Seriously?

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Last pair of number plates i had any input on buying were about £20 with another fiver discount because the buyer had a voucher from ebay. That was earlier this year, polycarbonate plates with a cherished reg on it so was able to get away with the minimum of extras, just the reg and the BSAu145d mark.

Useful tip for searching fleabay Alan, look at the top of the first page of results and there will be a few tabs across the top the last on the right will be the sort order. Default is "Best Match" usually but i've changed the default on mine to "Lowest Price inc P&P".

If you have the original plates and they still look good and more importantly, are doing their job correctly, i'd leave them as they are. I renewed the plates on my Rover some time ago as they were starting to delaminate (but not to the point where they could have been misread) and generally looked untidy. I also wasn't keen on the screws holoding them on so bought a new pair of otherwise plain plates (except the reg) and fitted those with trim tape.

:

The RB's number plates don't have any BSAu145d marks Dave (I'd never heard of that until you mentioned it), so I'm guessing they are quite old. They appear to come from a Volvo dealer, but don't have any other marks - so they may well be the originals.

I vacillate between keeping the originals and getting some silver & black ones plus a story that the RB left Gothenburg on Guy Fawkes night in 1979 (just to add interest) :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

The RB's number plates don't have any BSAu145d marks Dave (I'd never heard of that until you mentioned it), so I'm guessing they are quite old. They appear to come from a Volvo dealer, but don't have any other marks - so they may well be the originals.

I vacillate between keeping the originals and getting some silver & black ones plus a story that the RB left Gothenburg on Guy Fawkes night in 1979 (just to add interest) :-)

I can't remember what year that became a requirement Alan, just that on newer models from a certain year onwards, it is.

As for vacillating, you need to be careful of that! You'll get splinters!

[Othen]

This one reminds me of the ****mobile in 'Trailer Park Boys' (an excellent Canadian TV series available on Netflix). It must be the very bottom of the barrel for cars that are still roadworthy:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154589462...QAAOSwzzFhK9zm

The seller sounds like a good Volvo bloke, and has been pretty candid in the rubric and the sales description. This motor car seems to have been a faithful old friend; maybe someone will try to save it, but I can't help thinking it ought to be allowed to die now, a bit like a 15 year old dog that wanders out to the orchard one day and passes away peacefully under an apple tree :-)

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

Well how interesting, the rusty old car that sold for £650 and had two people bidding on it has been re-advertised after just a few days:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274918460...2Cchnl%3Dmkcid

... so either:

a. The buyer at the last auction was a no show (which seems odd if he/she was competing to win the auction).

b. At least one of the two bidders at the auction was the seller (or the seller's friend/relation) and he/she has been caught shill bidding.

Who knows?

:-)

The rusty old red car made £530 at auction this time round - which seems like a pretty sensible price to me. If I was a betting man (and I'm not) I might be tempted to say it was likely the seller was shill bidding on the first auction and got caught out when no one followed his bids. I'm not saying that is what happened of course... :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

The rusty old red car made £530 at auction this time round - which seems like a pretty sensible price to me. If I was a betting man (and I'm not) I might be tempted to say it was likely the seller was shill bidding on the first auction and got caught out when no one followed his bids. I'm not saying that is what happened of course... :-)

I'd say it was a racing certainty Alan but of course we're not allowed to say that without proof thanks to Political Correctness.

In the world we used to live in with free speech, we could have said that and the irony about all those freedom-loving do-gooders and their political correctness is they have stifled free speech.

With that in mind, i'd say he was definitely shill-bidding, got hoist by his own petard and found the true value of a decrepit, near basket case restoration Volvo 245 was only a few hundred and not a few thousand as all his mates down the pub told him.

It's a spares mule or a brave, near basket case restoration, it's not going to be anything like top money. Perhaps if someone bought it, invested in a welder, shares in their local metal stockholder, paint factors and similar and spent a couple of years of their own time, energy and labour getting it to a good standard, it might be worth £5k but to get their moneys' worth, they'd have to use it for another few years after before even considering selling. Granted that if it was still in "just restored" condition then, they could probably get a bit more than £5k but still nowhere near approaching the real cost.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

It's a spares mule or a brave, near basket case restoration, it's not going to be anything like top money. Perhaps if someone bought it, invested in a welder, shares in their local metal stockholder, paint factors and similar and spent a couple of years of their own time, energy and labour getting it to a good standard, it might be worth £5k but to get their moneys' worth, they'd have to use it for another few years after before even considering selling. Granted that if it was still in "just restored" condition then, they could probably get a bit more than £5k but still nowhere near approaching the real cost.

Agreed Dave,

I sometimes wonder what sort of person buys motor cars like that. It is a 1995 model, so a decade or so away from having any sort of classic interest. Maybe someone has a similar one and so they want the spares (and that would be good), but then it is a 235,000 mile vehicle that has has a hard life and been standing in the rain for the past 5 years - so not all that much is going to be very usable. The motor car will need trailering away, which might add £200 to the price.

It is hard to imagine anyone investing the time and money in saving a 27 year old motor car, so perhaps the banger racing chap wants to drop in his crated V8 engine/clutch/gearbox for its final journey?

What continues to surprise me is that people think basket cases are worth so much - we see it frequently in these pages.

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

Agreed Dave,

I sometimes wonder what sort of person buys motor cars like that. It is a 1995 model, so a decade or so away from having any sort of classic interest. Maybe someone has a similar one and so they want the spares (and that would be good), but then it is a 235,000 mile vehicle that has has a hard life and been standing in the rain for the past 5 years - so not all that much is going to be very usable. The motor car will need trailering away, which might add £200 to the price.

It is hard to imagine anyone investing the time and money in saving a 27 year old motor car, so perhaps the banger racing chap wants to drop in his crated V8 engine/clutch/gearbox for its final journey?

What continues to surprise me is that people think basket cases are worth so much - we see it frequently in these pages.

:-)

At the latest, it's a 1993 car Alan, it was registered Jan 94 and the most recent issue of a V5 was 21st June this year. It's last MoT expired 23/1/16 so nearly 6 years ago so i'd deduce from that it was owned by someone elderly and they stopped driving for whatever reason and it just sat there until they got an offer they couldn't refuse or they had passed away and it was sold as part of their legacy.

Looking closely at the pics in the listing, both sills appear to be rotten at the front and back, chances are all the way along. Also the rear arches and from what i can see, the bottom of the front arches where they meet the sills are rusty.

Yes the mileage isn't what you'd call low but is still low on average. If it's been properly serviced, there's no reason to suggest that following a proper recommissioning that it won't do the same mileage again without major problems.

One of two types of people will have bought this, either a brave restorer/parts mule buyer or a small time trader. If it's the latter, it will be mopped and polished, the sills "repaired", timing belt and oil/filter changed and an MoT slapped on it then sold for what the current seller wanted for it.

It may well reappear on ebay soon looking bright and shiny with a mahoosive price tag and a new MoT - watch this space!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

At the latest, it's a 1993 car Alan, it was registered Jan 94 and the most recent issue of a V5 was 21st June this year. It's last MoT expired 23/1/16 so nearly 6 years ago so i'd deduce from that it was owned by someone elderly and they stopped driving for whatever reason and it just sat there until they got an offer they couldn't refuse or they had passed away and it was sold as part of their legacy.

Looking closely at the pics in the listing, both sills appear to be rotten at the front and back, chances are all the way along. Also the rear arches and from what i can see, the bottom of the front arches where they meet the sills are rusty.

Yes the mileage isn't what you'd call low but is still low on average. If it's been properly serviced, there's no reason to suggest that following a proper recommissioning that it won't do the same mileage again without major problems.

One of two types of people will have bought this, either a brave restorer/parts mule buyer or a small time trader. If it's the latter, it will be mopped and polished, the sills "repaired", timing belt and oil/filter changed and an MoT slapped on it then sold for what the current seller wanted for it.

It may well reappear on ebay soon looking bright and shiny with a mahoosive price tag and a new MoT - watch this space!

You may be right about the red one previously belonging to an elderly person. Perhaps the clutch failed 5 years ago and was too expensive to fix, the MoT therefore became pointless so it just sat in the drive outside the bungalow seeping oil and rust onto the roses.

I'm still not convinced it is worth fixing, even for a small-time dealer. It needs a new clutch, the sills would have to be at least patched well enough to keep the MoT tester happy, the wheel arches will need at least filling and a dealer couldn't get away with a service including less than a cam belt. It seems unlikely that there won't be a need for some work to the brakes after standing for 5 years. It is hard (for me) to imagine the repairs and recommissioning would cost less than a grand, plus the purchase cost, £200 to trailer it away, MoT test and so on brings it to about £2,000. I just can't see there would be a worthwhile profit when a rough car like that with 235,000 miles and big gaps in its history is only likely to make £2,500. I suppose a dealer might slap on some huge price tag like £3,500 - but we see that frequently and the motor cars hardly ever sell.

If a bloke like one of us forum members has bought it as a project, or to provide spares for another project that would be a different matter. If it was a hobby then there would be no accounting for the cost of labour, and it would be worth doing jobs properly rather than quickly. I still don't think it would be worth it in that better cars can be bought for less than the project cost - but we don't always do sensible things with our old Volvos (me included).

Just my thoughts, perhaps we will see that car again (in the forum or in a Car and Classic ad) and all will become clear.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

You may be right about the red one previously belonging to an elderly person. Perhaps the clutch failed 5 years ago and was too expensive to fix, the MoT therefore became pointless so it just sat in the drive outside the bungalow seeping oil and rust onto the roses.

I'm still not convinced it is worth fixing, even for a small-time dealer. It needs a new clutch, the sills would have to be at least patched well enough to keep the MoT tester happy, the wheel arches will need at least filling and a dealer couldn't get away with a service including less than a cam belt. It seems unlikely that there won't be a need for some work to the brakes after standing for 5 years. It is hard (for me) to imagine the repairs and recommissioning would cost less than a grand, plus the purchase cost, £200 to trailer it away, MoT test and so on brings it to about £2,000. I just can't see there would be a worthwhile profit when a rough car like that with 235,000 miles and big gaps in its history is only likely to make £2,500. I suppose a dealer might slap on some huge price tag like £3,500 - but we see that frequently and the motor cars hardly ever sell.

If a bloke like one of us forum members has bought it as a project, or to provide spares for another project that would be a different matter. If it was a hobby then there would be no accounting for the cost of labour, and it would be worth doing jobs properly rather than quickly. I still don't think it would be worth it in that better cars can be bought for less than the project cost - but we don't always do sensible things with our old Volvos (me included).

Just my thoughts, perhaps we will see that car again (in the forum or in a Car and Classic ad) and all will become clear.

Alan

I'm fairly certain the clutch is simply lack of use Alan, the disc is dragging on the flyhweel somewhat or perhaps it's that the hydraulics need bleeding as well as the brakes!

Yes, you're spot on the brakes would need recommissioning but a dodgy dealer would make sure they worked for the MoT at best - if that meant a change of fluid then the buyer is lucky. He'd be sensible enough to know to change the timing belt and give it an oil/filter change as those are the most common things people will ask and check for if inspected.

By doing those he could then say it's been to his (tame) local garage that have been over it with a fine-toothed comb (not that they did anything about 90% of what was found but it sounds good to say it) and serviced it (minimum requrements given the situation as above) and put a new MoT on it and it's all good to go.

The same tame garage would probably weld some cover sills on or similar so it looked good but wasn't necessarily correct but passable for the test. All done under a grand. Said dodgy dealer probably drives a beavertail truck as his main transport so collection is quick and easy. His mate down the road with a bodyshop has given it the once over with the mop and turned it back to red from pink and made it look bright and shiny, sprayed the wheels with some Wheel Silver, the tyres with some Tyre Black and generally spruced it up.

Totally different for a private individual wanting those things done of course and where your argument is totally correct.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

That blue 244 is up to £5,495 on the bidding! I always get a bit suspicious when I see bidders with very low eBay scores bidding though... and the seller says he has spent £6,000 on the motor car this year, so he might have an interest in seeing the price pushed up (not that I'm suggesting there is any connection between those two thoughts).

:-)

... I'm becoming a bit suspicious about the £5,495 bid for the blue car. The bidder has quite a low eBay feedback score and the bidding jumped up by £3,000 very early on in the auction. I sort of have a feeling it is the seller's insurance bid, like a reserve, to make sure it doesn't go too cheaply. The seller mentioned he/she had spent £6,000 on it... so maybe that bid was from his/her Great Aunt Maud's eBay account? :-)

I think the blue car was really nice, that was before the fuel injection, the wheels and the ridiculous tyres. It is still quite nice, but I wonder whether there is a glass ceiling price that 244s will not go above - and perhaps that is around £6,000?

Just my thoughts, we'll see what it ends up at in a few days time.