Marlborough market day van-spotting guide

I am hoping soon to enter the classic car scene, at the bottom of the price ladder, and therefore find the detailed classifieds ads area of your compulsive newspaper the most appealing.

The majority of advertisers understandably start by stating year, mileage and price and this has enabled me both to draw up a mental short-list of possible purchases and to further edit that list in terms of the combination of all three categories until I arrive at my ‘ideal’ two or three choices.

While I can fully understand that owners at the top end of the price bracket might prefer not to state a price since the higher the intrinsic value, the greater the price variation is likely to apply, I cannot see any good reason though for otherwise not disclosing the three basic facts that introduce the advert. Surely these should whet the appetite?

May I suggest that perhaps a condition of the advert application form could be worded, to say: ‘All adverts must start with year, mileage and price. Omission of price is permitted if the intrinsic value of the vehicle is considered to be in excess of £40,000.’ Nigel Davis, Tiverton, Devon Your Letters, The Editor, CCW, The captions relating to the J2 and FC vans in the The Way We Were, Marlborough 1962 (8 June) have been transposed. Also the yellow and brown van looks like a J2 with a coachbuilt I read with great interest your 1 June feature about FIVA’s black box scaremongering and the life expectancy of electronic engine control units in classics. If ECUs have a life, then how long will the adhesives that hold cars like the Lotus Elise last? A bit more dangerous if your classic turns into an Airfix kit after 30 years! Dave Seager-Thomas, Castle Cary, Somerset

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