Hmm, very nice, but rarity don't (sic) impress me much, as Shania Twain once warbled. The mini was probably Venezuela's most common car, just as the steel bodied version used to be pretty common here, before eBay destroyed the car's credibility
(in my mind they did..) by sanctioning the selling of late MK5 shells with 1959 MK1 identities and for people who stayed in Germany or Switzerland in the mid sixties to the mid seventies, the Fridolin was literally as common there as the good old Minor commercial was in its similar rôles in most parts of the UK. OK, so there are only a few dozen of these vehicles here, but on a global scale they're really common.
Rare, to my way of thinking, means something like the Salamander, a car built on the Reliant kitten chassis, but supplied with the 1100cc version of Ford's 'Kent' OHV IL4 engine and aimed at folk who would previously have opted for Invacars and AC Petites. The Salamander has the high seat and all that, but I don't feel the urge to own one of those. The Stephens Cypher, Kitten based again, had a similar look to the Mazda MX5. One is currently being restored, and if I have this right, there are a couple of others that may be around somewhere, those are extremely rare too but again, don't float my boat in the way that Reliant's best ever car (Metrocab) does and Metrocabs are very common, in fact there were several in any taxi rank in the UK at one time, before that balloon-looking new cab came along.
I like Toyotas even though they've built more cars than anyone else in the world, unless we believe VW's claim to have taken back the lead, but do we? After all, they told porkies about emissions. Hmm, was that so bad? We've all lied about emissions at some time or other, usually in a crowded lift, when the fart is always the property of the other person.
Rarity ~ schmarity!
