Ever wondered what a Pristine MG Montego is Worth?

[tractorman]

I tend to agree about whites (my Montego was Arum white with stick-on pattern in the concave bit - looked a little like a Police car at a quick glance - I think that's why driving improved for a few seconds when other drivers saw it!). I was told that they didn't use as much lead in white paint and that was the reason the white cars (not just Montegos) rusted quickly. However, I also welded up a neighbour's red Montego (1.6L estate) and it was the same age as mine - about five years old.

Mother had a white Montego as a courtesy car when her (new) Metro went in for warranty work (it was BRG metallic - where Rover had sprayed it, many bits were primer). I had written to Rover about the problems with the Metro (poor quality control in the factory and worse PDI at the garage) and, in passing, mentioned the rust on my Montego. I gave a copy to the service manager and he said my Montgo was a old car - an 85 "B" in 1990/1!! I then asked how old their Montego was and the man said, very proudly, that it was nine months old ("F" reg). Then I asked why there was rust where the wings bolted to the A pillar. Strangely enough, he had no answer. That was when I decided to buy a Golf next!!

Father's first Maxi was white - and had an amazing amount of rust for a Maxi that was a year newer than the second one: a purple one who's name I can't remember. It was two years newer than my Limeflower Maxi - which was three shades of Limeflower (accident damage with the first owner). I would never buy a white car after having those - even if paints are so much better now!

It's fair enough to say there's a hardcore band of followers and I respect that. However, it doesn't matter how much you love a car (not just a Montego), they are only worth what people will pay for them - not what an owner wants for theirs! If you look at the tractor magazines, there are lots of Massey Ferguson 135s for sale and some will be for £5K+ (and some at £7K or more). They are often listed for three or four months, so obviously not selling at that price. However, people see the adverts, decide that's what they are worth and list theirs at the same price - and they appear for four months! Similarly, I saw lots of 2008 Golf Bluemotions on eBay with Buy-it -Now for around £7K when mine was laid up (with engine failure). I only paid £6,500 for mine - about eighteen months earlier - is it really worth £7K or more? No chance!!

[mach1rob]

The trouble with anything BLARG, it doesn't yet have the cache of say a Ford, had it been wearing an RS or XR badge, then maybe it would have gone for a bit more. Sad fact of life some cars out there will always be worth more than others, even if the cheaper car is better specified and finished.

Ultimately, the market decided the prices, and any car is only really worth what a person is willing to pay, in this case just over £3.5k. Relisted it may end at more, or at less, it's one of those things you can never say. A classified ad at the price he wants may be a better bet, or perhaps a specialist auction.

It's a downside to all us BLARG owners, you'll never compete with the Ford lot on prices to sell, but on the up side, you can buy better cars for a damn sight less cash outlay.

I do hope he gets his asking price for it, it is about time our cars all came of age

[Laird_Scooby]

That's the trouble with "Blue Oval" stuff - for some reason they have an almost fanatical following and those people will pay almost anything for the scabbiest basket-case car with zero-level of equipment as standard yet pass over a similar age/condition BL/ARG/Rover product with much better standard equipment or even a similar Vauxhall. I remember in 1972, my dad bought his first ever brand new car, a "K" reg Ford Capri 1600 XL with 3 optional extras. These were metallic paint, a black vinyl roof and wait for it - a heated rear window!!! Six months later he was promoted and got a 1 month old company car, an "L" reg Vauxhall Victor 1800. Equipment wise the Victor knocked the Capri into a cocked hat boasting as standard a heated rear window, 2-speed wipers with "flick" wipe (no flick wipe on the Ford), "Energy (Impact) Absorbing Steering Column" which was basically a meshed section of steering column to absorb the energy of an impact, instead of impaling the hapless driver through the chest on the end of the column in a shunt and probably a few other improved bits of kit over the Ford. I do remember the wiper switch in the Capri was a rocker on the dash so presumably no self-park facility which the Victor did have and the screen wash was electric in the Vauxhall too unlike the Ford where you had to press a floor-mounted rubber bulb with your hoof to get some wet stuff on the screen! During my apprenticeship one of the other lads had a "K" reg Marina 1.3 which boasted similar levels of kit to the Vauxhall, all as standard from new.
I'm not deliberately denegrating Fords, just stating a few facts (as far as i remember them) and pointing out that for some reason best known to those individuals, Ford products have some kind of fanatical owners.
Which can only be a good thing for us that aren't so keen on Fords, we get to buy cars we like at much better prices!

[tractorman]

I knew two blokes who worked in Dagenham. One worked there in the late 70s and would never buy a Ford and the other was there for a short time just after the Mondeo was introduced and was a Ford freak.

I suspect Mr Scooby's Capri would have had self parking wipers - that's very old hat (even my Mk2 'Tina had them!), though I had forgotten about the floor-mounted washer "bulb" - though I seem to remember on a friend's Mk3 'Tina that there was a ring around it to work a flick-wipe: I could be wrong as I am not a Ford fan! Writing off the Mk2 'Tina didn't improve my feelings for them - though I still like the Cortina 1600E (and liked the Corsair 2000E even more!)

IMHO, Fords rust - they always have and they still do. A colleague had an "X" reg Focus estate until about five years ago and the bottom of the tailgate had rust holes all across it. I know it was a ten year old car, but it was a 1999 car and I'd have expected much better from a Fiat of that era, let alone a Ford! OTOH, another friend had a nice looking Mk3 'Tina estate (in white!) that was younger and needed four new doors (and possibly a tailgate) by the time it was seven or eight, so perhaps Ford have improved a little!

People love to knock the Marina, but I reckoned they were good cars - just introduced too late; just as the Mk3 'Tina came out and changed the rules! We had BMC/BL/whatever cars from the mid 50's until Mother had to sell her last Metro in 2005 (when she stopped driving) and, at one time had four Maxis and a Marina at the same time - my sister and her husband had Maxis as well as my father and me! That's not counting cousins, aunts etc. I think my niece was the last in the family to have a "Rover" - a 214 if memory serves. She sold it after Ma sold her Metro: Ma kept saying my niece had stolen the Metro - Alzheimer's is a bugger!

[Laird_Scooby]

I remember my dad constantly moaning about the lack of self-park on the GORK (from the number plate, GOR 937K) especially as when he traded the "Goldie-Car" (Hillman Avenger WOR 444H) against the Capri that had self-park. Think it also had electric screen wash too. I also had a friend with a very early Mk3 'Tina (on a "K" plate with a pushrod 1600 engine!) that had the chrome ring round the floor mounted washer bulb for a flick wipe. Strangely the flick wipe was deleted on my face-lift "N" reg Mk3 but i had progressed to electric screenwash!

What you say about them rusting is right though - by the time my dads Capri was nearly a year old, it was rotting on the front wings just above the headlamp/indicator area. As my dad now had the company car the Capri was sold as my brother couldn't afford the insurance (£1256/pa in 1973 for an 18 year old!) and a "G" reg Singer Chamois was bought for my brother who duly wrapped it round a pillar box in Didcot (literally!) while 3 sheets to the wind! F'idiot!!! Until that point the Chamois had much less panel damage and was only marginally less reliable than the Ford. That said, as a general observation, it seems many cars from the mid-late 90s rust quite badly - one of my neighbours has an "S" reg Golf (a white one!) that is rotting in all kinds of strange areas! Makes my 800s look really good parked next to it!

Marinas weren't bad cars at all, i had 2 and although the first was plagued with faults, when it drove it drove nicely (unless one or more of the rear springs was broken!) even on the remoulds fitted to it when i bought it until it finally gave up the ghost and i bought a 1967/"J" Rover P6 2000. (It was originally owned by an Army Major and bought in Germany in '67 then reg'd "New at First Registration" in 1971) This was later traded against a 4 year old Ambassador 2.0HL. When the gear linkage fell apart i was given a truly awful Maxi 1750 that drank fuel and oil in equal measure and only about 15mpg on either! Thankfully i soon had the wedge back though. I later in my car ownership career owned a 1500 Maxi (KCE 675P) that drank as much fuel as the courtesy car i'd had but was good on oil - i kept it 6 days!

[MG Mal]

The car has now been listed as a classified ad on Car & Classic Web site.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C519672

[Laird_Scooby]

Fingers crossed for the sale Mal!

[JPB]

If an S plate VW product is rusting, it must have had collision damage and been badly repaired by someone who used cheap panels as these had all Galvanised shells from the start of MK 4 production. But it might be a late MK3 if it's a Variant, they overlapped with MK4 production as late as 2000 because some folk preferred an estate that was long enough to use as an improvised tent and MK 3 was, I owned one and that was rusting along all of the leaded seams where Karmann had attached their Variant-specific parts to the original factory (hatch) shell, that car was rusty under the back seats when it was only five years old and needed welding before it was eight, though at least the tailgates were dipped from late 1995 onwards.

Current Ford models seem either to be totally rotten before their time, or to survive in remarkable condition for longer than you'd expect. One neighbour's 55 plate Focus estate has had welding to its sills and the rear window is surrounded by a very frilly tailgate, yet another has a Focus saloon which is spotless and a very early example whose prefix-style plate pre-dates the current registration scheme.

..four Maxis and a Marina at the same time....

Car heaven right there! Maxis are great motors, shame they shifted over to Hydragas from some point during 1975, the original setup, although a little more bouncy, was vastly more reliable but for interior space in a short car, they were amazing. Dad used to be able to fit salmon rods inside the car thanks to the clever seat folding arrangements where one of his reps had a Granada estate and needed to use gutter clips to carry his rods. The old man and I owned far too many Maxis between us and only one ever gave any real trouble; FTN493W (vermillion Maxi 2 HLS) had to have the block overbored and liners had to be fitted as it was porous from day one, its suspension leaked, again from day one and the front valence was holed with rust at two years/112,000 miles from new when my T plate "one and a half" 1750 HL reached eleven years of age and had covered 180,000 miles before it needed anything beyond routine servicing.
And that was the thing; BL stuff could be extremely dependable but it was a bit of a lottery. Small wonder Dad's Maxi replacement and the cars that followed it into the UK from Japan were so well though of as they didn't go wrong..



Dad and (Datsun, as they were badged at the time) Stanza at the left of a 25 year old me with my best (high mileage yet ultra-dependable) Maxi. And now the Datsun name is back yet sadly, the Maxi isn't.

And yes, that sticker in the top of my Maxi's screen is a Practical Classics one, from a sheet of such things that came with a 1989 edition of the mag. Both of these were just everyday used cars back then but where did all the Datsun Stanzas go eh?

[TerryG]

The MIL's Y plate polo is rusting around all 4 wheel arches. It gets driven across the farm so flicks up a large number of stones from tracks made from type 1 limestone. My 2005 focus has rust on the bottom of the drivers side front wing where the mud flap used to be (i'll get to it once I have some spare time away from DIY on the house)
2000 focus has rust starting at the bottom of both rear wheel arches
1994 range rover is made from rust which I am fighting continually.

I don't think any car rusts worse than any other, it is just how it has been treated by previous owners. If you get a 1970s ford that has never been driven in the rain, kept indoors all winter, etc it will be pretty good. Likewise if you get a new VW that lives by the sea side, gets driven over unpaved roads and never washed it will rust.
Saying that the rust holes in my dad's marina were amazing. You could get a small child through the ones in the wing tops.

[Laird_Scooby]

If an S plate VW product is rusting, it must have had collision damage and been badly repaired by someone who used cheap panels as these had all Galvanised shells from the start of MK 4 production. But it might be a late MK3 if it's a Variant, but where did all the Datsun Stanzas go eh?

It's on every panel John and it's a hatch GTi TDi - strange badging but that's what's on it.I've seen many others similar, just this one is constantly "in my face" so is at the forefront of my mind. Also Mercedes from a similar period seem to rot spectacularly. The person i bought my coupe from had 2 or 3 various different Mercs from a 230CE (1994 i think) to a G-Wagen ML320 and another i didn't see completely but all 3 were rusting in odd places. Also there is someone round the corner with a mid-90s Merc (can't remember the model but it's an estate) that is more rust than paint.

As for all the Datsun Stanzas, i can't remember when i last saw one. A worthy (but seemingly unloved) hatchback, i would have thought Nissan as they became soon after would have given it more of a chance to get established.