Automotive Unicorns

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

Also, that just reminded me that there must be very few Polo Harlequins left... That's a sad thought

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

It's actually Polo Harlekin. I have been getting in wrong for 20 years

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Also, that just reminded me that there must be very few Polo Harlequins left... That's a sad thought

Mk.3 Golf TDi Ecomatic?

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

Mk.3 Golf TDi Ecomatic?

 

This is fascinating. I had not idea.

 

http://www.polodriver.com/volkswagen/driving-the-future-in-1994-the-volkswagen-golf-ecomatic/

[ProgRocker]

Fiat Tempra.

 

I once owned a shite 1.4 poverty spec with 'keep fit' steering and windows. Which I'd wager was probably the rarest spec.

Edited January 29, 2019 by ProgRocker

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

and one for sale!

 

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1073792

[25v6turbo]

Safrane V6 RXE,only 1 on the road in the U.K(The 2nd one is a "fake")and more than one time Renaults most expensive car for sale in the U.K.

Poor sales,700 in U.K,terrible reliability issues which controlled suspension and autoboxes issues and parts being very difficult to find in the U.K made it quick weigh in option after only a few years old.

I find some parts so hard to find I have to get them from France or Germany if I,am lucky,certain items like trim bits,mouldings etc are near impossible to find.

Buy one if you can find one!

[tul66]

Alfa 75?

Alfa 90?

There are a few 75's kicking about. Here's mine in for an Mot last year.

 

How about a Lancia HPE VX, the one with the supercharger? Apparently only 186 imported, god knows how many left.

[ChinaTom]

The Trevi must be single figures (probably only double when current!)

There were a few Fords that had odd specs that few bothered with. Wasn’t there a Sierra 2.0is when the GLSi was very close - early GLSi has very low spec unlike later models.

Renault 18LS spec. TS or GTL a bit too far one way, settle on the LS then.

Renault 11 TSE unusual too. All that luxury and a tiny engine. Don’t recall seeing many around in their day.

I don’t think you’ll beat the Dacia Denem for unicorn status providing I have understood the term correctly. Someone somewhere must have seen all the Lada’s knocking around and thought a Renner 12 is going to be a no brained compared to them if they are in the same price range. 750 Mauritanians can’t all be wrong can they? We’ll sell miwions Wodney!

[flat4alfa]

Alfa 90?

 

Saved one of those about 6 years back and sold it on to a collector of italobargeshite.  It's still alive, but needs plenty and is stored away.  I also sold the same fella my Alfa 6 around the same time.  This remains a proper runner and the sole Badermatic Alfa 6 left on this land

 

 

Ignore the plate, I raped that off.  It's a late-plate-madness 1985 on a C.

[flat4alfa]

The Trevi must be single figures (probably only double when current!)

 

This was my Trevi.  Sold on about 8 years back, but I know where it lives (with a Gamma, no less) and it has visited the NEC more than once.  It was clambered over by three previous owners - including myself - at the Festival of Unexceptionals last year

 

 

Not only that, it's also the sole Badermatic Trevi left on this land

[flat4alfa]

How about a Lancia HPE VX, the one with the supercharger? Apparently only 186 imported, god knows how many left.

 

14 HPE VX

 

26 Coupe VX

 

(According to the nice lass at the DVLA)

[DSdriver]

The 'last' Citroen AX Splash is on ebay at the mo. For about the same price they were when new. Most unusually low depreciation for a French car

[flat4alfa]

While I'm doing a list of vanity posts, how about the Lancia Beta Berlina Series III

 

Had two of those, kept for some years and sold-on around 2011.  The blue one is very much alive and on the club scene

 

 

 

The silver one lives on at Bickle Towers

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Saved one of those about 6 years back and sold it on to a collector of italobargeshite.  It's still alive, but needs plenty and is stored away.....

 

 

Ignore the plate, I raped that off.  It's a late-plate-madness 1985 on a C.

 

Does it still have that Alfa briefcase / luggage set in it?

[sierraman]

At the time of the Sierra 2.0iS (if I remember right) they only offered it for a really short period of time maybe 85-86. Then they brought out the Sierra 4x4 GLS in the Mk2. Loads of the 2.0iS will have been bummed for the 2.0 pinto injection to drop in a Cortina.

[r.welfare]

Mk1 GLS got to be rare too? Ref. the Mitsubishi Sigma estate, they can’t be that rare as Shite Knight and I have both owned one.

[tul66]

14 HPE VX

 

26 Coupe VX

 

(According to the nice lass at the DVLA)

Only 14? Might just hang onto mine then.

[scaryoldcortina]

Mr B0LL0X has one.

I was going to say that! I collected it from the eBay seller and you and bol came over with a lpg jeep and trailer for it.

[Dead_E23]

I've never seen a Rayton-Fissore Magnum in the metal, but didn't wuvvum have one a few years ago?   Can't be many of those about.

 

Another one that is becoming a rare sight:  the Subaru SVX.

 

Also, I recently saw a Sierra estate on the M25 and it struck me I hadn't seen one for ages!   When did they all disappear?

[mk2_craig]

Hacker Maroc?

 

[AlabamaShrimp]

What about something like my Fiesta? Yeah there's loads left due to the curse of the blue oval but how many haven't been messed to death or hiding an engine swap from the doovla?

[Steve79]

In order

 

Alfa 6

Datsun Violet

Datsun 180b

Daihatsu Charmant

Hyundai Sonata 2.4 mk2

Hyundai Lantra mk1

Kia Mentor mk1

Mitsubishi Celeste

Mitsubishi Galant Sapparo 2.4

Mitsubishi Sigma/Diamante 3.0 4ws

Rover's metro,maestro,montego advantage

Venturi 400gt

Volvo 760gle prv shite

VW Derby

VW Santana GX5

[MorrisItalSLX]

The Holden Camira should be a good shout, basically the Australianised MKII Vauxhall Cavalier.

 

 

Most looked like this by the new millennium:

 

 

Unpopular when new and even less popular on the second hand market. Thousands of 80's Commodores live on but most Camiras have been bean-tinned, there must be very, very few left on the road today.

[sierraman]

What about something like my Fiesta? Yeah there's loads left due to the curse of the blue oval but how many haven't been messed to death or hiding an engine swap from the doovla?

No you are right, there’s hardly any old 950 low comp Pops about or any of the low spec based special editions, Firefly, Sandpiper etc.

 

My mates dad used to have a Mk1 with the single round lamps on it, 950 I think it was, in sunburst red. Had that distinctive noise to it and that slightly oily smell old Fords had.

[Amishtat]

VW Santana, I'd forgotten all about those until seeing that picture.. Also Datsun 180B,my dad had a red estate about 1989 (MSC765P) and to this day I've not seen another. I do have a mate with a Polski-Fiat, and once again I can't remember seeing another.

[TheClutchBasketPodcast]

Aren't the Polski Fiat's becoming popular in the UK now that people can't afford the Italian ones any more?

[AnthonyG]

Lancia Gamma - running the power steering off the timing belt

 

Lancia Beta Berlina - a rust trap in the rear (?) subframe

 

Lotus Elite series 1 - ungalvanised chassis that lasted about 3 years

 

NSU Ro80 - rotor tip mounts made from the same stuff as the actual tips so they wore each other out

 

Talbot Tagora - badge

 

Ford Sierra mk1 - styling

 

Jaguar XK8 - plastic timing belt tensioners

 

Aston Martin DB7 - Jaguar XK8

I wouldn’t call the Sierra a massive failure, it just didn’t dominate the market in the way it’s predecessor did. And the Jaguar XK8 was pretty much an unqualified success.

[Skizzer]

I wouldn’t call the Sierra a massive failure, it just didn’t dominate the market in the way it’s predecessor did. And the Jaguar XK8 was pretty much an unqualified success.

True, I was more thinking in terms of the one-fatal-flaw rather than the massive-failure side of the question. The DB7 wasn’t a failure either, it was the cornerstone of AML’s revival.

 

In fact I often argue that even the NSU Ro80 wasn’t quite the all-round catastrophe that blokes down the pub laugh at. Let’s not forget it was in production for 10 years, eight of them under VW ownership. We all know about the warranty issue, but that was as much about NSU being sub-scale as it was about the car itself; acquisition by Audi was likely at some point anyway.

[jmsguzzi]

A good modernshite example is the Infiniti QX30. Built in Sunderland using a lot of Mercedes parts and been on sale here for a couple of years. Just 200 are registered on our roads. That’s an even more epic failure than the Tagora was back in the day and a total disaster for a UK-built volume car. I can't think of any UK built car from a volume maker that has sold worse.

 

Fairly common around here, my best mates Dad has one!

 

Mind you I live in Sunderland.....