Daily Mail Motor Review

[HillmanImp]

When I was young I used to count down the days until the new motor review came out.

 

In the 80s my old man had a Talbot Horizin LS (FSW 369Y) and A Peugeot 309 GE (E318 JRV).

 

I used to scour the pages of the motor review dreaming about what cars we could replace the Horizin and 309 with. I'd look at the Spec, the 0-60 times to try and find my Dads next car that I could look cool in getting dropped off at school.

 

Sadly my Mum threw all my car mags and brochures out years ago but I bought this on Ebay last week and have been enjoying looking through it again.

 

 

What is quite interesting is the cost of some of the cars.

 

The top of the range Vauxhall Senator was £29,414. Thats the equivalent of £71k today. FOR A VAUXHALL.

 

Was that a misprint or did they really cost that much?

 

To put this in perspective, a Granada Scorpio was £23,185 and a Daimler 420 was £30k. The BMW 535i was £26,395 and the top of the range XJ6 was £30,500 and the XJS was £29k.

 

Range Rovers were between £19 and £22k with the defenders costing under £14k which was less than a BX GTi (£13,244)

 

An Aerodeck exi (£12,950) was slightly more to buy than a RS Turbo (£11,584).

 

Anyhow, if anyone owns a car that was in production in 1989 HMU and I'll take a photo of the incredibly positive review for you.

 

Heres a review of the Honda Civic

 

 

And another the Polonez.

 

 

Ha. 'innovative British'

 

Before I go to bed, heres a Skoda advert.

 

 

Who the fuck were they trying to appeal to with this advert?

 

I also like the way they've put 'extras' in quotation marks....

[adw1977]

I suspect that bigger discounts were available on a Senator than on a Daimler, especially for fleet buyers.

[Peter C]

What did they say about the W124 Merc?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Those prices sound all over the place. This was right in the middle of the time I was involved with cars like this every day, driving them, ordering them, advising senior managers where I worked which to have etc.

Basically a 2.5 Senator on steels, no aircon etc was the same pice as a Granada 2.4 Ghia or Rover 820Si. You might have got an even more basic 520ior a nice 320 SE/ 190e with some extras.

When the 24V came out it was around £28 k , I think , but then so was a Sterling, top Spec Scorpio etc the 525 24v was exactly the same price as a 24v Senator but came with much less equipment and you could just scrape into a cloth seated 3.2 XJ6 or Berlin taxi spec 260e.

Daimler DS420 were hand built special order things and I suspect the Daily Mail hadn't updated that pice since 1978!

[cort16]

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We always seemed to pay way over the odds for cars over what main land europe paid for the same cars.  It wasn't until reasonably recently they balanced out, remember folk used go over to germany to buy cars and bring them back here at £$£ savings?

[Timewaster]

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We always seemed to pay way over the odds for cars over what main land europe paid for the same cars. It wasn't until reasonably recently they balanced out, remember folk used go over to germany to buy cars and bring them back here at £$£ savings?

Similar story with motorbikes.

 

I spent £5k on a 6 year old VFR and six months later you could buy a new grey import for about £7.5k.

 

I am investment genius.

[Skut]

In the 90s one car manufacturer called Britain treasure island.  Cheeky fecks.   

[sutty2006]

Yeah but a top of the range Senator is a bloody lovely car to drive.

 

 

Take my 92 bASe spec carlton diesel. It drives so much nicer than my 2005 discovery. Shocking. Worth every penny

[Lacquer Peel]

WILL UNLEADED PETROL AFFECT HOUSE PRICES?

 

I love these old car guides.

We rightly moan that everything is built to a price these days but cars were much more expensive back in the day.

[pilninggas]

Similar story with motorbikes.

 

I spent £5k on a 6 year old VFR and six months later you could buy a new grey import for about £7.5k.

 

I am investment genius.

I remember the centre of MCN being full of adverts for parallel imports from Belgium/Germany/Malta for £2-3k less than UK models. probably from 98-03.

 

OP- i used to buy those guides as a kid and try to persuade my old man not to buy nissans and renaults, and instead buy a BMW. i was a horrible kid...

[HillmanImp]

What did they say about the W124 Merc?

You know, they seem to have missed out whole sections on the Mercedes page.

 

 

To be fair, nobody outside the M25 had ever seen a Mercedes in those days so they probably thought that no one would notice.

 

Apoligies that the photos on its side, I can't seem to straighten it up.

[Walter White]

Yes I love these too and had to let them go when moving house.

The prices are an eye opener.

Have a look at this. Looks like the list price of a Senator dropped.

[JeeExEll]

1989 magazine and Skoda show a 86-87 D-reg car in their ad.

I like their style.

 

D600 RJX regd Dec 86, tax due March 98.

Regd as 'blue'. Ahh well, close enough.

 

 

The bloke and his dogs have a good view of that hotel burning down.

That'll teach the bastards for not serving him drink last night.

[lesapandre]

You know, they seem to have missed out whole sections on the Mercedes page.

 

IMG_20190223_091431.jpg

 

To be fair, nobody outside the M25 had ever seen a Mercedes in those days so they probably thought that no one would notice.

 

Apoligies that the photos on its side, I can't seem to straighten it up.

I had a diesel Mercedes in 1990.Even in those days when I filled it up at petrol stations I still got people rushing over to say YOU ARE PUTTING DIESEL IN IT!!

[Timewaster]

OP- i used to buy those guides as a kid and try to persuade my old man not to buy nissans and renaults, and instead buy a BMW. i was a horrible kid...

I plagued my dad with a campaign to get him to buy a bright yellow Allegro 3 HLS.

 

I was unsuccessful.

 

He bought a gold MK2. Escort 1.3L

 

Childhood dreams shattered.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I had a diesel Mercedes in 1990.Even in those days when I filled it up at petrol stations I still got people rushing over to say YOU ARE PUTTING DIESEL IN IT!!

Because I was young and stupid, and diesels were all slow. I decided to rebadge my company 405 1.9 GRi as a GRD and imagine people would be confused when I past them at 120.

You can imagine how many times people in petrol stations shouted " you're putting petrol in a diesel"

[Schaefft]

Yeah but a top of the range Senator is a bloody lovely car to drive.

 

Can confirm. And if you consider that the top-of-range Senator came with pretty neat tech like adaptable suspension (which is now impossible to find spares for...), its not too surprising that it was an expensive car back in the day. I'd be surprised if most haven't been sold with massive discounts though.

[Walter White]

Leafing through this old guide that escaped the cull of 2008 has thrown this price craziness up.

I only ever saw one Mahindra jeep. Looking at the prices i can see why.

[JeeExEll]

Because I was young and stupid, and diesels were all slow. I decided to rebadge my company 405 1.9 GRi as a GRD and imagine people would be confused when I past them at 120.

You can imagine how many times people in petrol stations shouted " you're putting petrol in a diesel"

Around the time I started driving a schoolmate 'inherited' his dad's 305GRD saloon as his first car, an X-reg. (About 4 years old but high mileage).

He then put an "INJECTION" laserflash decal sticker all across the rear window.

[HillmanImp]

Here's the Senator page.

 

 

Bonus Cavalier advert.

 

[mercrocker]

Mine are all a bit older than these copies (no surprise there - old twat) but I shared the same heady sense of anticipation each October when the new copy came out.   There was the standard Daily Mail one but another paper (the Express?) did a World Cars edition.   This was later on - in the 1970s - but it had total winners in it like Premier Padmini, Hindustan Contessa (never mind yer Morris Oxford mate, this was gold-plated dogshit based on the FE Victor) and all the Yank stuff they had given up selling over here.   Cars were bloody dear back then, its true....And they had to be bought outright - only businessmen got lease deals.   Factor in about 14 percent interest and it soon becomes apparent why 80s Britain housing estates were full of knackered Avengers.

 

Because I didn't get to see every weekly edition of Autocar or Motor there was always a guaranteed surprise in each year's edition,though .  Sadly I only have a very small percentage of the shit I stashed as a nipper - the bloody Boy Scouts used to come scrounging newspaper and the like and good old Mum always chucked them a few of my treasures.   

 

Oh, and I only ever saw one Mahindra Jeep as well - on four flat Desert Stormalangadingdong or some such wobbly sand tyres.  It was rooted to an allocated parking space behind our local curry house for years.

[HillmanImp]

Travel pilot. £1,600.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Here's the Senator page.

IMG_20190223_121004.jpg

Bonus Cavalier advert.

IMG_20190223_121241.jpgIMG_20190223_121252.jpg

Perhaps the hack that researched* the price was the same genius that wrote Senators have new flywheels that make the two V6 engines even smoother!!

[HillmanImp]

Perhaps the hack that researched* the price was the same genius that wrote Senators have new flywheels that make the two V6 engines even smoother!!

Michael Kemp died a few years ago so he's not got a Twitter handke sadly. Otherwise we could send abusive messages to him about his cack handed journalism.

 

In the absence of that I'll just carry on sending messages to Ross Kemp calling him a nonce instead.

[Lacquer Peel]

Around the time I started driving a schoolmate 'inherited' his dad's 305GRD saloon as his first car, an X-reg. (About 4 years old but high mileage).

He then put an "INJECTION" laserflash decal sticker all across the rear window.

That's not incorrect.

[Peter C]

You know, they seem to have missed out whole sections on the Mercedes page.

 

IMG_20190223_091431.jpg

 

To be fair, nobody outside the M25 had ever seen a Mercedes in those days so they probably thought that no one would notice.

 

Apoligies that the photos on its side, I can't seem to straighten it up.

Thank you for posting.

 

Odd that they printed a review of a Midas but missed out some great Mercs.

[HillmanImp]

Thank you for posting.

Odd that they printed a review of a Midas but missed out some great Mercs.

Oddly I actually saw a Midas Gold yesterday. Will get a photo next time I'm near it.

[Peter C]

Wow, they even reviewed a Mahindra. My claim to fame is that I once owned a Mahindra Indian Brave, with 2.1 litre Peugeot diesel power you had to be brave to drive one.

 

Here it is parked up outside my parents’ house next to a 924 that I sold to my mum.

 

[Cavcraft]

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We always seemed to pay way over the odds for cars over what main land europe paid for the same cars.  It wasn't until reasonably recently they balanced out, remember folk used go over to germany to buy cars and bring them back here at £$£ savings?

 

Ha, yeah and then fly-by-night companies (most of whom seem to be registered to a broom cupboard on an industrial estate) started up and offered to save you thousands. The one I could never work out was why it was cheaper to buy a Rover group car in Brussels and drive it back, than to actually buy one in Britain.

[paulscavalier]

Much on the peugeot 405 in that magazine?