‘There simply aren’t enough left’

In the auction close season this winter, I’ve been tasked with bringing the PC Price Guide up to date with something like another 150 entries, mostly what you’d call modern classics. Equipped with a wish list from the boss, I set about tracking down cars sold and for sale to provide the data for all those new additions, and it provided a few sad surprises.

We’ve grown used to the idea of post-eighties cars being better rustproofed and generally more durable, with engines and gearboxes that will routinely rack up 200k without much more than servicing. Despite the best efforts of time, salt and banger racers, enough older everyday classics like Cortinas, Allegros and Morris Oxfords have survived to keep us quiet but some of the newer cars I’ve been researching have almost vanished. There simply aren’t enough left to provide the data for an entry; in a way they’ve been lost before they could be found.

Oddly, it’s harder to find a Fiat Tipo than a Lancia Beta, and we know what happened to most of those. I could only come up with two Renault Safranes and one Espace 2 in the whole of the UK. There was just the one first series Subaru Legacy, and that was a recent import.

Cars we took for granted are now rarer than exotics, the victims of low residual values, failure of expensive components, and several rounds of scrappage schemes. Even the British-built Nissan Bluebird will only just scrape into the guide on the back of the five I could track down. I only hope a few of the above are being saved, or we’ll have nothing left to remember them with than photos.

‘I only hope that some of these unloved cars are saved’