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Years ago there were always loads of "unfinished project - just needs plumbing and wiring to finish*" type ads knocking about. There was always someone who'd had enough of their car and just wanted it gone, needed some cash quick or was getting earache from the mrs and needed something out the way sharpish as well. Everything for sale these days seems to be either an unstarted project that needs a full resto or is finished - have all these cars actually disappeared or am I just looking I the wrong places?
*invariably you'd get it home and find you needed to rip it apart to undo all the previous owners bodges and it would cost you more time, money and heartache than if you'd just started from scratch yourself, but still...
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Most of them are sitting on my drive!
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Most of them are sitting on my drive! And the rest of them on mine !! |
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Most of them are sitting on my drive! And the rest of them on mine !! 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻 |
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Nowadays you just empty the hoover bag over them and call it a 'barn find'.
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Years ago there were always loads of "unfinished project - just needs plumbing and wiring to finish*" type ads knocking about. There was always someone who'd had enough of their car and just wanted it gone, needed some cash quick or was getting earache from the mrs and needed something out the way sharpish as well. Everything for sale these days seems to be either an unstarted project that needs a full resto or is finished - have all these cars actually disappeared or am I just looking I the wrong places? *invariably you'd get it home and find you needed to rip it apart to undo all the previous owners bodges and it would cost you more time, money and heartache than if you'd just started from scratch yourself, but still... I have a couple of cars that fit that bill lying about. I'm not advertising them or anything as I still intend to get round to them, but I do have a couple such cars that I'd be willing to let go if anyone was interested... |
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 Specialist Bodyshop & Fabrication Classic, Retro, Prestige & Custom Small Repairs to Concours Restorations Mechanical Work Vintage to Modern |
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I think it's symptomatic, in general society, of the declining interest in cars. Most 'projects' are pre-2000 cars, owned by mid-30's+ enthusiasts, because we all grew up in an era were cars were aspirational things, symbolic of freedom etc. These are the cars you grew up with, or drove in your teens and now have the money to buy. Modern cars are increasingly being treated as little more than replaceable, scrappage worthy white goods and there'll be a day where you don't even drive them yourself anymore. Kids now consider an iPhone a more essential purchase than a car.
Communication has changed, how people interact has changed, cars cost a lot to run/maintain. Older ones more so. So why not just buy a new C1 on finance, or get the train and avoid the heinous traffic? In fact, soon enough entire countries will be electric only domains. France, the Netherlands and Sweden are all aiming for this in less than a generation. Petrol and diesel cars (i.e. all the good cars) are on death row. When it goes all electric, I'll just get a bus pass and a train season ticket. Electric cars have all the appeal of a wet Monday morning in South Shields as far as I'm concerned.
Although 2000 seems like yesterday to me, I'm told it was quite a long time ago now. I've got a a few older cars, a pre-1990 and a pre-2000. These models were, not so very long ago, everywhere. Even the pre-2000 car. Anything post 2000/modern is so soulless and bland you'd struggle to do anything interesting with them and they interest us oldies far less, generally speaking.
The 'youth' of today, being less interested in cars by and large, aren't interested in this scene, they aren't interested in the generation of cars they grew up with because of the change in perception of and attitude to cars and those that are into retro cars are well and truly priced out of the market for the older popular models/spec.
So it's really only the older cars that remain of interest as projects. They are owned by the older clientele, are worth more than young people can afford and change hands, due to their rarity value, less often and at a higher price. Many are now used as a commodity or investment, rather than as a 'car'.
The days of 'bargain motors' are dead too. I remember buying old Fords for £50 and ten year old E30's for £150. Now, to buy an equivalent ten year old E90, it's £3000+. The whole market has changed, the cheap cars at the back of the used car lot simply don't exist now.
#generalisation
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Nowadays you just empty the hoover bag over them and call it a 'barn find'. Or claim that the lack of an interior and paint is rat look. |
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Jaguar S-Type 3.0 SE
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The days of 'bargain motors' are dead too. I remember buying old Fords for £50 and ten year old E30's for £150. Now, to buy an equivalent ten year old E90, it's £3000+. The whole market has changed, the cheap cars at the back of the used car lot simply don't exist now. #generalisation For me, this kind of vehicle is found on the facebook market. You'll never find premium motors for a steal but definitely loads of cheap cars of the 10 - 15 year old range and late 90's stuff. |
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See this is a perfect example ... m.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-MK1-2-DOOR-1300E-TIMEWARP-BARN-GARAGE-FIND-RESTORATION-PROJECT-/192232194470?hash=item2cc1ee81a6%3Ag%3A7BEAAOSwq~tZVOMz&_trkparms=pageci%253A0d8bb356-631d-11e7-b843-74dbd180d28c%257Cparentrq%253A1d5cd37b15d0aa49240ebeccffee8948%257Ciid%253A2... unattainable for most and that's before you even attempt to recommission or restore the thing. I can't afford that, much less a young person with crippling student debt (though, they get no sympathy from me on that front) and most of their money going to saving for a deposit on a one bed rabbit hutch in a bland new build estate. As for the rest in your eBay links, bar a very few exceptions, they still want £2k+ for old snotters that are just money pits in waiting. There are precious few bargains there. I'm not saying I don't understand the reasons behind the prices, I do. I just find that the prices these days are silly money and it's put me off, or just plain priced me out, of owning the cars I like anymore. The days, I just look at them on here and satisfy myself with that. The internet just made everyone think that something was worth whatever sticker price they decided to put on it, 20 years ago you'd have turned up to look at a 'project' of equivalent age then,after looking at an advert in the FreeAds, and told them to fork off if they thought anyone was going to pay that for a rusty heap with no MOT and more chance of being launched to the moon than getting one anytime soon. |
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It's a MK1 Escort! Time has moved on, these are now worth proper money. The equivilent sort of car to this that you used to be able to pick up for peanuts in the 80's would be something like the Kia Rio...
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Last Edit: Jul 7, 2017 14:16:40 GMT by HoTWire
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It's a MK1 Escort! Time as moved on, these are now worth proper money. The equivilent sort of car to this that you used to be able to pick up for peanuts in the 80's would be something like the Kia Rio... Yes, and that's my point. See my original post above. A Kia Rio simply isn't going to command the same interest or price as the 70's/80's equivalent, for a multitude of socio-economic reasons. I'm happy to be proven wrong, so I'll see you back here in 20 years time to see how it turned out. I'll be coming on the train though, because an Apple v2.0 Electrobox in white would be about as interesting as arriving in a fridge. |
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vw split vans seems to have stopped or died a death on prices , lots on offer , but not selling as good . Loads of dirt for sale . fords are now on a steady climb , with inflated prices . it s all gone mental
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There are a lot of cars that seem to have higher asking prices recently but are they selling........? For old chod go old school, keep a check on local sale boards in shops and supermarkets, old giffer habits die hard.
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74 Mk1 Escort 1360, 1971 Vauxhall Victor SL2000 Estate.
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,083
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Consider the inflation and such for a moment and what the Mk1 Escort was back in 1980. It wasn't a desirable car to most, only the enthusiasts were interested because of what you could do with it. Now it's worth silly money because of what it is in today's climate, so to replace it you need to look at what the modern day counterpart is. You want something with really good parts support, the ability to modify to current trends easily and cheaply and something nobody cares about because they're ten a penny.
In 1980 a Ford Escort would, at most, have been 12 years old and a £50 one may just have had an MoT though it wouldn't be much, much rougher usually than what would pass an MoT today as regulations have become tighter so that's another consideration. You likely wouldn't get any road tax then either, just as now, and insurance was less of a concern.
Today, that translates to about £150 and for that you want to find a car that's about 10 years old with nearly no MoT that nobody wants. That would be your modern day equivalent. Instantly you're looking at far newer cars than would normally be of interest on here so adjust the age to 20 years (which would have netted some aspirational models back in 1980) and suddenly the world is your oyster.
I'll also dispute the lack of interest thing. Now people have more things to be interested in and while the car scene isn't the same as it was back in 1980 it's certainly not a declining industry. It's just different. People aren't building cars out of Isopon and glitter now because it's far easier to use plastic, zip-ties and stickers instead.
Today you can still get yourself a Ford Escort for £150. It won't be rear wheel drive but it will be easy to get parts for, easy to modify and come with all the rust your nostalgia could ever want. With determination you could personalise it and have something to be proud of just like in 1980 just with the added support of the wealth of information and parts sourcing the internet and those pesky iPhones now offer.
It's too easy to think that just because things aren't as they were the scene is somehow dying. It's not. We're more informed, our tastes are much wider and the cars that were once cheap are no longer. This is actually a good thing, it promotes diversity and inspiration, it encourages people to embrace models that might otherwise be ignored.
Really the same has happened with Unfinished Projects. All that's changed there is the language. Nobody wants to take on an Unfinished Project but they could certainly be tempted by a Barn Find or just a Retro Not Escort Rally Mondeo, as they tend to be listed.
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Last Edit: Jul 7, 2017 17:51:24 GMT by vulgalour
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Unfortunately I feel in 10-15 years old cars may have been driven off the road :-(
The Govt and big business will see to that
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It's a MK1 Escort! Time has moved on, these are now worth proper money. The equivilent sort of car to this that you used to be able to pick up for peanuts in the 80's would be something like the Kia Rio... Exactly !! That's why we bought young George the 96 escort estate He's 14 now so how many will be left when he reaches 17? Myself? I don't buy fords now, £3 to £4K for a rotten shed No thanks I'll buy a jag or merc for half the price and wallow in luxury, don't get me wrong I love all the fords I had back in the escorts, cortinas, granadas,capris but theywere nothing special to drive and I can't believe the prices now, recently a mk2 cortina I sold for 5k seven years ago made over 13k at auction....madness imo |
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Last Edit: Jul 7, 2017 17:59:11 GMT by Mercdan68
Fraud owners club member
1999 Jaguar s type
1993 ford escort
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Maybe I'm just getting old but it just seems to me everything is ridiculously priced these days. I see what I would class as £500 (being generous) snotters being advertised for £3-4k and I'm not talking about legend status cars like MKII Escorts etc, just general cars and especially ones that were curse word when new. I see what Hotwires saying as well though as when I started driving a cheapo chuck away car was a MKI/MKII Escort, the equivalent now would be a Focus I suppose that just don't appeal to the likes of us. The word "barn find" boils my curse word as well. Being left on a drive under a tree for two years doesn't mean it's been discovered and is suddenly desirable...  |
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vulgalour
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 7,083
Club RR Member Number: 146
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Can we say 90s Classic Car Bubble? I reckon we're seeing a similar sort of thing at the moment. The bubble will pop.
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