Morris Minor Owners Club

It amazes me how much something can go up in value in such a short space of time.

This Traveller on ebay is priced at £17,950. It has been on there for months and did not get any bids last week at £7,950.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-Minor ... SwlKRb2tiG

I wonder how it can be worth another £10,000 this week ?

Phil

Better grab it while you can - it'll be £27950 next week!

and in another couple of weeks it'll be dearer than his house in Spain!

As spotted by Sleeper at the Cheshire Steam Fair Regards John

He might have got his pricing a bit wrong but he's right about one thing: There definitely won't be any capital gains tax to pay...….because there won't be any capital gain at that price.

Has the vendor never heard of paragraphs, either? Meeeow .

pgp001 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:17 am It amazes me how much something can go up in value in such a short space of time.

The value hasn’t changed

It’s the time of year, our local classic and prestige car sales place has seen a higher number of cars advertised for sale in the last 10 days, it’s getting near xmas and people are feeling the squeeze?
https://www.slades-garage.co.uk/

Maybe the price is a typo? Accidentally put a ‘1’ on the front?

I have seen Travellers at a lot of money and from what I can gather, they are, OTBE, the most valuable, when in good shape (Conversely the least valuable in bad shape!!).

It's strange how some cars are worth so much (I'm not talking Travellers here). Minis and RWD Ford Escorts always seem very expensive but both had a competition history and that makes a world of difference. The Austin Healey 100/6 and 3000 is a good example. Indirectly, the MGB GT V8 was a belated replacement for the Healey, by way of the MGC. I think that if BL had been able to prepare and enter the V8, the way BMC had done so with Healeys and Minis, good MGB GT V8s would now be going for towards £100K and more.

Tax exemption is another thing. Mike Authers (https://mgmidgets.com/) told me that tax exempt Midgets go for far more than an equivalent post tax exempt example. Midgets all fell in the lower tax bracket but I suppose, over the years, it mounts up, so people will spend an extra £2000 or so, to save £100+ per year (Especially if taxed for 12 months at a time). When Mike Authers told me this, the Brownline was still fixed at 31 12 1972 but since 2013, all but the last year of Midget production has "Come in from the cold". I haven't really followed Midget prices, as mine is a 1979 car and not due to become "Historic" until April 2020 (Though it is MOT exempt, as that takes effect immediately the car is 40 years old). My MGB GT V8 has become tax exempt, since exemption was allowed to roll forward and values of those have easily doubled since 2013. I have very good reason to believe that if Mr Corbyn wins, on 12th December, we will see what will then be a McDonnell line, fixed either at 31 12 78 or 31 12 79, so I am keeping my fingers crossed and my Midget has it's plug leads crossed . Yes the tax exemption mounts up (And given the amount I use the car, road tax is very expensive per mile) but historic status offers protection against so called anti banger legislation, like for example, the London emission levy. I don't wish to drive into London but if my Midget were "Historic", I wouldn't be penalised for doing so. At present, my Midget is officially an old banger!!!

My father once owned a Fraser Nash, which he sold for £795 in 1960. The car is now worth a good £1000 000 (Yes one million) but to those who say "I bet he wishes he still had it", I would answer "Yes but how much would we have spent out in insurance alone?" I reckon you could be looking at £200 per week on that kind of value. My father can recall, back in the '50s, that things like Vintage 3 Litre Bentleys would be priced at £500 and MG TCs at £325 (In places like Performance Cars or Chequered Flag).

Suppose it’s like everything else, supply and demand...

Blaketon wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:34 pm Vintage 3 Litre Bentleys would be priced at £500 and MG TCs at £325 (In places like Performance Cars or Chequered Flag).

Funny that you mention those two models of car. I remember Performance Cars Ltd at Brentford - run by a Mr Goldsmith, who was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. More years ago than I care to remember I bought an MGTC and could have bought a (pretty rough!) 3litre Bentley for the same price. To a young man, the MG was much more appealing! What on earth would even a rough 3litre Bentley be worth now The 5 figure sums now being asked for good Minor Travellers would seem a bargain by comparison. As somebody else has already said - it is largely just supply and demand - plus, don't forget that it would cost a great deal of money to carry out a full restoration on a Traveller.

ManyMinors wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 9:16 am

Blaketon wrote: ↑Sat Nov 30, 2019 12:34 pm Vintage 3 Litre Bentleys would be priced at £500 and MG TCs at £325 (In places like Performance Cars or Chequered Flag).

Funny that you mention those two models of car. I remember Performance Cars Ltd at Brentford - run by a Mr Goldsmith, who was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. More years ago than I care to remember I bought an MGTC and could have bought a (pretty rough!) 3litre Bentley for the same price. To a young man, the MG was much more appealing! What on earth would even a rough 3litre Bentley be worth now The 5 figure sums now being asked for good Minor Travellers would seem a bargain by comparison. As somebody else has already said - it is largely just supply and demand - plus, don't forget that it would cost a great deal of money to carry out a full restoration on a Traveller.

The Performance Cars I knew of was at the side of the Chiswick Flyover, on the M4. Chequered Flag wasn't far away. It 35 years since I saw either but now I think of it, there was a chrome bumper BGT V8 (With I seem to recall 50 or 60000 on the clock), in Chequered Flag (I'm sure that's where my father bought his Frazer Nash - he was working for AFN at the time and someone, from the works, went with him, as there were two similar cars for sale there), for £5500. There were also a couple of very tidy Midget 1500s for around £2300. I seem to remember a Triumph TR6 and a Spitfire but it is a long time ago!!

As you say, fixing a rough Traveller is expensive and no doubt accounts for them not being worth a lot in such a state.

Blaketon wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2019 10:59 am
The Performance Cars I knew of was at the side of the Chiswick Flyover, on the M4. Chequered Flag wasn't far away. It 35 years since I saw either but now I think of it, there was a chrome bumper BGT V8 (With I seem to recall 50 or 60000 on the clock), in Chequered Flag (I'm sure that's where my father bought his Frazer Nash - he was working for AFN at the time and someone, from the works, went with him, as there were two similar cars for sale there), for £5500. There were also a couple of very tidy Midget 1500s for around £2300. I seem to remember a Triumph TR6 and a Spitfire but it is a long time ago!!

It'll be the same place. Brentford and Chiswick are adjoining. Performance Cars were on the junction of the Great West Road (The A4) and Windmill Road and the M4 goes over the top now

Very soon young members will get priced out of owning a Minor

I can't think of any cheaper 1960s car though IF youngsters really want to run a 1960s car? The prices of 1960s Minis and VW Beetles are higher still. It is just supply and demand. I don't think it is simply price which prevents youngsters owning them - after all, I see many youngsters driving brand new cars which they lease. Most young people simply aren't interested in owning an old car and getting their hands dirty tinkering with them at weekends it the way that perhaps we were. For myself, I started running old cars as a youngster simply because I couldn't afford anything newer - and I had to work on them myself because I couldn't afford to pay anybody else. Most of my friends did the same. That culture has all but disappeared now. Practical skills haven't been taught in schools for so many years that not only do the youngsters themselves not possess them but neither do their parents It just isn't such a "thing" as it was. If a youngster really wants to buy a Morris Minor there are still plenty of relatively inexpensive ones around. You just have to look - AND be prepared to get your hands dirty. But that was always the case really!

Minors are appreciating in value and part of that is due to the spares availability and club. Part of it will just be down to them being what you might call antique. However, when you factor in that a youngster can insure a Minor for a lot less than the typical "Prattmobile" (No doubt because the insurers wouldn't see a young Minor owner as a "Pratt"), running a Minor still makes sense. Better to put money into a car than into insurance.

I take on board the comments about people becoming practically useless and it reflects the kinds of jobs we do. I first used a lathe aged 8 (Under supervision of course) and the college, where I developed that (As well as milling, grinding, the shaper and bench fitting), has been demolished and the new college don't offer anything like that....I think you can do hair dressing and sociology. Even in my day, the schools had a dismissive view of practical subjects, especially car mechanics and building. Only a "Remedial" was allowed to do either. A friend of mine, who's father had a pit in the garage at home and who he always helped with the car (He had his own Mini at age 16, which he did up prior to turning 17), became what I have every reason to believe (I've not seen him for years) a good mechanic. He wasn't Oxbridge material but he got into the sixth form but dropped out after a year, to do what he wanted to, not what people kept telling him to do. Because he was "Too bright", he couldn't do car mechanics at school and no doubt wasted time on subjects that have been of no use to him, in his working life.

Like him, I rubbed shoulders with some, who were Oxbridge types and in every case, the Oxbridge types were retarded, when it came to practical subjects. Indeed, when it came to those subjects, they dropped far more marks than I did in one or two academic subjects and if metalwork and woodwork results had been counted, it would have evened out. There are different types of intelligence and academic ability is just one form of it. It is society, which puts it above all else and when you think about it, the 650 muffins, who are supposed to run the country, probably have very few among them, who have ever got their hands dirty.

Ah, the 650 muffins, I recall when an earlier speaker of the commons was getting ribbed for starting his working life as a sheet metal worker. At the time I remember reflecting that sheet metal working is a useful and, so far as I know largely honest occupation, whereas politicians.....

You know, politicians get a lot of stick, but our local bloke is great. Always keeps you up to date with stuff,responds to queries etc. And spends most of his time away from home. I wouldn’t do his job for the money