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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 293
Registered: 2-2013
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 06:24:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Back in the late 1970's American cars in Australia were cheap. I bought a mint condition 69 Cadillac, the only model with expensive ostrich skin leather for $5,000. Now things are very very different. The same car will easily make $15,000. It was a reliable easy to fix car that rode beautifully. I had to tolerate comments of "yank tank" and "where do you park it" from the usual riff raff brainless morons that cared to comment.

I have titled this comment "What actually happened?" but inherent in the blab is the other question "What is going to happen?".

I think the next twenty years is going to be very interesting in the classic car field primarily because almost all car manufacturers are turning out new cars now that will never be collectable and if they are will cost zillions to keep on the road because of the garbage materials used and the complexity of the drive trains not to mention all the idiotic novelty extras that manufacturers tout to get this muck off the show room floor. Indeed, my view is things started to go downhill since the mid 1970s with a few exceptions. Nice trendy stuff like the brick Volvos have virtually vanished but at high speed into the wreckers yard whilst just about anything made in the USA has gone literally through the roof price wise.

Much has been said that its important when buying something like a Shadow to make certain its been well cared for. There is much merit in this advice but for the long time picture are all these very cheap RR/B vehicles really future gold mines or at least a sound investment if you can store them somewhere like an old 1960s comic book?

There is no doubt the rich really rarely give a toss about maintaining a Rolls Royce or Bentley after they have spent a bank on one. That's because the rich love money not cars.

What I am wondering about is the incredibly cheap price being asked for RR/B in Australia and the US on the Shadow/Spirit Range and if this bargain fiesta is going to one day disappear. Two things come to mind. The first is that great cars like the Duesenberg were sold for very low money while the fat cats where leaping out of windows in Manhatten in the crash of 1929. Second is the strange event of things as ugly as the "Birdcage Maserati" in totally dilapidated state selling for an insane amount of loot from memory $4 million USD.

Then you have dealers like Gullwing in New York asking in my opinion lunatic amounts to purchase scrap in worse condition than any RR/B I have ever seen. Has the dealer gone mad or is he that rich that he can put such prices on rubble knowing that some total woodduck with buy it?

To all these queries I have no fixed answer but wish to point out that the future collectors that are kids today are going to be collecting in a very different market than what has previously gone before and if you look at the quality of materials put into cars up to the mid 1970s after that it has been a very very different story and one which I think will have a profound and unprecedented effect.
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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 996
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 08:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hi Vladimir

I think prices are already on the way up. When I was looking for a Silver Shadow in 2012 the highest price I saw on ebay motors was 30k. These days there are cars regularly advertised with the "buy it now" sticker at 50K. On checking this evening I see cars advertised at 47k, 40k, 45k, 47k, 55k and several at 30k. I know these higher priced cars are probably the same specialist, but whoever it is must be actually selling these cars. The asking prices are certainly much higher than just 3 years ago. I also note there is one for sale at 7.5k. A project car in Florida. Three years ago you could pick these up for 3k.

It's still too early to say if Silver Shadows are approaching a jump in price, but the signs look interesting.

Geoff
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Robert Noel Reddington
Grand Master
Username: bob_uk

Post Number: 653
Registered: 5-2015
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 08:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I should think that 5000 in the 70s was worth 15000 in todays money.

I have had cars that collectors now go nuts for but if I had kept them I would have to store them. Could be expensive.

Modern stuff will be a nightmare to restore. The complex dash board shapes for instance. Plastic inventially goes misshapen and crumbles.

At least with a Shadow one can make the bits using simple hand tools and skill and maybe more than one go at getting it right.

The lastest Vauxhall advert is for automatic assistance should you crash. First don't crash second call the emergency services not frigging Vauxhall.

The Jeep advert is every day is an adventure if you have a Jeep. Yeah really today I went to town to pick my son up. He got a broken leg last week. 6 miles took 45 mins. My Jeep has a compass which should I want to go as the crow flies and drive through peoples gardens would be usefull. Get a 4x4 and go anywhere. Not really you would get nicked and probably stuck somewhere.

Central locking good
Gps good
AC good.
Radio/ CD/ Mp3 good.

The rest such as electric seats and windows are frills that aren't needed.

I like Cadillacs. The 80s with the funny boot I didn't like. Cadillacs if maintained correctly do have good brakes and although they roll they do hang on in there before it all goes wrong. People buy them assuming that they had bad brakes and steering so they accept it and so the myth carries on.

The Volvos especially the 4 cylinder ones are good cars. The estate is particularly useful. The best is the 2.3 with K jetronic. Very reliable apart from fuel pump but thats caused by low fuel to often as in old cars brought by people who only put 10 quids of petrol at a time.
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Christian S. Hansen
Frequent User
Username: enquiring_mind

Post Number: 78
Registered: 4-2015
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 12:52:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Speaking of silly frills. How about the automatic parallel parking feature? When or if the moment arrives, guess how you will find out that it is no longer working properly. Crunch! If you cannot parallel park, that should be sufficient reason to not be allowed to drive anywhere else either.

So far they haven't come up with the automatic flat tire changing gizmo. I suppose the down side would be that it would change the tire irrespective of whether or not the spare had gone flat as well, so the obvious "upsell" for the car dealership would be the "automatic spare tire air pressure maintenance" gizmo. I missed my calling in life. Should have been an "automatic automotive gizmo" designer.
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Geoff Wootton
Grand Master
Username: dounraey

Post Number: 997
Registered: 5-2012
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 13:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

In the same vein, Tesla have released a car with auto steering and adaptive cruise control for use on highways. The youtube video below shows a new owner demonstrating it. The only problem is you have to grab the steering wheel if it goes wrong. If it crashes, then it's your fault for not grabbing the steering wheel quickly enough. I'd imagine the car is fun, but hardly relaxing to drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKrvGvUFxro

Geoff
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Christian S. Hansen
Frequent User
Username: enquiring_mind

Post Number: 79
Registered: 4-2015
Posted on Saturday, 31 October, 2015 - 16:13:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Hmmm...
Like...Alert! Alert! Returning control to you!...Think fast!...pause...crash!...
Yes, Thanks. Very relaxing...
Actually, I guess it would be about the same as current cruise control, where you have to maintain control of the vehicle, but simply do not have to hold your foot onto the throttle pedal until such time as traffic or circumstances warrant and then it is the driver's responsibility to revert to driver control. The steering control would allow you the use of your hands, rather than to hold the steering wheel, to instead read a book or comb your hair, etc, in much the same way as cruise control allows you to do whatever else interests you with your pedal foot until needed again.