Paging PeteM

Some are, yeah.

Knocked back a Mazda Eunos 1.8 on an "M" plate last week for £1300. Had

18" mega expensive wheels, a/c and full leather, but didn't seem to be a Jap Racer job. Quite a tasteful little thing, I suspect the owner could pedal a bit, but it was a tip top thing. We couldn't get the trade remotely interested in it, even the lads who trade in older Jap sporty stuff are tightening their belts. Chap I know had a perfect Impreza P1 (is it the P1, the two door tricked up thing, like a 22B 'lite') full service history, all the right bits, unmarked anywhere, one owner UK car with Prodrive stuff all over the place. He couldn't move it at £7k.

Trade are running scared from most things more than a couple of years old at the moment. We've just bought an 04 plate LWB Hi-Top Transit, an

02 plate LWB Hi-Top, and a Y reg SWB High Top. FSH, typical condition well used but not battered for under £6k. For the three.

Arse has fallen out of most things. Jag X-Type 2.0d Sport, 05 plate, 40k miles, FSH, 12 months MOT, unmarked inside or out, full leather, parking sensors, foldy mirrors, metallic reddish / magenta, mint as a mint thing. we paid £7k privately for it.

Basically, it's a buyers market. Dealers are scared, traders are being mega-fussy, and privately owned stuff is being panic sold all over the place.

Crikey. Might be finding something sporty for the bird in the near future then.

Stop it. You're making me want to look at used new-ish vans now, even though I've bloody got one.....

Don't get me wrong, we had to buy the three in order to get them cheap. The Y plate needed a diff, so we sold that for £2k "as is", and the 04 went for £5k, but there are things out there if you're prepared to look and travel.

Oh, and ta for the call yesterday. I think he might be interested :-)

Which is completely the opposite of the classic Ford market where MK1/2 Essies, even the Estates, are fetching even more incredibly ridiculous figures week on week and the price of Anglias, Cappers, Cortinas,

100E's is being forced up as people are priced out of being able to own an Essie because of the scene tax so look elsewhere.

I'm clueless as to what a Capper is, but you're right about the others :-p. Capri Lasers don't seem to be rising in value though, the one I had a few years ago is still on my mates path and still worth what he paid for it and no more.

Other Classic stuff is very volatile indeed. Some is crashing heavily, others seem to have frozen, but the best stuff is rising.

Yup, I've been considering getting an LPG'd 4.4 litre car as a runabout. It's astonishing by how low the prices of anything > 2 litres has collapsed. I might also get a Kia Sorento as a farm truck, because a couple of years old vehicle can be had for peanuts.

The only bad thing is the Gordon Tax.

I'm expecting the Vee to shed some value over night what with it's new £440 tax band heh. Good job I get it for free. Can't wait to my free tax on the

911 ;-)

If it's an unMOT'd rusting pile, it'll not fetch anything but Capris=20 which were doing =A3600 a couple of years ago are doing =A31000+ now.

--=20 Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't=20 looking good either. - Scott Adams

Yup. My 2.0T Xantia Activa averages about 26-27mpg (though the first tank since they finished the M4 roadworks near Reading and removed the associated average cameras dropped to 24.8mpg...). My brother's 54 plate Audi S4 only gets 2-3mpg less on average, at worst.

Was chatting to him about car-related shenanigans, and said I'm getting

26-27mpg - his reply - "I get almost that" - my reply "that's why I want something V8 with LPG".

Yet 150k+ Saab 9-5 aeros are punted out for =A34.5k. Crazy world.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream: