Weren't they cheap as cheap too when launched?

I'm sure they are great if you dislike driving but I've never been remotely interested in cars like that, every time i get loaned a Jazz from Honda i weep inside. Had a polo the other day, its the automotive equivalent of castration for me, i instantly feel like life is too long

 

I hired one about a decade or so ago. I remember thinking It was a good little car, perfect for punting around Irish roads. All Fords of that era were good to drive. The funny thing is, those now commanding silly money like Cortinas and Escorts, were rubbish.

 

Pretty much all recent and current automotive offerings - with one or two exceptions - have the appeal to me of day-old, cold grey porridge. And generally speaking, technically interesting small cars now appeal to me much more than brand/lifestyle focused, über-powerful contemporary cars.

An ex car broker friend very recently passed me a deal for a new Audi S8 (the new twin turbo V8) on contract hire for £300 plus VAT a month, on a two year, 10 miles p.a. contract. It took me 15 seconds to think about it and dismiss it; I'd be bored with it in a couple of weeks.

Slightly off-topic, apparently there's likely to be more deals like this to come, as the demand for these expensive barges is softening.

 

A friend and his son are restoring a 1964 Ford Cortina 1500GT. IIRC they paid £5k for a Californian market LHD, which they have converted to RHD.

I laughed until it hurt when they told me of some the prices being demanded for classic Ford parts; someone in their sphere reputedly paid £800 for a washer bottle for an Escort...

The friends are anticipating a selling price of the restored Cortina in the region of £18-£19K. I just do not get the appeal at all...

... And I suspect they may well take a bath if current noises from the classic car market are to be believed. Another friend - with a '72 911 Targa up for sale at £60K and a few TR2s - was recounting a conversation with his mate 'in the business'. At a recent auction he attended, he said 60-70% of the classic cars failed to sell, and indeed, get anywhere near reserve. He opined it was a re-run of '90's and there were already signed that those who speculated in classic cars were now bailing-out.

 

The Puma & Ka have reached sh*tter pricing, anything from £150 upwards grabs you a bit of tired & scruffy nostalgia.
Almost tempting that there's a couple of 50K mile Puma 1.7's avail at just £600 or so. Remarkable.
If they weren't so girly though...

 

Mk3 Cortina was a beaut - seen one or 2 Cossie conversions over the years - creating absolute sleepers. Suppose that's ruining it though. Better in yellow, vinyl roof and thigh burning seats. In fact we had one. I liked it better than our later green tinted windows, 2 tone 2.0 Crusader.

 

I'd agree with the last bit. Lots of stuff not selling. You have to separate cars in the stratosphere though. Some cars have gone forever in terms of availability for the average working man. The damage will be done a lot further down the scale.

 

Yeah - almost bang on target, the Chinese stock market (and the rest) have blown off excess and sure as chips is chips, the 'classic' car market will follow suit.

I'd sooner stick my fingers on an exhaust manifold.

Those older Fords were even more overrated than the German-worship cars are today, being way less deserving in every respect of such cannon-fodder praise and that's one reason I detested the brand for so long. It is ironic that the Richard Parry-Jones tuned Fords (including the original Focus) were so nice to drive (lawnmower-tech engines notwithstanding) and yet are regarded as such sheds.

 

I always hated Fords because of their shyte engines

A mate had an RS Turbo Excrote years ago, basically all they did was lower it, stick in Recaros and add a chunky lttle turbo. Still it was that thing that set me off on my first hot hatch pursuit so not al bad. It had very nice steering but he had messed with it a lot.

I remember him putting a bleed valve in and i said to him "you'll just turn it up every day and then one day bang"

He did exactly that and melted his pistons

Happy days

 

I suspect a lot of the appeal is purely design. And some nostalgia thrown into the equation too.

As I am want to bang-on about, contemporary stuff is so utterly bland, and yesteryear styling, chrome gewgaws, aluminium grilles, metal bumpers and suchlike must be a draw.

And I guess being able to sort any mechanical issues with only basic tools and no laptop in sight is a factor.

A few years ago I was in-touch with Omicron Engineering about ex Car magazine's Ian Fraser, who was selling his Lancia Stratos through them (the one he wrote a brilliant piece about many years ago). At the time the asking price was around the £80-£90K mark and I was seriously considering going into debt to go for the car; it was the closest I have been to owning an automotive icon. Alas that particular boat has long since sailed for me...