Project cars. Creatures of hope, disappointment, frustration, lethargy.
The curse of the classic Vauxhall appears to be a general lack of interest by the general public. Vauxhalls are scrapped without consideration as their values plummet to the point where you couldn’t even give them away. This problem doesn’t seem to befall Ford’s in quite the same way and this cruel treatment is reserved only for the basest of base model Focus’s and Mondeo’s.
It seems that old Vauxhall’s slip from our consciousness until it is too late. Someone mentions their 70’s Vauxhall Viva casually over dinner and suddenly everyone realises, after glacing quickly at How Many Left that there are not many left at all.
However, after a brief period of lamentation, everyone goes back to their roast chicken dinner. This seemed to be the case when I was told about a Viva HB automatic, having previously been sold as a project, which was now scrapped leaving the remaining number of these cars in the country at… errr… 2.
The values of classic Vauxhall’s simply can’t match those of their Ford counterparts, likely because of the requirement for 2 factors in setting the value of anything: Supply and Demand.
As we have discussed, supply appears to be dwindling, but demand never catches up. This means two things:
- If you buy a classix Vauxhall as a project car thinking that you can turn a decent profit you’re even more deluded than first thought on account of purchasing a project car in the first place
- If you want a meaningful project car for the love of project cars but your purse strings are strangled by family holidays, MPVs and new school uniforms, the classic Vauxhall is probably a great place to start.
As with all project cars, the outcome of this one remains a mystery. Currently in long term storage; the engine selection is yet to be decided, the quality of finish is up for discussion, and all of the above will be affected by the new MOT regulations coming out in May 2018.
This post, much like this car, will remain an ongoing project. Progress updates expected in 2020.
M.
Turbochatter 