[AnthonyG]

The only experience I've had of these is that they have a horrible interior that's falling to bits, smelly carpets, vinyl seats and an lacklustre engine that does about 15mpg.

Scimitars or Rialto?

[garethj]

The only experience I've had of these is that they have a horrible interior that's falling to bits, smelly carpets, vinyl seats and an lacklustre engine that does about 15mpg.

 

You say that like it's a bad thing!

[Stroller133]

The Rialto had a lacklustre engine that does 50+mpg!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

They are just a zero appeal car to me, just like Jensen Interceptors that were also worthless/impossible to sell until the values of Astons went so silly that a badly made, unreliable 11 mpg rotbox had to cling onto their coat tails. Alas, Scimitars don't have a halo car to follow on from.

 

Horrible things.

[spike60]

The only experience I've had of these is that they have a horrible interior that's falling to bits, smelly carpets, vinyl seats and an lacklustre engine that does about 15mpg.

The older Se5's I've seen fall firmly into this bracket but the later Se6 I ran for a couple of years as a family daily didn't have the first 3 points but did do about 17mpg local. 30 on a run as an auto.

[xtriple]

I've had several (I'm old, ) one SE5 (manual o/d) and loads of SE6s. I prefer the 5!

 

The 5 feels quite sporty and lithe and goes well(ish) but the interiors are a joke - dashboards snap/crack if you look at them funny! Mine was blue with that peculiar brown plastic interior a lot of them had and I restored it from a runner with MOT but tatty to 'mint'. It was a nice car to run.

 

The 6s feel much less willing/more grown up but not much better made though the dash' feels a bit better made and the trim lasts longer. Funnily enough, all my 6s were prone to overheating and the spare tyres all suffer from the epic amount of heat under the bonnet. If they haven't got stainless fuel tanks and exhausts along with the hangers then budget for them straight away as they will blow/leak. Also stainless coolant pipes are a good idea as there are several hard pipes in the system and they rot like buggery. Never seen one with serious chassis rot (but I haven't looked for years now) and the bodywork, while prone to cracking, is really thick fibreglass (I put a glass sunroof in my SE5 and I swear the roof was an inch thick) and lasts well. The doors drop on their hinges and of course, they leak for England.

 

A few years ago during yet another of my periods of skintness, I swapped an XJS for an SE6 auto. It was a few years since I'd last driven one and while it was in really nice condition it just felt so bloody awful to drive! Really old fashioned, clunky, rattly, lousy brakes and suspension and the electrics were all over the place. Of course it got hot and leaked....

 

I wouldn't have another, plenty of better classics out there for the same money and that is why, I think, they don't fetch any money.