Old classifieds

[Jamie]

wow £395 for an invacar - people will be doing cartwheels on here when they see that

[sdkrc]

Why spend that on an Invacar when you could spend £2500 on an 8 yr old Micra on finance?

[bramz7]

We lived in Slough in the late 90s/early 00s and I'd always get those free car classified mags from Tesco. 

I'd also always head straight to the part exchange bargain bin at the foot each dealers stock. 

Obviously the problems I have now started way back then. 

[sdkrc]

BMW 720 sounds a bit stingy. I'd be very interested if it had cloth seats and no options.

Had to Google the Málaga and the Charmant, they're new to me

[quicksilver]

I was a strange child who instead of reading comic books took great delight in browsing Auto Trader and the like for crappy cars so these scans bring back a lot of memories. My favourites were always the old snotters in the under £1000 section and the hopelessly smashed wrecks ever-optimistic sellers tried to flog in the salvage section.

The Invacar advert is interesting as it proves it was possible to buy one even before the 2003 cull, and VPF441M is apparently a survivor. I wonder how many cars from an average classified magazine are likely to have survived.

[Richard_FM]

When I first became interested in cars I used to read the classified ads in the local papers.

Occasionally something interesting would be featured, especially in the under £1000 column.

[ProgRocker]

14 hours ago, sdkrc said:

BMW 720 sounds a bit stingy. I'd be very interested if it had cloth seats and no options

728 or 730 Shirley? 

The person must have misread the vendor's scribblings when s/he typed up the ad for publishing. 

I have a 1992 copy of Auto Trader in a shoe box somewhere. I'll dig it out and get some scans. 

 

[xtriple]

I had a SEAT Malaga 1.5. Cheap car bought because it was nealy new and already worthless! It wasn't a great car and the system Porsche engine was dire whatever the badge said!

[Adrian_pt]

Fascinating, in the older ads, how expensive the prewar stuff is compared to relatively recent exotica. Not the best investment to have made at the time.

[LightBulbFun]

On 6/24/2020 at 10:12 PM, quicksilver said:

The Invacar advert is interesting as it proves it was possible to buy one even before the 2003 cull, and VPF441M is apparently a survivor. I wonder how many cars from an average classified magazine are likely to have survived.

well nothing stopped you buying/selling one back then, its just if it was not a private example like REV is (which VPF441M is not)

then it very much was stolen government property!, and the IVS/DHSS could well snatch it back from you! so the seller had some balls selling it like that! (not to mention I imagine there would have been a bit of an investigation into how it escaped and someone along that chain would get reprimanded) 

its why most government Invalid vehicles sold privately back then before ~2004 where rung, to stop them being traced/taken back by the IVS/DHSS! and it was sadly this sort of shenanigans and the illegitimate owners doing stupid things with their invacars caused the IVS/DHSS to clamp down even harder on their policy of "mutilate beyond economic repair"

which spelt the death knell for many much rarer makes and models of invalid vehicles, where sadly no examples are known to survive today

 

of course thankfully none of this is an issue now and after 2004 any invalid vehicles which somehow survived became public domain in effect, as the department that owned them ceased to exist and the government in general does not care about them in that way anymore 

[Cavboy80]

I use to like looking through Autotrader and the local classifieds, the 'Under £500' in our paper would be full of chod.  

I remember Autotrader had a full page ad from a dealer in Bury St Edmunds who'd sell 4-5 year old cars, normally Mondeos, Vectra B, Laguna (probably ex rep mobiles) with big mileages.

[quicksilver]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

well nothing stopped you buying/selling one back then, its just if it was not a private example like REV is (which VPF441M is not)

then it very much was stolen government property!, and the IVS/DHSS could well snatch it back from you! so the seller had some balls selling it like that! (not to mention I imagine there would have been a bit of an investigation into how it escaped and someone along that chain would get reprimanded) 

its why most government Invalid vehicles sold privately back then before ~2004 where rung, to stop them being traced/taken back by the IVS/DHSS! and it was sadly this sort of shenanigans and the illegitimate owners doing stupid things with their invacars caused the IVS/DHSS to clamp down even harder on their policy of "mutilate beyond economic repair"

which spelt the death knell for many much rarer makes and models of invalid vehicles, where sadly no examples are known to survive today

 

of course thankfully none of this is an issue now and after 2004 any invalid vehicles which somehow survived became public domain in effect, as the department that owned them ceased to exist and the government in general does not care about them in that way anymore 

Wow, that's a bit cheeky. Either it stayed below the radar or the government just didn't care as the fact it still exists suggests they never bothered to reclaim it. I wonder how long it's been in private ownership, possibly since that last V5 was issued in 1999.

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, quicksilver said:

Wow, that's a bit cheeky. Either it stayed below the radar or the government just didn't care as the fact it still exists suggests they never bothered to reclaim it. I wonder how long it's been in private ownership, possibly since that last V5 was issued in 1999.

yeah! im surprised (but glad today) it never got rung like most the others did LOL I have posted more info on it in my thread to not derail this one too much!  

[sdkrc]

I used to pore over the old autotraders as well, reading every ad like rainman. My favourite sections were <£500, breakers and motorbikes where I'd look for go karts.

Not sure of the levels of interest in random shit from old magazines but here it is anyway

[sdkrc]

This is from a 12,000 mile road test of the dolomite. I can post the full thing if there's any interest. 

6.4 faults per new car in the first 10k miles...jesus

[Tamworthbay]

9 hours ago, sdkrc said:

This is from a 12,000 mile road test of the dolomite. I can post the full thing if there's any interest. 

6.4 faults per new car in the first 10k miles...jesus

Yes please!

[sdkrc]

 

[sdkrc]

I'd be interested for any Dolly owners to chime in with their thoughts on this 12,000 mile review. 

I really like the format and the writing.

[sdkrc]

Well, I've gone off the deep end and bought a huge big fuckload of these. Cracking reading

If anyone owns some old shite from the 70s let me know and I'll see if there's a review

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, sdkrc said:

Well, I've gone off the deep end and bought a huge big fuckload of these. Cracking reading

If anyone owns some old shite from the 70s let me know and I'll see if there's a review

ohh! I have and have read "How Tricky are the Trikes?" from 17/8/1974

but im looking to find/get pictures of the following 2 other Motor articles "Tricycle Scandal Continues" 12/6/1976 and "Aftermath of the Trike"  6/6/1981

they dont happen to be in that lot do they? hoping there will be some more Invalid vehicle pictures/registrations for me to ogle at  

[captain_70s]

On 6/27/2020 at 10:11 PM, sdkrc said:

I'd be interested for any Dolly owners to chime in with their thoughts on this 12,000 mile review. 

I really like the format and the writing.

My '76 1850HL featured several of the same problems despite BL declaring they'd sorted them in the article. Namely the heater control self-adjusting to cold on bumpy roads and the buzzing gearstick.

Impressive how frequently the carbs on the test car went out of tune, I always found mine to require regular fiddling although I had the later twin SUs rather than Strombergs. I also got better mpg, 30-35mpg on average, although that was a lot of 55mph country road work rather than driving around London and cruising up the motorway at 96mph! I also noted the car's tendency to light up the rear wheels on greasy roads (by crashing mine off a roundabout backwards) and being susceptable to cross-winds (1/4 turn on the wheel to keep a straight line).

My car had done about 90,000 miles though, so the fact it was falling to bits was more understandable...

[Six-cylinder]

Thames Valley Trader May 1982 and yes I did buy it for £1000 and I yes still have it.

[cort1977]

On 6/25/2020 at 4:55 PM, Adrian_pt said:

Fascinating, in the older ads, how expensive the prewar stuff is compared to relatively recent exotica. Not the best investment to have made at the time.

Cars and other collectables definitely have their time in the sun and then values fade away a bit.  I was reading recently how values of Elvis memorabilia have declined recently as his fans have died off. 

As a general trend, for cars it usually vehicles that were popular 20-30 years ago when middle aged men were young and either had one or wanted one, now they want to relive their youth.  There's lots of exceptions, anything with a racing history or from a famous brand will always have a following.

Sadly, I'm not sure young people these days are interested in cars in the same way, the whole movement could well be heading for a gradual decline as there wont be the next generation prepared to look after the older stuff. 

[Amishtat]