Something that's always intrigued me. In the more distant past, buying a car meant waiting for Exchange & Mart to come out on a Thursday, or checking the classifieds in the back of your favourite magazine. But times have changed...
Where do you look if you're wanting to buy a car these days? DDK? Magazines? Facebook? eBay? Pistonheads? Bring a Trailer? Or do you contact every dealer and ask to be put on a mailing list? I have no idea!
Having been brought up with, and worked in, the print industry, I'm genuinely intrigued by the way car sales have changed.
Maybe Sam could give us the benefit of his years of experience...
Years is an exaggeration. It was about 20 months I think. And over 10 years ago now.
I never buy cars really. I just like dreaming of doing so. In my experience that’s the bit I never tire of, whereas I very quickly tire of actually owning and driving cars. The journey always beats the destination somehow.
Autotrader, Pistonheads, Car and Classic, EBay, those kind of places regularly turn things up.
But I enjoy following all the traditional auctions via Glenmarch and the online ones at Car and Classic, Collecting Cars and The Market.
There are loads of others of course, but only finite hours I can get away with browsing the internets.
At the moment I’m considering buying a Clio V6 (Mk1), 360CS (LHD), 1M (not orange) 308GT4 (not red), R8 (V10 manual), Escort Cosworth and V12 Vantage (manual). Possibly also an R5 Turbo 2 but I want to drive one first. I shan’t, of course, buy any of them, so if you’re after tips on browsing I’m your man.
I scour auctions for badly-presented cars, no reserve auctions, white elephants, vehicles in the wrong sale, or stalled projects, and try to find the diamonds among them. Mostly that's on ebay and online auction platforms.
I generally avoid cars having been meticulously prepared for sale and look for signs it's an honest car with no surprises.
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1970 911T, Signal orange (Restoration thread)
1988 3.2 Carrera backdate, Black
2001 996 Turbo, Lapis blue (am I allowed to put that here?)
I'm looking for a pre-impact bumper 911S or other high-revving 911 to restore - please let me know if you see one.
Sam wrote:
At the moment I’m considering buying a Clio V6 (Mk1), 360CS (LHD), 1M (not orange) 308GT4 (not red), R8 (V10 manual), Escort Cosworth and V12 Vantage (manual). Possibly also an R5 Turbo 2 but I want to drive one first. I shan’t, of course, buy any of them, so if you’re after tips on browsing I’m your man.
Man after my own heart. I have a search on Classic Cars on eBay which I refresh every day and ‘almost buy’ any number of cars I have seen once and forgotten about, loved and lost, mates had, dad had etc etc. Current fascinations range from fast fords of the 70s to late 80s, the earliest of the breed hot hatches, the odd Hillman Imp and occasionally a Fezza. Sometimes I have to work in between….
For Porsches I tend to look on here in the Porsches for sale of the day thread, and let you guys do the hard work for me
93 964 C2
99 Boxster 2.5 > 2.7 hill climber
71 914/6 3.0 - gone
'You see Paul, hill climbing is like making love to a beautiful woman. You get your motor running, check your fluids, hang on tight and WHOA..30 seconds later it's all over!' Swiss Tony
Spoke to chap at the weekend who purchased a Porsche 996 that had been left in storage for a good number of years. When the time came to settle his storage bill the owner decided it was too much to justify and negotiated to let the storage company keep the car rather than pay the bill.
There must be hundreds of forgotten gems languishing in storage waiting to be liberated by those with a heart???
