What to look for when buying your dream historic car - and five British
starter classics
Buying a classic
car is rather like inviting someone to join your family. It helps if
they are of good character, you like them and enjoy spending time with them.
And if they can earn their keep, so much the better.
They probably won’t, of course. It’s true that some classics have proved to be
excellent investments; had you bought an Aston
Martin DB5 25 years ago, you’d have seen its value increase almost
tenfold. However, as with property, shares or gold, the best time to buy is
when a car is undervalued or price rises may be expected, and that demands
both extensive knowledge and foresight.
In any case, buying a classic car for speculative reasons is like buying a
beautiful painting and keeping it in a bank vault. Cars are designed to
move, and deteriorate if they don’t. Driving a classic – and maintaining it
in a fit state to be driven – are the chief pleasures of ownership.
Nevertheless it’s all too easy to be seduced by the prospect of low-cost home
maintenance, relatively cheap insurance and zero Vehicle Excise Duty on
‘Historic’ vehicles (those built before 1973 or, from this April, 1974). So
before you take the plunge, you need to ask a few questions.
The most obvious is what sort of car you want, yet more important is what you
want to do with it. Romantic weekends will be few and far between if you buy
something scary, uncomfortable or unreliable, family excursions are
impossible in a sporty two-seater and the pleasures of summer motoring in a
convertible are soon forgotten in the 50 colder, wetter weeks of the year.
If you only aspire to occasional drives, you might be better served by
classic car hire.
All-year round use is also much harder if the car requires frequent
maintenance. Older cars demand more attention but even a 1960s classic will
need servicing every few thousand miles. If that matches your annual mileage
it shouldn’t be too onerous, but bear in mind that a V12 engine will always
be more expensive to service than a four-cylinder, and that obtaining
essential parts for rare or exotic machines can be costly and
time-consuming.
How handy are you with a set of spanners? If the answer is “not at all,” a
basic car maintenance course will pay dividends; taking the car to a
specialist for an annual service and MoT is one thing, paying someone £30
per hour to adjust the ignition timing every few months is quite another.
Access to a dry, secure and reasonably accessible garage is almost essential,
and not merely as a space in which to tinker and to store an accumulation of
spare parts; on-street parking is tough on classics and many insurers will
expect them to be garaged at night. If you don’t have domestic facilities,
the cheapest option is to rent a council lock-up for £25-100pcm, depending
on location – you need not be a council housing tenant to do so. It won’t
have lighting, however, which restricts DIY maintenance.
Another inescapable cost of ownership is insurance; with an annual mileage
limit (say 3,000-5,000 miles) the premium on a popular classic will
typically be a few hundred pounds. An ‘agreed value’ policy is a good idea,
so if the worst happens the payout will reflect the car’s value as a
classic, rather than scrap metal; you may obtain a valuation from the
appropriate owners’ club, based on a written description and photographs.
When quoted in club classified ads, this can be a useful guide to a car’s
condition.
Having satisfied the practical and financial preconditions of ownership, your
serious homework begins. Check the price guides in classic car magazines to
see what you might realistically afford. Read as much as you possibly can
about the car(s) you’re interested in, until you understand their strengths
and weaknesses; models evolve during their period of manufacture and later
versions might be significantly more (or less) desirable than the first.
Originality commands a premium and any alterations should be reversible, but
few cars survive for 40-plus years in showroom specification and many will
have benefited from well-known modifications to mitigate period flaws or
improve reliability. Most will have been converted to run on unleaded
petrol, for example, and some will have been fitted with electronic
ignition, although such conveniences are less serviceable than their
mechanical predecessors.
As your preferences narrow, join the relevant owners’ club (you’ll find a list
in
Practical Classics or
Classic & Sports Car magazines).
Read the club’s magazine, attend club gatherings and speak to experienced
owners. Being enthusiasts by definition, they are invariably keen to
encourage new blood and pass on useful knowledge.
For the same reasons, an owners’ club is usually the best source of cars for
sale at realistic prices. Auctions might be cheaper, dealers more expensive,
but in all cases knowledge is power, and everything you have learned will
help you assess a car’s desirability. That said, it can do no harm to be
accompanied by a genuinely knowledgeable friend or acquaintance from the
club. Modern used-car inspection services are not helpful where classics are
concerned.
A proper test drive is vital; a passenger ride is much less than ideal but
without insurance it might be your only option. Prior research should
prepare you to look out for model-specific problems or worrisome noises, and
the more cars you examine the more you will be able to distinguish the usual
rattles from the sounds of a worn engine, driveline or suspension.
Some faults may be remedied relatively easily but significant rust suggests
the whole car has been poorly maintained; alarm bells should certainly sound
if you find a “freshly restored” car with shiny exterior paint and moss on
the inside of the windows. Missing trim is another no-no; some items are
hard to source even for models otherwise well served by spares suppliers and
re-manufacturers.
Whatever you do, take your time and resist the temptation to buy the first car
you see. In the long-nurtured eagerness to obtain a dream machine, this
common advice is often ignored. However, in the world of classic cars you
may be certain of two things: you will eventually find a better example, and
it will be worth waiting for.
Best of British – five great starter classics
AUSTIN MINI/CLUBMAN (1959-2000)
Price: £2,600-£22,500
Evergreen and universally popular on road, track and rally stage. Huge fun to
drive if you can squeeze into one. Beware fake Coopers.
MGB/B GT (1962-1980)
Price: £3,250-£10,000
The MGB roadster and B GT coupé are extremely popular and highly valued. Later
rubber-bumper models are less desirable but may be converted.
MORRIS MINOR/TRAVELLER (1948-1970)
Price: £3,750-£8,000
Simple, unpretentious and apparently immortal, the saloon and Traveller estate
provide classy yet classless transport for all.
TRIUMPH HERALD/VITESSE (1959-1971)
Price: £2,000-£5,000
Small-chassis Triumphs (Herald/Vitesse saloons and convertibles and
Spitfire/GT6 two-seaters) are easy to maintain and remarkably cheap.
TRIUMPH TR6 (1969-1976)
Price: £11,000-£14,000
Perhaps not as pretty as the earlier TR4 but also less expensive; an
archetypal British sports car with good spares and tuning support.
Prices for fault-free (not concours condition) cars
