Daily Mail Motor Review

[Sir Snipes]

I remember grey imports still being a thing in the early/mid 90s. An old family friend had a MK3 Cav badged as an Opel that got a surprising amount of attention.

[Sudsprint]

No, times have changed. My father was head teacher of a huge secondary school (1400 pupils).

 

Even so his cars were (in order):

 

Triumph 2000 (two yrs old), Audi 100LS (two years old), x2 Beta 1600 Saloons (two years old), Audi 80GL (new), x2 Peugeot 605s (two years old), Mercedes C180 (two years old), Mercedes E240D (two years old).

 

His only new car in his whole life was that Audi 80.

[HillmanImp]

A chap I used to work with imported 2 Peugeot 206s from Belgium I think as it saved him thousands. That would have been in 2001 I think.

[Hertz]

cort16, on 23 Feb 2019 - 08:01 AM, said:

 

I remember the UK got massively ripped for car prices up until the late 90's. We

 

 

At the risk of mentoning the unmentionable, if I reczll correctly, some wrangling in the EU sorted this out. Some people noticed one could order a rhd car in UK spec in say Belgium and it'd be cheaper.

Manufacturers tried to stop people doing this and the EU stepped in.

This is all just my recollection so could be arse.

 

Yes my dad did this in the mid 80's. He bought a new Mazda 626 from Dublin then imported it in and saved quite a bit. I think he did a similar thing in around 89/90 with a Cavalier 2.0 GLI. My Mum and Dad had quite a few new cars come to think of it, Micra, a couple of Seat Ibiza's and a Fiat Punto. Apart from company cars I have never bought a new car. 

 

Thanks for posting Mr Imp, I had the 1992 magazine of this.

 

Is there anything on the Renault 21 Turbo or Alpine GTA?

[HillmanImp]

No problem.

 

[JeeExEll]

The 21cm Mansell caricature ad and the helicopter one are like something out of Viz.

I wonder how many of the 650 Mansells they still have in their shed.

Maybe someone moved to that house later and found all these Mansells and Sennas and Patreses in the attic.

£31 in 1992 = £63 in 2019.

 

[Walter White]

The 21cm Mansell caricature ad and the helicopter one are like something out of Viz.

I wonder how many of the 650 Mansells they still have in their shed.

Maybe someone moved to that house later and found all these Mansells and Sennas and Patreses in the attic.

£31 in 1992 = £63 in 2019.

Classy though isn't he.

I was a student at an FE college in 1992, £30 was a weeks rent for my room in a shared house.

[JeeExEll]

Rare valuable collector's items now m9.

 

Each one comes with a signed numbered certificate of authenticity.

 

I'd like to see one of those certificates. What would it say on it?

 

They've given him eyes like Father Jack out of Father Ted.

[Walter White]

I have enjoyed these old guides. Hillman imp thanks for reminding me.

Some more adverts from the 1992 edition. Motor related. As with the 1988 edition Skoda have a full page ad but a lot more direct than the farmer looking wistfully into the distance.

[vaughant]

I looked at a 1988 2wd Cossie in autoshite spec, Mercury grey (rare, unpopular), cloth (very rare as leather was a no cost option iirc), in around 1997/8,basically as cheap a Cossie as you could get and he had a receipt for £27k.

 

He'd owned from new and wanted £3500 for it, just couldn't get the money together in time.

 

Sigh.

[RoadworkUK]

In similar vein, there was also Car Catalogue International. I think it was a pan-European publication translated for different markets as the photos and spec's didn't really match up with what we got in the UK, but it was fun to see different versions of familiar cars.

I have the 1990 edition of that, and once had an earlier one. Utterly piss poor production values, but as you say, seeing model designations like "Renault 4 Frog" and "Ford Scorpio 2.4 Ghia" utterly fascinated me.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

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.

 

IMG_20190222_224414.jpg

 

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.

 

 

All my old magazines are buried somewhere in the storeroom so the closest one I have to 1989 is a 1990 Autocar&Motor.

 

The most expensive Vauxhall Senator it lists is the '3.0i CD 24V Cat Auto' at £24,900.

 

The Granada Scorpio was listed at  £25,350. 

 

The Daimler DS420 wasn't listed but the standard XJ6 'Daimler' was £36,500 - the DS420 will have been more than this.

 

The BMW 535i was £27,495 - so the Daily Mail's 1989 price was probably correct. 

 

The 'Top of the range' XJ6 was £36,500 for the Daimler - the most expensive Jaguar version was the Sovereign at £32,500. 

The XJ-S V12 hardtop was £33,500, convertible £41,000. I think they've priced the 3.6.

 

Range-Rovers were priced between £23,784 for the 2.5 turbo diesel to £31,900 for the 3.9 Vogue SE. The most expensive Mercedes G series listed - the 280GEL was £24,300. The 300GDL was £23,120.

 

Defender 90s were £15,336 - the Citroen BX 19GTI 16v was £14,971 in the 1990 magazine.

 

The BMW 635csi was £45,780. A very expensive car - more than a DeTomaso Pantera at £43,980. 

 

Mercedes W124 200E was £19,020, the 230E was £21,430, the 260E was £25,700, the 300E £28,790, which puts the Senator into context - though at these prices the cars would have been a rather bare spec and the Vauxhall will have been discounted.

 

The Mercedes W126 300SE was £31,210. The 500 SE was a thumping £43,660.

 

The Audi 100 ran from £15,930 for the 2.0E to £24,592 for the 2.2 Turbo quattro. The original quattro was £33,819.

 

BMW 3 Series entry level was £11,985 for the 316i 2 door.  The 4 door was £12,510 - the same price as a Ford Sierra 2.0EFI GLX £12,475.

 

BMW 325i 2 door was £17, 975. The 4 door was £18,500. The Mercedes 190E 2.0 was £18,000 - as was the BMW 520i

 

BMW 525i was £21, 575 - so a lot cheaper than the Senator list of £24,900 - though a fairer comparison would be the 525i SE (Special equipment) at £23,285.

 

Rolls-Royce Corniche III was £123,808. The Silver Spirit was 85,609. The Bentley Turbo R was £101,389.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Some 405 content from 1992 for you. IMG_20190224_085634.jpg IMG_20190224_085647.jpg

That was the year my parents seriously considered buying a new 405. They couldn't secure an attractive enough deal on a 1.9 STDT, so bought a 3-year-old Mk.2 Jetta GL instead. History could have been very different if the dealer had been more accommodating.

[AMC Rebel]

Buying UK-spec RHD cars from European mainland dealers was a very big thing for a short time.   Opel / Vauxhall tried to stop Belgian/Dutch dealers from selling to UK customers (and UK dealers from servicing foreign-sourced cars) and fell foul of EU free trade regs.   It did lead to price drops in the UK, though.   This would have been late 80s IIRC.   Never been in the position to buy or want a new car so it all passed me by but I do remember people at work arranging 2/3 days off to get their new motor.

 

 

My then wife sourced a brand new Alfa GTV in 2000 from Belgium or Holland - it was way cheaper than the UK price.  We didn't go to Belgium though, somewhere in Kent to collect it.  It took quite a while to be made/delivered though. She did a lot of miles in it during which it was 100% reliable and very unlike the reputation people like to ascribe to the them.  

[AMC Rebel]

All my old magazines are buried somewhere in the storeroom so the closest one I have to 1989 is a 1990 Autocar&Motor.

 

The most expensive Vauxhall Senator it lists is the '3.0i CD 24V Cat Auto' at £24,900.

 

The Granada Scorpio was listed at  £25,350. 

 

The Daimler DS420 wasn't listed but the standard XJ6 'Daimler' was £36,500 - the DS420 will have been more than this.

 

The BMW 535i was £27,495 - so the Daily Mail's 1989 price was probably correct. 

 

The 'Top of the range' XJ6 was £36,500 for the Daimler - the most expensive Jaguar version was the Sovereign at £32,500. 

The XJ-S V12 hardtop was £33,500, convertible £41,000. I think they've priced the 3.6.

 

Range-Rovers were priced between £23,784 for the 2.5 turbo diesel to £31,900 for the 3.9 Vogue SE. The most expensive Mercedes G series listed - the 280GEL was £24,300. The 300GDL was £23,120.

 

Defender 90s were £15,336 - the Citroen BX 19GTI 16v was £14,971 in the 1990 magazine.

 

The BMW 635csi was £45,780. A very expensive car - more than a DeTomaso Pantera at £43,980. 

 

Mercedes W124 200E was £19,020, the 230E was £21,430, the 260E was £25,700, the 300E £28,790, which puts the Senator into context - though at these prices the cars would have been a rather bare spec and the Vauxhall will have been discounted.

 

The Mercedes W126 300SE was £31,210. The 500 SE was a thumping £43,660.

 

The Audi 100 ran from £15,930 for the 2.0E to £24,592 for the 2.2 Turbo quattro. The original quattro was £33,819.

 

BMW 3 Series entry level was £11,985 for the 316i 2 door.  The 4 door was £12,510 - the same price as a Ford Sierra 2.0EFI GLX £12,475.

 

BMW 325i 2 door was £17, 975. The 4 door was £18,500. The Mercedes 190E 2.0 was £18,000 - as was the BMW 520i

 

BMW 525i was £21, 575 - so a lot cheaper than the Senator list of £24,900 - though a fairer comparison would be the 525i SE (Special equipment) at £23,285.

 

Rolls-Royce Corniche III was £123,808. The Silver Spirit was 85,609. The Bentley Turbo R was £101,389.

 

 

 

IIRC very very few of those German cars would even have had a radio included in the price in those days, so the list prices aren't really comparable with, say a Ford.

[mercrocker]

Weren't Ford the first UK seller to include delivery charges in their showroom price, too?   That used to be a not inconsiderable extra on some makes.....

[cort1977]

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.IMG_20190223_115351.jpg

 

Love these old magazines with their serious tone.  I must have first started looking at Autocar (or was it Autocar and Motor) at that time, around 1989.

 

 

Good to see that the Wail has always had the same high standards of journalism, Geo was a GM brand, nothing to do with Chrysler.

[wuvvum]

I remember the list price for the Rolls Royce Phantom VI in the 1989 guide was £350,004 - I recall thinking it was a bit tight of RR not to let people off 4 quid when they were paying 350 bags for a car.

 

Also the listing for the Ferrari F40 listed its 0-200km/h time (written as 0-124.3mph) rather than the 0-60mph time that it listed for everything else.  At the time I hadn't quite figured out the concept of the rate of acceleration decreasing at higher speeds, so I just divided it by 2 to get the 0-60 time which worked out at 6-odd seconds - I remember being unimpressed that this beast of a car was slower to 60 than a Countach.

 

Why I remember all this 30 years later I have no fucking idea.

[wuvvum]

I ordered one of these off eBay yesterday.  It arrived today, and I've been on a nostalgia high ever since.

[Amishtat]

What does it say for Volvo 740s?

[Formula Autos]

My then wife sourced a brand new Alfa GTV in 2000 from Belgium or Holland - it was way cheaper than the UK price. We didn't go to Belgium though, somewhere in Kent to collect it. It took quite a while to be made/delivered though. She did a lot of miles in it during which it was 100% reliable and very unlike the reputation people like to ascribe to the them.

In the later (Ray as minder - '91 to '94) series of Minder Arthur Daley's car lot was renamed "Daley into Europe", and Arthur was importing RHD cars at a substantial discount. Fiction, I know, but there was usually some truth behind the ideas in the series. I'd imagine importing cars like this was a relatively common thing for savvy consumers back then.

 

Back when some people actually bought new cars. With cash.

 

Imagine a Daily Mail Motor Review now - there'd probably be no list prices, just from £xxx per month after each description.

[wuvvum]

What does it say for Volvo 740s?