WE MISSED THEM
THE CARS WE SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT OR ARE JUST GLAD WE DIDN’T...
FORD XB FAIRMONT My old boyfriend owned a pepper red XB in the 1980s. We drove the wheels off that car and it was always reliable until the rusted areas started to join up! He ended up sending it to the scrap heap in 1990 for $150. I kept the 8-track collection from it though which I still own today. In hindsight the car probably was worth saving! SARAH HUTCHINS - VIA EMAIL
APRIL 1996 MASERATI MISTRAL
Maseratis from the 1960s seem to be the poor relation when pitted against Ferrari and Lamborghini offerings from the same era. However, this stunning coupe with its Frua bodywork is the exception. The Mistral appeared in 1964, replacing the Sebring and with the same 4.0-litre engine. Coupe production stopped at 828 units and there were only 120 opentop Spiders, so those can make close to $1 million in overseas sales. How many coupes exist in Australia isn’t easy to determine and if we said five that might be too many. Prices continue to climb.
APRIL 1992 1955 CHEVROLET BEL-AIR HARDTOP
If this lovely Bel-Air had been built in 1957 the ‘Now’ price would certainly be nudging six figures. Anything from the early years of Chevrolet’s V8 adventure does well in a nostalgic market but none attract buyers with bulging wallets in the way a two-door Bel-Air does. Cars like this were not sold new into Australia so all in our market are more recent arrivals. This one being sold back in the 1990s would not have required its RHD conversion and with these cars becoming more valuable there is justification for returning the wheel to its original location.
NOVEMBER 1990 1963 LINCOLN CONTINENTAL
If you are aged 60+ (or younger and a student of US history) then the word that springs to mind upon seeing this car will be ‘Kennedy’. This was the very model of Lincoln in which the last US President to be assassinated was travelling when the fatal shots were fired. Yet notoriety has not pushed values to extreme levels. Unlike 1960s Cadillacs which came here in significant numbers, Lincolns weren’t popular with Australian buyers and they remain scarce in this country. Convertibles are gaining value faster than sedans.
MAY 1988 MGB GT V8
By the time Rover’s alloy V8 found its way under the bonnet of a B GT, the end of the road for MG’s biggest seller was clearly visible. Emission rules ironically ensured that an engine designed in the USA couldn’t be sold there and none came though official channels to Australia either. This is an early car with a roll-back vinyl sunroof suggesting it might originally have been sold in Britain and brought here as a private import. In common with other MGs, values haven’t set any records during the past 35 years but if you bought this car you won’t have lost out either.
DECEMBER 1996 HOLDEN TORANA LX V8 HATCH
If you were smart enough back in 1996 to spend a fairly outrageous $8000 on a Hatch like this one, that grin as you read this will be difficult to erase. Unless of course you felt the need to make it look like an A9X and destroyed what has become a scarce variation. ‘Nanna spec’ Hatchbacks, as they might now be known, have become exceptionally rare, with that scarcity now extreme for cars built with a V8 engine. Finding one for a price comparison has become difficult but working backwards from some recently advertised examples of the 5.0-litre SS brings an impressive estimate.
JANUARY 1993 ISUZU BELLET GT
Isuzu is today renowned as a maker of trucks but 50+ years ago they were making some seriously interesting passenger cars. The Bellet sedan sold well in a market dominated by Toyota and Datsun but there were few takers for the fast and attractive two-door GT. Finding a GT in today’s market, even in Japan, seemed impossible and we did wonder if any of these luscious 1.6-litre two-doors had managed to survive. However, a shop in Texas USA called JDM Legends turned up a rare GT-R version with big wheels and a blacked-out bonnet for an enticing US$34,500.
MARCH 1992 CHRYSLER CHARGER E49
The pinnacle of Aussie six-cylinder excitement has always been a hard car to track down, although not particularly expensive. In 1992, this apparently outstanding E49 was priced at half the money a depressed market was asking for Phase 3 Falcons. Today the gap is even wider. Not sure if this is one of the ‘big tank’ Track Packs, of which only 14 are said to survive and have been pushed by keen collectors to more than $300,000. Assuming it is one of the E49s with some boot space available, this is still a desirable car and worth around ten times the money being asked 29 years ago.