The Autoshite holy grail is now one of us!

[trigger]

Realistically, it's amazing that it existed, in fact it excites me somewhat that a povo spec early Sierra still exists and is looking like that but would i want to own it?... No chance, not even at £500, I'd sooner have Ken's 2.0 Ghia for less.

[Adrian_pt]

Ffs - this is a 33 year old car with pretty low mileage and real rarity value. It's also got the nostalgia factor of the Sierra having been one of the most popular cars of the decade. Looking at what cars of a similar vintage are fetching, this is in no way expensive. Really makes no sense to compare this to something 15-20 years old and at the bottom of the depreciation curve: get beyond the curve and the market is a very different beast - look at Allegro / Marina / Chevette prices. Surprised this hasn't been snapped up by now tbh.

[Angrydicky]

I think most of us are agreed it's overpriced, but then it is a dealer who's bought it and he has to put food on the table. It's worth what someone will pay for it, if it doesn't sell at £1k he will reduce it until it sells. Personally, if I had my own place and parking I would have probably bought it by now. It's utterly fantastic, a relic of the 1980s supermarket car park that is pretty much unique now, and it needs to be preserved before it falls into the wrong hands.

[Split_Pin]

If I had the asking price I would happily own it. My wife would not be pleased though.

[trigger]

I've been told he'll take £700 for it, it's probably worth that for rarity value alone.

[Longblackcoat]

Ffs - this is a 33 year old car with pretty low mileage and real rarity value. It's also got the nostalgia factor of the Sierra having been one of the most popular cars of the decade. Looking at what cars of a similar vintage are fetching, this is in no way expensive. Really makes no sense to compare this to something 15-20 years old and at the bottom of the depreciation curve: get beyond the curve and the market is a very different beast - look at Allegro / Marina / Chevette prices. Surprised this hasn't been snapped up by now tbh.

 

Sure, if you're looking at it as a classic. But then I only look at cars in that way if they were remarkable in their day. A DS, yes, but a Citroen ZX will only ever be transport, and when the last one's gone, so be it.

 

There's usually a good reason that once-plentiful cars have disappeared.

 

As for Allegro/Chevette/Marina prices - I owned two of these, and they were fucking terrible. OK, the Allego was totally shagged, but the Chevette was in good condition, but not a great car, not by a very long way. Certainly not worth preserving more than a handful of examples.

[HMC]

Have we become pistonheads ?

[Angrydicky]

I've been told he'll take £700 for it, it's probably worth that for rarity value alone.

Who said that Trig?

[Longblackcoat]

Have we become pistonheads ?

What, do we all have to agree on The Party Line and those who fail to do so are given the cold shoulder? In which case, yep, just like Pistonheads......

[trigger]

Someone i know i my Facebook, he was saying he spoke to the seller about it, he runs a car dealers around the corner from where the old boy lived and is looking for £700 for it.

[cort16]

I've heard of London but I'm not sure where it is.

[Tamworthbay]

I've heard of London but I'm not sure where it is.

keep it that way, life will be better.

[inconsistant]

It's extraordinarily rare, (I think the grey grill was only on the base for the first couple of years), it's had a hard life and has survived against the odds. The Sierra was a spectacular miscalculation by Ford at a time that we all thought they could do no wrong. This car is the grimmest version of a car that at the time no one really wanted. The Sierra was pivotal in shaping Fords output for years, maybe decades after. Culturally and stylistically this car is as significant as any DS but for very different reasons.

Do I want it? No. Am I glad that it exists? Yes.

We don't all have to want it, or love it, or agree on its financial worth but Autoshite should probably be about understanding what it represents and what gets lost when the last grey grilled base model dies.

[hauserplenty]

*sigh*

 

This place ain't what it used to be...

[Cavcraft]

What, do we all have to agree on The Party Line and those who fail to do so are given the cold shoulder? In which case, yep, just like Pistonheads......

 

No, but the clue is in the title about this web site.

[djimbob]

What, do we all have to agree on The Party Line and those who fail to do so are given the cold shoulder? In which case, yep, just like Pistonheads......

 

Not you, but the original disagree-er was quite vocal and sweary in his opinions, which is not really going to endear him to the majority on here, who have built this culture of doing exactly what he was ridiculing!

 

I have been on here a short while, and have benefited by purchasing two cars off long term forum members, which have been mechanically spot on, if a little cosmetically challenged - just how I like them, and they have enabled me and the Missus to get thru a period of financial difficulty, and I hope I can return the favours forwards, as I too enjoy sorting out the unloved and keeping them in use.

 

To me, not on here long, that seems the Autoshite way, or one of them?

[Ratdat]

This thread is totally indicative of just how far the forum strayed from it's original purpose.

 

We have criticism of this car because it was 'shit when new', because it's in rough condition  or not a 'classic' and thus not worth bothering with. We have the suggestion that a restored car is something to be shunned or if someone wants to spend their hard earned making a rareity immaculate once more they have no place here.

 

The car is EXACTLY what Autoshite is supposed to be about. The rare, obscure and the unloved. It's condition doesn't matter. It would be no different if it was immaculate...it's still full on weapons grade Autoshite material.

 

Autoshite really has become Autoshit... home of dismal mingebag motoring in any old piece of shit so long as it's dirt cheap... and not forgetting a dash of inverted snobbery too. I despair.

 

 

[dave j]

I never knew you could get a Sierra with a grey grille until I saw it on this site! The fact that car still exists is brilliant, hope it doesn't get ruined by a OMG RATLOOK fan...

 

This site is great as while not everyone will like everything, there is someone who will love it, whatever car is posted! 

[HMC]

I share your frustration Ratdat, but the content of the thread overall is overwhelmingly in appreciation of said sierra.

[drum]

20.jpeg21.jpeg

I love the honesty of that brochure.

"...blah rhubarb lively performance. Alternatively, you could order the Diesel engine. "

[Alexg]

I think it's been said. Autoshite was never really about running some old snotter on a shoestring. Sure it's become a large part of what the collective do, but it's original ethos was as a place for those that favoured the under-dog, the undesirable, the unfashionable and the forgotten. Where members could show-off and discuss their Fiat Stradas, while others swoon over the rotten troublesome money-pit instead of being bewildered by the fact they haven't invested the same cash in a MK4 Golf.

 

This car is a Base Sierra, it's the anti of everything that Ford fanboys love about the Sierra. It's a car that was undesirable when new and forgotten now. There's nothing in this car for the typical Ford fan or 1980s customer, I mean look at the grey grill - what a miserable thing! It therefore fits in with the Autoshite ethos quite well. But I think this car has something else; it has a genuine honest character that shows and shares a story. It's a street survivor of which is now seldom seen. It looks like a scene from 1994 and is something that, once gone, will never be seen again. I love it for that, absolutely love it.

 

Is £750 too much? I don't know, how do you put a price on that much WIN?

[Split_Pin]

If this thread died on its arse after 19 replies and fell off page 1 by the end of the day then Autoshite would be Autoshit.

 

Just LOOK at the discussion it has generated. This place is 100% alive and kicking and for as long as the car survives, we should all take it upon ourselves to 'bump this for a real thread' when the bi-annual forum implosion occurs.

[egg]

Anyway, 6 pages of chat and no-one has bought it yet 

[cort16]

 

Pistonheads for poor people? If only, it's more like Gumtree for thick people.

 

 

 

Nice one. 

[Cheggers]

Anyway, 6 pages of chat and no-one has bought it yet

The man's not wrong...

 

 

I have no space for it and no great desire to own it, but in a crazy effort to give the original spirit of Autoshite a well-needed jump start I'm happy to put up half the money if someone wants to take it on.

 

Who's up for a (now) £350 challenge??

[Pillock]

I wonder why they did the grey grille? Was it to try and calm the shattered nerves of Cortina buyers, used to a big plastic lumpy front? Or was it genuinely cheaper to make that way? Equally with the mirrors, surely it adds cost to have two types of mirror. Bizarre.

 

Still love it though.

[midnite]

u guys, you do make i laugh you do.

[Split_Pin]

The difference between this and the L model was huge, same goes for other contemporary Fords. The base MK3 Escort had vinyl seats, rubber mats and a unique dash with no 'hang down' centre part and no speaker grille in the top part. Seems crazy to make so many parts unique to the base but I guess that it was cheaper materials used and it appears to have persuaded the majority to either get a higher spec smaller model or fork out a bit more for the L.

[Split_Pin]

Hirst beat me to it!

[Jon]

At £750 I'm having to concentrate a bit harder on resisting. It's worth that much just to piss off the troll.

 

That interior is truly minging though, and I can't see Mrs S being a big fan. Hmm.

 

 

 

The man's not wrong...

 

 

I have no space for it and no great desire to own it, but in a crazy effort to give the original spirit of Autoshite a well-needed jump start I'm happy to put up half the money if someone wants to take it on.

 

Who's up for a (now) £350 challenge??

 

 

A plan hatched?

 

On a tangent, are there any backup files of the 'kit' seen on the old front pages? I'm thinking the spots of the astoundingly terrible Renault 12s and a Renault 14, all spotted in London. Things like this will really become a thing of the past with gentrification there and indeed they already have; I'm sure the 12s were sold off (did Bickle get involved?) and the 3dr Stanza has since been scrapped, too.