It can be a cheap way into a Cosworth. But tread carefully – parts can be scarce. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buying Guide Snap up the last unhyped Eighties Ford – the Granada MkIII Seven steps to buying Ford Granada MkIII / Scorpio Mk1Eighties Fords have never seemed more expensive. Not an auction seems to go by without another record being broken by the likes of the Capri 2.8i and Sierra Cosworth. Once-commonplace and cheap cars now seem out of the grasp of many.
With numbers thinning and prices rising, now’s the time to move Words RICHARD DREDGE, JAMES WALSHE AND SAM DAWSON Photography MAGIC CAR PICS Buying Guide It’s time to buy the Nineties’ most sought-after roadster – Honda’s S2000 Honda took nearly a decade to respond to arch-rival Mazda’s MX-5, but with the S2000 it established a new performance benchmark for small sports cars.
This dramatic grand tourer makes for a useable, beautiful, and very affordable classic. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buying Guide How to bag a Franco-Italian Peugeot 406 Coupé beauty from £800 Surviving examples of this stylish coupé are dwindling because of uncaring ownership and increasingly scarce parts, so if you fancy putting on your driveway, now’s the time to strike. The badge may be French, but Peugeot’s 406 Coupé is effectively an Italian exotic.
Could this be the classic world’s biggest bargain? One of these world-beating, exclusive GTs can be yours from just £3000, but avoiding costly gremlins is vital. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buying Guide Bargain of the century? Buy a Mercedes-Benz CL C215 for as little as £4000 The bigger they are the further they fall – and few cars have fallen quite so far and become quite so much of a bargain as the C215 Mercedes-Benz CL.
Citroën XM This heir to the DS and SM offers a lot of Citroën for the money, but they’re complex, so buy carefully. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buy a space-age Citroën XM for £3k to £10k Buying Guide How to buy a cool Citroën XM before the prices rise like its suspension What to payYou can still find running XMs around £2k, although these tend to be unloved 2.0 cars. For a reliable, sorted car, budget at least £3k.Traditionally, diesels commanded more, with the best 2.
Good news if you already own a Volvo 240 or 260, but bad news if you're hoping to buy one. That's because values of these boxiest of classics have been increasing steadily over the past few years, to the point that they've proved to be a tidy investment for anybody who got in on the action a little while ago. MARKET INSIGHT Volvo 200 SeriesKevin Price is the man with his finger on the pulse; he founded the Volvo Enthusiasts' Club (volvoenthusiastsclub.co.
There's no shortage of perfectionists in the classic car world, but Mark Suddaby went further than most to realise his dream. Mark Suddaby is clearly a sucker for punishment. Not only did he go to Hell and back to create his ideal Lotus Esprit, but having incorporated lots of mods throughout the restoration of his magnificent 1979 Series 2, he takes it to lots of shows where he has to endure abuse from the purists who gather at such meets, seemingly just to try to deflate owners.
Leyland Princess Once derided, this technical marvel is rapidly becoming collectible. Now’s the time to buy. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buy a Princess to be proud ofBuying Guide The Leyland Princess is increasingly sought after now - here’s now to buy one There was a time when the Princess was widely despised as representing British Leyland at its unreliable worst. However, the passage of time, increasing scarcity and gentler use as a classic has seen opinions change.
The overlooked Discovery is a bargain way into a classic Land Rover – for now. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Seven steps to buying Land Rover Discovery 1Buying Guide The Land Rover Discovery is perfect if you’ve missed the Range Rover boat How to dodge drama when hunting down a Disco How to dodge drama when hunting down a Disco Values of classic Range Rovers are soaring as the world wakes up to the pure appeal of the world’s first recognisable SUV.
To car people there's no such thing as a spare garage, because if there's even the tiniest piece of land onto which we can put a classic, that's exactly what we do. But my parents weren't car people back in the eighties when I was 15, so they did have an unused garage – and my mum's friend Alistair had his eye on it. Alistair lived in Cheltenham where parking was at a premium, and when the winter hit, he persuaded my mum to garage his (t)rusty Triumph for him.
Art-deco style with modern engineering and still undervalued – for now. Words Richard Dredge. Photography John Colley. Buying Guide Want Art Deco swank with postwar sensibility? That’ll be the Riley RM Six steps to buying a Riley RM Although it didn’t look modern, the RileyRM was the first all-new British post-warcar design.
Shonky build quality was par for the course in the eighties, but it wasn’t something that Porsche 944 owners had to put up with. They also got to savour effortless performance, excellent practicality and a brilliant driving experience, and four decades after the 944 arrived in the UK, you can still enjoy all of these things. While the 924 did Porsche’s image no favours, the much more masculine 944 was just the ticket.
The chances are that there’s an Aston Martin or two in your dream garage, but with marque values going through the roof in recent years, the only realistic way that you’re going to buy into the brand is with a DB7. It’s the Aston Martin that remains resolutely affordable to buy, if not necessarily to run. The DB7 is the car that saved the brand, because when it burst onto the scene in the mid-1990s, production from Aston’s Newport Pagnell factory had slowed to a trickle.
Seven steps to buying an MGC and ’B GT V8 Sporting appeal with the thrust to match the looks for as little as £6500. Words Richard Dredge. Photography John Colley. MGC and V8 buying made safeRemove the doubt of MGC/’B V8 buying Buying Guide Get yourself a big-engined MG roadster or coupé with confidence While MGB values have been on a steady decline of late, less ubiquitous variants have remained solid. This makes a decent MGC or ’BGT V8 seem a safe and compelling buy.
Let’s not beat around the bush: the Imp has a reputation for being a dud. It didn’t do great things for Hillman, because when it was launched in 1963 it was under-developed, so it suffered from a multitude of problems. The Imp Mk2 of 1965 fixed things though, so the pneumatic throttle linkage and automatic choke of the Mk1 were swapped for a cable throttle linkage and a conventional manual choke. Other improvements included a stronger clutch, better engine cooling and new suspension geometry.