Classic car values

[sierraman]

I don’t know, maybe it’s me that’s the boring old fossil but people had a bit more life to them back then. Walking up to the college with your mates chatting bollocks about whether to get a Nova or an Escort Bonus, pages of prime chod in the inky Autotrader, weekends down the scrapyard then going out and getting pissed after and making a nuisance of oneself. Jumpers for goalposts. 

[sierraman]

I’m not sure they’ll be extinct for a considerable time. Plus if you are bumming about at the bottom end of the market you are restricting your choice massively to being absolutely reamed for a clapped out automatic. I remember years ago an auto was sometimes seen as undesirable! How things change. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

5 minutes ago, sierraman said:

people had a bit more life to them back then.

They had, people have become much more boring.

[lesapandre]

40 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Boring bastards. 🤣

Unlike us...posting online pressing buttons 🤣

[Dobloseven]

13 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I don’t know, maybe it’s me that’s the boring old fossil but people had a bit more life to them back then. Walking up to the college with your mates chatting bollocks about whether to get a Nova or an Escort Bonus, pages of prime chod in the inky Autotrader, weekends down the scrapyard then going out and getting pissed after and making a nuisance of oneself. Jumpers for goalposts. 

I blame the internet.Reckon we'd be much happier without it.Used to have to actually do stuff instead of just talking about it online with random strangers.Hang on a minute........!

[Matty]

11 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Unlike us...posting online pressing buttons 🤣

It took me 40 years to learn how to press buttons. Don't belittle it 😂

[danthecapriman]

I watch old footage on YouTube of London buses and other similar things, mostly recorded in the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. But it’s equally interesting to people watch. How people behave and what they’re doing in those old videos has changed enormously since. 
It’s actually weird to see people walking down the street looking where they’re going or around them, or talking to other people. Now everyone seems to be looking down at their phones screens in silence or yelling at it because they’re in call on speaker!

[jonathan_dyane]

To further derail the thread, why do people talk into their phone on speaker instead of holding it on their ear?

[MiniMinorMk3]

44 minutes ago, jonathan_dyane said:

To further derail the thread, why do people talk into their phone on speaker instead of holding it on their ear?

It's because of the microwaves effecting  your brain, or is that not a thing anymore?

When I was growing up they used to say you'll get square eyes if you watch too much TV, I guess these days you can choose between landscape and portrait eyes depending on how you look at your phone.

[MiniMinorMk3]

2 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

most of them seem to have one interest - staring at their phones all day and pushing the buttons mega fast!😆

Buttons are so last century, it's all touchscreens now don't you know.

[AnthonyG]

8 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

There seems to be a generation now that just have absolutely no interest whatsoever or even no desire to even bother learning to drive.

Mind you, on the other hand faced with the prospect of the cars that generation are likely going to be allowed to drive I think I’d give up too! 

Remember that this generation were fed a constant stream of media hype and bullshit that driverless cars would be on the road ‘by 2020’ for more or less the entirety of the last decade, so they wouldn’t need to bother to learn. 

It wasn’t just Musk, players like Ford and GM pissed away tens of billions on driverless/autonomous vehicle schemes such as Cruise (a whole division recently shut down by GM after a good 50 billion or so spaffed up the wall). Apart from some of the driver assistance/autopilot tech in Teslas and high end German stuff it was mostly automotive vapour ware.

Thankfully, the hype cycle has died out completely now a) everybody’s lost shitloads of money on it and b) in the cold light of day realises it’s decades away at best. Musk still spouts bullshit, but perhaps the one silver lining of the US Govt/DOGE fuckwittery is that nobody takes him seriously anymore. 

[lesapandre]

The UK government and the BBC were also peddling this autonomous vehicle line - and yes we were told self-driving cars would be here now. 

Folk seem to have very short memories and old news is just that.

I'm not sure that's impacted classic car values - it's more indifference that's fueling this - seeing them as irrelevant to a current lifestyle.

'Liking' old motor vehicles is as much a fashion or economic choice as any other. People are hard up.

[EyesWeldedShut]

9 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Thankfully, the hype cycle has died out completely now

Nope - the crosshairs just moved over to AI - both are just 'novel' technology applications that can be talked up into investment vehicles (no pun intended)? 

Maybe ten years ago I was looking at one of the research angles on driverless cars - ad hoc networks - your car would come with 'talk enabled' so it could share data with similar cars in your area. All sorts of money was up for (research) grabs and we were after some,
All the wunderkids were coming up with fantastical ideas/possibilities on how you would sense, direct, communicate. Cars would be doing 120mph, London to Birmingham in 60 minutes, move over HS2. £££ for everyone, yippee.

Nobody looked at the real world 'What if some AS guy in his diesel shitbox is doing 55mph on the motorway? What if me meet some old MGB with no sensors or intra-car comms gear? How will our automatic traffic lights work if they cannot 'talk' to that shitty old Corolla?'

Back to real life: I know a lot of folks that have no interest in how a car works. They just want it to be reliable and, ideally, have some bells and whistles. If they happen to own something of AS standard age/quality (esp. the Low Cost, High Liability range that we stock) then they'll likely be the final owner.
They're not in the market for something 'classic' - especially when they can get PCP very easily on something fairly new (which, let's face it, is actually unlikely to implode during a three year PCP term)

 

 

[Snipes]

It's surprising how homogenized the modern car market is yet the old maxims of "Germany engineering, "Japanese technology" etc still persist. 

I really have no idea how people maintain brand loyalty when the only differences are in the pcp deals.

[SiC]

Iirc a lot of the Korean cars had previously German car brand designers recently. 

[sierraman]

9 hours ago, lesapandre said:

The UK government and the BBC were also peddling this autonomous vehicle line - and yes we were told self-driving cars would be here now. 

Folk seem to have very short memories and old news is just that.

I'm not sure that's impacted classic car values - it's more indifference that's fueling this - seeing them as irrelevant to a current lifestyle.

'Liking' old motor vehicles is as much a fashion or economic choice as any other. People are hard up.

The Jetsons predicted we’d be in flying cars in 2000. 🤣

[sierraman]

39 minutes ago, Sir Snipes said:

It's surprising how homogenized the modern car market is yet the old maxims of "Germany engineering, "Japanese technology" etc still persist. 

I really have no idea how people maintain brand loyalty when the only differences are in the pcp deals.

It’s probably because people get it drummed in from all angles ‘German Build Quality’. Plus something like an A3/Q Whatever is seen by a lot of folks under 40 as being a sign you are successful. Successful ironically being that you’ve loads of possessions and a social media platform documenting the positive events in your life, not contentment. 🤣

[Stinkwheel]

18 minutes ago, sierraman said:

The Jetsons predicted we’d be in flying cars in 2000. 🤣

We were on the moon in 1969, also by that time the movements that posited that maybe we could stop being so consumer and little bit more chill and nice to each other were also in full flow, If things had continued at the pace they were going back then and we had stayed trying to advance the human race a step, rather than just make money out of distracting and entertaining it, then it could have been a very plausible thing to believe.

Instead we are doing what Roger Waters (not aligning myself with him or his views you understand) said we would do on his 1992 Album - 'Amused ourselves to death'

[Snipes]

Yeah I'd have believed in 2001 we'd have flying cars too!

 

[danthecapriman]

Maybe the human brain has reached its limit and we can’t go any further!?😄

In many ways we seem to be going backwards now. Again, if you people watch for a while you’ll definitely see this!

[Dyslexic Viking]

20 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Maybe the human brain has reached its limit and we can’t go any further!?😄

In many ways we seem to be going backwards now. Again, if you people watch for a while you’ll definitely see this!

There are people who have seriously said that we should shut down agriculture and with that food production and grow trees instead because it is better for the environment.

I think this is the best example of how stupid people have become.

[Dyslexic Viking]

But back to classic cars. I notice here in Norway that many cars are now almost impossible to sell so I guess prices will drop in the coming years.

This I guess extremely rare 1977 Datsun is one  £5358 I don't think it's that bad for an extremely rare car but they can't get it sold.

https://www.finn.no/mobility/item/358560615?ci=1

[N Dentressangle]

On 15/05/2025 at 08:40, N Dentressangle said:

Judging by those Brightwells results, I'd say there are some ambitious estimates here:

https://www.easyliveauction.com/catalogue/92fee72946947708deb6a3fde5bfbd99/1f1638c9faeb7c2641b7b1e9c67628d0/the-moretonhampstead-motor-museum-dispersal-auction

Anything you fancy?

OK, fingers on buzzers for an 11am kick-off!

[Dyslexic Viking]

Here is another extremely rare one for sale in Norway that seems impossible to sell. And text below from the ad.

Quote

A very special car of model Datsun Laurel 1800 (C30) is for sale in Norway. The car will be sold to the highest bidder. It is difficult to set a price for such a special car, but EUR 6.000 seems reasonable. The car is registered and in drivable condition. I bought the car back in 1994. It had then been stored dry in a barn for 8 years before I got it repaired and registered. The car was in daily use until 1997. After that, the car was parked until 2014. Then the car was restored again with the replacement of the exhaust pipe, replacement of the brake bands on both sides at the rear, overhaul of the brake calypters on both sides at the front and replacement of all shock absorbers. The car has a small damage in the front part of the hood and at a point under the front bumper. That is why the hood is painted. Beside this the car has original paint. The car has been stored indoors all the years it has been in my possession. The car is considered for sale as there is not enough time to use and take care of it. This is a very rare car of which there are not many examples left. It comes with some parts and some documentation.

 

https://www.finn.no/mobility/item/343919830?ci=2

[sierraman]

43 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

Maybe the human brain has reached its limit and we can’t go any further!?😄

In many ways we seem to be going backwards now. Again, if you people watch for a while you’ll definitely see this!

 

20 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

There are people who have seriously said that we should shut down agriculture and with that food production and grow trees instead because it is better for the environment.

I think this is the best example of how stupid people have become.

Perhaps it would have been a good thing if they’d actually achieved colonising the Moon. Could have sent a lot of stupid people there. 

[danthecapriman]

8 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

OK, fingers on buzzers for an 11am kick-off!

That PA Cresta looks a tad optimistic. That’s not to say it’s a bad car, it looks gorgeous, but I’m not sure it’ll get anywhere near the estimate. Likewise the Magnette.

[SiC]

31 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

OK, fingers on buzzers for an 11am kick-off!

I'm tuning out as I really don't need anything else. Let alone another 1100! Even if stuff goes cheap, it's not as if this will be the only time to snap up stuff cheap it seems. Going by yesterdays big spends, I suspect there are loads of giffers come down for the day to go spending with healthy fat wallets.

[Tenmil Socket]

I’m toying with the idea of buying one last ‘weekend toy’ at some point but something undemanding that won’t see me on my back underneath it more than I’m driving it.

I was looking at E30s but they seem to like to rust. Something different from the 6 x MK3/MK4 Escorts I’ve had previously.

I agree with previous comments that the majority of modern cars are bland, boring, similar looking and have simply become ‘an object’ to most. I was next to one of these recently… Jesus wept, look at the state of it! *Well Dick loves it. 

Unfortunately, although the majority of us probably enjoy the nostalgia, things change…

I couldn’t wait to pass my test growing up and was driving at 17. My son has had a provisional license for a few years now and hasn’t even bothered to have a lesson.

[lesapandre]

2 hours ago, Sir Snipes said:

Yeah I'd have believed in 2001 we'd have flying cars too!

 

And a lot of that is superceded tech' only left in museums - one of the snags of new technologies is their unforseen consequences - another is how quickly they are superceded and old technologies.

The horse powered most human activity up to 1920-ish. Eight million horses, donkeys and mules died in World War I for example.

The propeller plane hangs on just - so too the turbo-prop just.

Concorde - too noisy, dirty and expensive to be viable.

The rocket - who knows.

The car - the autonomous people mover - how long. They need a settled civilisation capable of building roads etc.

A horse can go where a car mostly can't - maybe to make a comeback. And so civilisation will come full circle. 😂

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

But back to classic cars. I notice here in Norway that many cars are now almost impossible to sell so I guess prices will drop in the coming years.

This I guess extremely rare 1977 Datsun is one  £5358 I don't think it's that bad for an extremely rare car but they can't get it sold.

https://www.finn.no/mobility/item/358560615?ci=1

As Uncle was saying last night, you either get old cars or you don't. I'm driving round in two 50 odd years old cars. Obviously they have serious shortcomings compared to a new car but I'm more amazed at how capable and comfortable they are on today's roads. No doubt non old car people would have a do and say what a load of shite this is.

You only need to read a Pistonheads spotted story about an old Mini or something and read the comments. 4 pages of "oh I couldn't possibly drive that on today's roads. I'd be killed outright within the first mile". 

Fannys 🙄