Tim Ashworth | Minis, Metros & the Lost Art of Loving Your Car

Sam Grange Bailey (The Old Car Lady) sits down with Tim Ashworth of Stockley Classics for a proper trip down memory lane and an honest look at where the classic car market stands today. Tim is a Mini and Metro specialist with decades in the trade, and he doesn’t hold back.

They cover growing up with cars in the 70s, building a top five iconic cars of the decade, why colour and trim levels defined you socially in ways that just don’t exist anymore, and why the generation that leases their car on a monthly payment may never fall in love with it the way we did. Plus Tim gives his straight-talking take on the state of the classic car market and what he’s got on the forecourt right now.

Featured Stories

Minis, Metros and the Family Car Route: Tim’s mum ran Minis through the 60s and 70s. His dad did a full engine change on the driveway the night before Monday morning work. A conversation about the cars families actually drove and what keeping them going really looked like.

The Lost Art of Loving Your Car: When you saved up for your first car to the penny you looked after it, washed it and made it yours. Sam and Tim on why leasing and monthly payments have quietly killed that attachment.

Top Five Cars of the 70s: The VW Golf. The Rover SD1. The Citroen CX. The BMW E21. The Range Rover. Sam and Tim build their list, defend every entry and argue about the ones that didn’t make it.

Colour, Trim and the Peacocking Rep: Pageant Blue. Citron Yellow. Russet Brown. Your trim level told people exactly where you stood. Tim and Sam on why 70s colour and spec still matter enormously when you’re buying and selling.

The Market Right Now: Too many cars, too few buyers, and some prices that still need to come down. Tim is straight about the challenges but genuinely optimistic, especially about the sub-£20k end of the market and the club scene that underpins it.

What You’ll Learn

Why Mini restorations now cost £20-25k and why that maths rarely works as a business. How to know when to stop spending on a project car and why ‘used and improved’ often sells better than a full restoration. Why 70s cars are far more colour and trim sensitive than their modern counterparts. What makes the classic car club scene the market’s biggest long-term asset. Why the Ford Street Ka is worth putting on your radar right now. And why the generation that financed their cars on monthly payments may never develop the same emotional relationship with them that we did.

Key Questions

• Is the classic car restoration business a viable one? Tim’s view is clear. If you’re spending £20k to get £20k back, you’ve wasted your time. The maths only works if you’re doing it for love or if you know exactly when to stop.
• Has the next generation lost its connection to cars? Both Tim and Sam think so and worry about what that means for the classic car market in 20 years. The buyers who’ll hanker after a 90s hot hatch when they’re 50 may be fewer than the trade hopes.
• What does the classic car market actually need right now? Tim’s answer is realistic pricing, credible ethical trading, and a recognition that the accessible end of the market, fuelled by the club scene, is where the real resilience lives.

A Nod To

Stockley Classics. Tim’s dealership specialising in Minis, Metros, and accessible British classics. Find him at stockleyclassics.com. If this conversation has got you thinking, go have a look at what he’s got.

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This has been a Worth A Listen Production.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

My guest this week is Tim Ashworth from Stockley Classics. Tim is a mini and Metro specialist and dealer. He's been in and around the classic car world for a long time, and he's one of those people who just gets it. He gets why we love these cars, he gets why the 70s matter, and he's got a lot to say about where the market is today as well. We went deep on growing up with the cars in the 70s. The colours, the trim levels, the Sunday morning rituals, and why those were all so important. If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, this one is gonna hit differently for you. Do stick around. I hope you enjoy it. So you are a classic car enthusiast, owner, dealer. Yeah. You've been part of the classic car option world for a long time. Did you find the cars or did the cars find you? That's a good question. How did it all start?

SPEAKER_02 0:49

Ever since Pussy was a kitten, I've been into my cars. How about that for a line?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Solid start.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Solid start. Solid start, yeah. I remember when I was a little lad, had my matchbox toys and I enjoyed being in my go-kart and being in around cars every Sunday morning in the UK. Was your dad? My dad was into cars, yeah. My dad was into cars, my granddad was into cars as well. My dad was into his cars, but never earned enough to buy anything spectacularly nice. So nothing like your dad.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

For my dad, it didn't. It was the business. It was the business.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Absolutely. A bit of nostalgia here. So back in the 70s, our family car route was Vauxhall Victor Estate, Rover 2000 P6, Austin Princess.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

All cars that we love now, all cars. All cars that we love now.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

And then we bought an Escort Mark III gear in the early 80s, which is the best car we ever. Yeah, yeah, super. So we had and a succession of minis that my mum ran around in over the years that invariably either fell apart or ended up being repaired on the driveway, which was common.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

By the by Digidad Spambo himself.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

But it was common practice in the 70s, Sam, you know, that Britain in the UK on a Sunday morning was full of cars being either being repaired on the driveways by dads. Or washed. Or being washed. Exactly. And I think the biggest job my dad tackled was an engine change on a mini um on his drive. And he had to have it done by the Monday morning from to go to work. So he was pretty confident then, isn't it? He was confident. He was very competent. He never went anywhere without his tool bag. When was the last time he saw a tool bag in a beautiful car? That just doesn't happen anymore. But he had his leather tool bag with all his tools, a socket set. And he told me a tale once that him and Mum, before I was born, or just after I was born, were heading home from Abasok in their Ayeta bubble car. So this is in the 1960s. It's a long drive in a bubble car. It is a long drive. It's about three days. And it broke down, and there was a problem with the little carburetor, and there was a little glass dove on top of the carburetor. So Dad took it off and he dropped it and it smashed. So where are you going to get a little glass stove for a carburetor on a Aiseta bubble car in North Wales now? So luckily, Mum had some, I can't remember what it was, some kind of deodorant or whatever it was. Anyway, they ended up using the cap from this container, cellar taped in place, and away they went. It's made to him in.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Do you remember people, part of your boot kit was a pair of types for a stocking pitch fanbolt? Absolutely. And I think people, big sweeping statement here, view generalization, are pretty helpless when they break down these days. You can pick the phone up and someone will come and help you. Or to be fair, I couldn't get a modern car going if it broke down anyway. But I can get the old ones going nine times out of ten. But I think that part of motoring back in those days was getting yourself back on the road yourself if you broke down.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

How often do you see someone at the side of the road changing their own flat tyre now?

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Hardly ever. You you see an AA van behind them or an RSC van behind them changing the side for them.

SPEAKER_00 3:51

We've probably waited four hours for them to come out to do a 20-minute wheel change.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

But you know what, I get it. If you don't know how you're doing, you're not confident, it's not safe to do it. So I understand why people don't.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And of course, wheels these days are much bigger than they used to be. Yeah. So meaning he's had 10-inch wheels. Now you're talking 18, 19, 20-inch wheels. They are heavy.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Big heavy cars to jack up as well. If you're not confident, then you shouldn't be doing it. And I understand that. But I think because of the cars we drove and the times we drove in, we all learnt to spam a even if it was just the basics and change a wheel. And like you say, rather than just say, Oh, I need a part, I've not got so lot of the cars abandoned. You're fine.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

Yeah, you innovate. Yeah, you innovate and try and get it back on the road so you can get home.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Because we weren't rich enough to be able to afford our AC or RA cover. Oh, right.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

We never had that. Yeah. Phone box and a tow rope. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

But I remember as well in the 70s, you know. So our Austin princess was quite a rare thing in the day because this was one of the first launch princesses, which were quite radical in the mid-70s. The wedge. The wedge, Harrisman, the wedge, TR7 style, that kind of a wedgey look mystery.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

You had a signature design.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Absolutely. And I think the Allegro, which you designed, should have been a bit edger, a bit wedgier as well than it actually was. But the princess, it was a very early one, so it wasn't actually badger princess. It was an Austin 1800 HL, which only made for six months before they morphed the Morris but dropped Wolseley and Morph and Austin together to make the princess.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

There was always a big movement between BL and BMC, and say that it's very confusing. And depending on the year of the car, what umbrella it fell under, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Yeah, well, memory, I think it was a BLMC.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

I think I was gonna say that will have been bang in the middle. Slap bang in the middle, citron yellow. And we'll talk about colours in a minute because I love BL colours and full colours in the 70s. And we went to North Wales on a trip out, and the hydrograss suspension, one of the spheres broke. And the phonemes of princesses and the Allegros and certain minions.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I still have it now. There's one garage, there's two garages on there, one's in Birmingham and one's in Knoxford that still have the equipment to re-gas the spheres, metros.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

I've still got a I've got a hydrogas pump somewhere for my own. I do mean, yeah. So it's slumped onto one side, and to save the suspension that could be completely knackered on the way home. Dad got a wooden block and put it at the top of the suspension sphere to provide some kind of relief to the sphere itself. Thankfully, it was softwood. And that got its home. The car was slightly on the wonk all the way home.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

So you all have to sit on the same side.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

And it won't be going above 40 miles an hour. Again, made to immense. We got home. Limp it back. And then it would limp it home.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

We always used to have a say when I was young is that if I phoned my dad to say that something had gone on, the first question was, can you limp it back?

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Because if it could be limped back, you limped it back, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02 6:45

You're okay. Which is a common feature in the 70s, wasn't it? Limping at home. The cars weren't the most remarkable.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

They'd go into limp mode, but you put them into limp mode. You decided that you were going to drive it back really slowly, really gently. With your hazard lights. Underpowered, with your hazard lights on, with your arm out the window like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

It was manual limp mode, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

It was. It was. And yes, so that was that was fairly exciting time. Just you asked me about the 70s and what I remember. Obviously, I was very young.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

But from when I very first met you, as a dealer, dealing with a dealer, you were always you were always very into minis. I if I needed a question or some information or some extra help with a mini, you're the person I phoned. So did this big love of minis come from your mum's?

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Well, it was initially, certainly, although it didn't develop until actually I started buying and selling a few minis myself. Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

When was this when you were young or as a grown-up?

SPEAKER_02 7:35

No, as a grown-up. Absolutely as a grown-up. Yeah, except really. Using the term loosely now, obviously. Actually, I got into metros first. Which is a strange way. Normally people do minis, then they get into metros. Yeah. I've been the other way around. I did metros first. I'd always hankered after an MG Metro. I don't know why. I just realized I was gonna say it's the origination tomorrow. And I actually and I wanted to scratch that hit. So I bought the best MG Metro I could find back in 2016. And I've still got it now, and it's actually here. And that's a great little car. And then that morphed into an MG Metro Turbo, which I've still got, and a few other metros as well. And then I thought, let's revisit minis because mum had minis in the 1960s, 1970s, as did most mums in the UK. And so yeah, I bought and sold a few minis, really got into them.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Were you driving them and using them or just buying and selling them? I was tended to buy and sell them.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yeah, the ones that were too far gone, we use them to help other minis live again. Donut.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Yeah, donor cards.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Absolutely. Because even then, minis were quite expensive to restore. Now, I think you're looking at 20, 25 grand really to to do a proper job on a mini, which is horrendously expensive. But it is what it is. The costs have doubled or maybe tripled since pre-COVID to do a cot to do a mini on.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And how do you feel about getting your money back on restorations?

SPEAKER_02 8:51

It depends what you're doing it for. If you're doing it for yourself and less forced, if you're doing it as a business venture, that's a sure way to end up with a failing business.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

Break your heart and your bank account.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because it I agree. It's a big pile of cash there that's costing more cash to do up, and you don't realise the cash until you sell it.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

I think the problem I generally have with restorations, just taking a big round figure for easy money, if you spend 20 grand on a project car to get another 20 grand for it, you've wasted your time and your money. You may as well have taken a modest profit to sell it to somebody as a project car who will go on and do it themselves to their own use and pleasure and won't mind if it probably owes them exactly what it's worth.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

So I generally take the view on project cars, and I love buying and selling project cars, is I like to get them running driving, sopping, make sure they're safe and let somebody else finish them off.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think in our game, if you're buying and selling, you've got to know where to stop spending on a car. Yeah. And that's a commercial decision.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

We have to make those decisions with our heads, not our hearts. Absolutely. Because with my own cars, I do get carried away. Well, of course you do.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Like I do. Labour of loves. I get carried away. But sometimes with a car I buy specifically to do up and sell on, I let my heart rule my head. And my view is, oh, it's another one saved. Yes, but whose cost? Mine. Because unfortunately, I'll never get the money back. And that happens occasionally. It doesn't happen all the time. But the trick is knowing when to stop spending and saying, well, okay then, this is good enough now to sell. So you've gone through it, it's got an MOT, you've tied up the paintwork, you haven't done with a full respray. You bought some second-hand wheel trims that's the brand new wheel trims. You've timed up the interior. You haven't gone with a full interior refit.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

She used an improve.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

I love a using improved. Absolutely. So I think a lot of people, especially with classic cars, they are hobby cars, let's face it. That part of the joy of owning a classic car or a hobby car is that you put your own stamp on it and there are still things to do. Yeah. And I think that there's I think it's almost I find it more pleasurable selling cars where you're selling them to people who are buying them to lovingly finish them off. Yes. Than to someone that's going to put it in a pair of silk pajamas and stick in the corner of the garage and medicine tarmac again.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

You will have your exceptions at either end. You'll have your project cars, which will maybe start and run and drive, maybe don't even start, but you're selling them as a project. Or you'll have your ones on the other end that have been completely done and dusted, and you want decent money for it. In between is the va where the vast area of my cars go. So they're not perfect. I don't sell them as being perfect, but they're good, usable classics that you can use and improve. And I think with a mini is a perfect example. Practical classics. A mini, you can get all the parts, you can individualise it to your heart's content. And then even twelve months later, if you didn't fancy something, just change it for something else.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

I don't think that there's there's there isn't the stigma about modifying minis because it's so easy to put them back to original if the next person doesn't like what you've done to it. I think that with a lot of classic cars, there is a bit of a stigma about mods, purist don't like it. Yeah. Um it can really adversely affect the value of a car. But I think with a mini, I don't worry about it so much because it's dead easy to put it back to standard.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

It is, absolutely. And y it's not getting any cheaper to individu individualise cars, but mini, you can do some really individual things with them for not a huge amount of money, just to make them more your car.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

And do you personally, for you andor for stock, would you rather see one completely original? I know I don't mean original as in original paint and original condition, but original in terms of spec, or do you get excited about seeing one that's been improved or not improved but being modified?

SPEAKER_02 12:36

I tend to err on the side of originality only because I think that sells better. And I think in a market that where there's a lot of cars at the moment chasing fewer buyers, I think to pick up on your point, I think originality is coming more to the fore. Plus the fact you overlay that with I actually quite like original cars. And we talk about the one that got away. About three years ago, I bought a one-owner Morris Mini Thousand.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

In black tulip, which is my favourite colour, and a red interior, and it done 60,000 miles and it was a garage find. I'll never find another car like that. And you can sell it because of there was a big profit in it.

SPEAKER_03 13:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:25

There was a big And we do have bills to pay, we do have a lot of money. And that car probably that car ended up in Mexico. Yeah, it went to Mexico. Yeah, yeah, buy an intermediary, but the substance you found out it's gone to Mexico. But that is one car you always think, oh god. And that was entirely original, absolutely untouched. Even Safaras, he even did the only thing I even did what my dad used to do was underneath the carpet was pay newspapers of the day.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Yes, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:55

Which were all damp because it was a mini, and of course they're damp, and it's felt of oil. But why would you put newspapers in between the carpet and the floor? It just absorbs them.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Absorbs the water and rock. I think that was the idea. You put them in to absorb the water, but you change them once a week. Oh, yeah, that's when that's when it all went wrong.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

The plan fell apart. But the newspapers on the carpet were dated in the 70s. Oh, that's fabulous. It's just so it was just, and it's it's Tim, why didn't you sell that to him?

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Very excited about stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

And it was a business. It was a bit I had to look at it as a business. Commercial decision. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

I'm the same as you. I are there any original ones. Things like interiors, I love to see a slightly tatty-worn but original interior. Because I think the thing I find is metal work and paint work and mechanical work are fairly easy to tackle. What I find really difficult is replacing interior parts when you need to, and that tends to be the expensive bit as well on some of the cars I do. So just going back to the 70s, because we both share a lot of the 70 70s cars, don't we? And we were talking before we hit record about things that remind us of the 70s and the whole nostalgia is a really powerful notion, as we know. But if you think about 70s cars, what are your happy memories?

SPEAKER_02 15:06

70s cars, I think about lots and lots of different colour cars, far more than today.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

And aren't seventies cars colour sensitive when you're selling them?

SPEAKER_02 15:15

They are.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

More much more. I think the 80s cars are quite colour sensitive as well. Yes. But I think once you get into the 90s and 2000s, there's that price sensitivity when it comes to colour to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah, yeah. And you go out on the road these days, and there's loads of silvers, there's loads of blacks, there's loads of greys, some quite strange colours as well. But the vibrancy of colours to me seems to have gone. Back in the 70s, when you look you just look at the colour palette of British Land at the time, and you had some fantastic colours there, like inky yellow and pageant blue and russet brown, all very evocative at the time. And and the other thing about the 70s as well is different trim levels.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

So it's very important, it was defined you social depending on what you trim. It was.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Well be tied if you'd bought a maxi L. Oh, you'd have a HL or an HLS even to show you doing well. To show you doing well. Or you look at fours as well. So you have the base, you had the L, the G L, the GLX, then the gear, you know, and the gear came in, then there's the gear X, and you just think, oh my goodness, me, full of your boots.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I found that my got a cortina in with GLX, but then we found the L badge on every opening changed either. And we had we're talking about because we were explaining to some of the younger lads, I say the kids, then like in the 30s, about how you would badge a car, for example. And he was like, Why would you do that? And it's because people were impressed with you.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

And you know what? And uh I I think in the 70s and 80s, I think reps who did a lot of driving their position of business.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

You peacocked, you were peacocking over your own. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

So if you had an escort two-door pop, mid-70s escort Mark II pop in beige with plat plastic seats, or you had the escort gear, you knew where you stood in the when you stood in the pecking order.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

My wife would be very proud if you were the one that were going home.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Yeah, and but it was a sign of demotion and promotion as well, wasn't it? It was a real kick in the teeth, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_03 17:19

Yes, it was.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

It was. Yeah, so prim levels, definitely colours. Now, let's talk about cars from the 17 because um I think in the 70s we were lucky enough to live through an era where the an era when there were some pretty seminal cars that that were launched in the 70s. Era-defining cars.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Yeah, forget though, Tim, there were a far less cars on the road for a start. There were less families that automatically had a car, there were certainly less families that had more than one car.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

So cars and car launches, they were exciting.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

They were, they were.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

It was a big deal.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

It was. In in I mean, only you remember back the the Christ of Sun and Petula Clark and launched that. I remember that vividly put the Chrysler Sunbeam in your life. For the market and the whole thing about it was the same.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

The one with the MG, with the woman with the with the with the tiss and like the launcher's a bit cold, and it was something like your mo your mother wouldn't like it or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Yeah, that's a big habit, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Maybe not, then no, that's a MJ. That was the MGM, wasn't it? Yeah, it and but you think back to the cars and the launches, like you say, Motorfare as it was, which then became the motor show, Motorfare at Earl's Court. And you had the the dollies luxuriating over these cars that were going around on a turntable uh to launch a car. Different, completely different world. But you think back to the cars that were launched in the 70s. So I think I was thinking about what the top five will be. It's very difficult to think about a top five in the 70s. But you I think you've got to have somewhere in there the golf, the VW Golf, that was really iconic launchy changing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, how many cars were launched in the 70s that are effectively still one of the country's best-selling cars?

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so that was a really important car. I think you're right. Citron CX. You know, to succeed the DS with being around for 20 years, that was a big ass. Yeah. And I think I remember in the mid to late 70s seeing my first CX. Oh, and I was like, last place, weren't I? Oh my god, I could not believe it. What a car! Unbelievable. Just like one of those moments. I think as well, somewhere, maybe what did it put down here? Maybe the oh yeah, the Ray Rusty one. So the three five S.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

One of the prettiest British design cards.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Unfortunately, you're ruined with the build quality.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

And the quality of the metal. The quality of the metal thing.

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Yeah, the quality of the metal.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Kraken engine, though.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

Yeah, Kraken Engine, amazing car of the year, I think 77, I think it was.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

And do you know who owns the nicest one I've ever seen? Go on. Your friend of mine, Mr. Anthony Kersley. No, he said a stunning. Yeah. So the favourite cars of the 70s. Could you narrow it down to fives? Too hard or tricky?

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Tricky. I think number one has to be the golf, VW Golf, 74.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Iconic car. How many cars are still on the road that are essentially not just from the DNA, but the same car?

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Still one of the country's best.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

I don't know. I don't know. That's 50 years worth of golfs that everybody's familiar with. And they're such a game changer, weren't they, for VW at the time?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah, and then when I know when I was young, you were either you were generally a golf, uh, a VW or a Ford, and I was always a golf girl and I look at golfs. I still do, to be honest. Yeah, happily jump in one now. But yeah, golf, I'll give you that one.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

So a golf rover SD1, 3.5. Yeah, fabulous. Five-door hat. Come on to different body styles as well, because I also want to talk about five-door hatch, what a car. Unfortunately, hit by strikes, poor workmanship, etc.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Rotten steel, literally.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

But the fundamental were were great. And I remember the first time I went out, the 3-5 SD one, my mate's dad had one. Oh, I'm super impressed. I was super impressed. Fast and luxurious. Fast and luxurious. I think the Citroen CX has the feature there as being having to take over the mantle from the DS, which was 20 years old by the time the CX came in. They look like a spaceship. Amazing looking things.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

The dashboard with the rotary dials and the um indicators that were buttons.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Indicators on buttons of that. I think the radio was down here in the centre console as well. And it looked like a hatchback, but it wasn't. It's like something of the Jetsons amazing. And and that and the palace had the full chrome discs on the wheel, and then you got the Prestige, which was extended length with little footrests in the back. That was more for the chauffeur. It was not the self-drive. But a great car, great looking car. Not many of those left now, I don't think, Series 1 CX is I think as well, I think the BMW 3 series, the E21, the successor to the old 2002, I just think that started the whole thing as regards BMW and their huge popularity in the late 70s and 80s, which are continued to this day. I just think that was a sporty compact car that really got people's duties flowing, as it were.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Yeah, I suppose I tend to think of the E30 as being that one for me. But yeah, I think you're right. That I think that's a 323i. Yeah, very clear. Unbelievable. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Unbelievable. In late 70s, the 323.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Then we've got to talk about the R107s then, haven't we?

SPEAKER_02 22:47

I suppose so. Yeah, yeah. R107. Yeah, the Linux. Yeah, lovely.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Again, they are. And I know I think that the fact that there are still so many really good examples on the road is testament to how well built they are.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think you took 2010s out. I think for me, the Range Rover has to feature as well. Yeah. Because that was just game changing, wasn't it? As well. And to come from a British company, that's something for us to do really.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

Because a Land Rover beautiful Land Rover of all places.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sp we'll make a sporty Land Rover with a V8 engine in it.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

Yeah. Well, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Well, yeah, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Yeah. Well maybe one for the road, but we'll give it all zero fuel consumption. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Yes. Oh, I know all about that.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

I've been running around in a XGS V12 recently.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:35

Yeah. Straight. That's where I run the straight sixes. Yeah, that that that's a bit plus juicy, touch juicy.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

And again, the Range Rover is it's gone from stroke to strength. It's is it the biggest selling car in the States? Again, or imported car. I think Relson Bentley had to be a little bit more than a few years. Even after the tariff. I think they were already it was the pre-tariff restrictions when they did when they did their numbers. I'm really surprised that you haven't gone more BL on your list.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

I was top five top five is a big ass. I think it would be top ten, you could we could probably chuck in a few of BLs. You could argue the Maxi would be in there, but that's a 69. But the Maxi was a first in so many ways. First five, four.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

If we've taken it back to 69, end of 68, then we've got Silver Shadow as well, right?

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Oh yeah. And the Corditias and all that. And then at the other end of the 70s, the best friend. Yeah. That was that really saved BL single-handed, that car. So popular to think. In all the different derivations, they sold over two million of it.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Do you think we were just going into a time where more people were owning a car, running a car, and it just hit the spot of being affordable to buy, affordable to run, easy to run, easy to look after. As a matter of fact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:50

Yeah, I think so. And I think, well, there's elements of patronism there. People wanted British Leiden to succeed, but they just didn't have the product range to back that up. Okay. They were the Marina was at the end of its life morphing into the Ital. The Allegro was at the end of its life. That was morphing into the Maestro. The Maxi was at the end of its life morphing into the maestro as well. The Metro was the first brand new car that Biaz launched for a while. And it had to be good. And it was a good little car.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Do you think, in terms of a bit of a social documentary as well, we were sliding the times where more women were having their own car rather than we were more women were working, more women were running their own cars, more kids passing their tests could have a car in their late teens and twenties. And it just slid really neatly into that bike.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

I think so. Good timing. But great timing. I can't believe they even thought of that at the time. All in the timing. All in the timing.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

What did you learn to drive then?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I learned to drive. So my driving instructor had a Datson Cherry, which was incredibly easy to drive. Yeah. My mum had a two-foot as thought GL in GL. In stardust silver metallic, several shades thereof, because I respect the wings and the rear quarter.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

It's hard to get a match on silver. It's very hard to get a match on silver.

SPEAKER_02 26:14

I know that now. Absolutely. Oh no, I've I've thought of the dub hand with a rattle can for motorcycle.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

Blowing in the wearing.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

But it did have a vinyl roof. And it it had some several gear upgrades. It had the rather large GL badge on the back. And then later latterly, I basically it blew up the end at 1.3N. And my dad's mate had this Capri 1600s that he was scrapping. So we whipped the engine out of that and put that into the escort, which made it far too quick for me.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Did you do any other upgrades to the brakes or box or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 26:53

I was just in straight line acceleration to it. Because a caprice only did it.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

I would imagine that was quite the quite the drug rate part, but you'd surprise a few people at the lights.

SPEAKER_02 27:10

But yeah, it was a you know it served us well. I learned driving now.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

So most kids load the family car up and they get a bullock, and you've got a new upgrade engine.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

I got a retire secondhand to pre-engine. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

So I think that what we've really lost is a sense of again, big sweeping statement. I don't think there is the same sense of ownership of cars anymore. There's no sort of but when we were kids, early mid-80s, with your first, second, third car, it was your pride and joy. And it's new and it was important to me. And I'm not sure that sort of love of cars is still there. And when we talk about when we get the next generation coming through to the classic car scene, I think it's gonna be very difficult because we all grew up with eight-wheel, a lot of us grew up with a real sense of ownership of our own cars. So as we've got older, we want to buy the cars that we wanted back then but couldn't have or the higher trim or the higher spec or the bigger anything. But because people don't seem to get particularly emotionally attached to their cars anymore, I'm not sure whether they will what are you gonna do, hanker over the Tesla your next door neighbour had in two years. It's highly unlikely, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Not really. No, I can't see me doing it. I won't be here in 30 years' time, but I can't see me doing that.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

No, I certainly won't be hankering after a Tesla, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

I think to pick up on your point there, and it might be a little bit contentious, this. But we like contentious. I think buying a car is just a bit too easy these days. We don't do it. And it's a lease and it's a multiple and it's a monthly payment that comes out of your bank. Well I you saved up for a car, I saved up for a car, and I bought a car with my own.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

I knew to the penny how much a car I had bought had cost me. People now, I think, are more aware of their monthly payment. I think if you said to them, so how much did you give for it? they'll say, I'll put so much down it, so much payment, and I've got a balloon at the end of it. But if you actually tried to tie them down to yes, but how much in its entirety, presuming you did pay the balloon at the end, what's it cost you? Yeah. I would wager there's quite a high percentage of people that couldn't put that figure on it.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

And that figure will be quite frightening.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

It will be because I think the so people go for a big balloon to keep the deposit and the monthly payments down. So when it comes to balloon time when they've done the old app for three, four, five years or whatever, that is then an issue. So they then have to either get a a loan from somewhere else to pay the balloon to keep the car. Or they do what most people do, which is the dealer makes it all nice and easy and very attracted to just hand your keys back, sign another form, get another one, get another one.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

Which is my point, it's too easy. Yeah. I think generally speaking, I think maybe the art of saving has escaped people. And I I don't know, uh when I was 18, 19, and saving up from my had my job of saving up for my first car, the sense of pride in being able to pay for that car and buy it, having worked was great. And as a consequence, I looked at it.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

I was just about to say, did that sense of price if you were going to meet your mates on a Saturday, you were going for a drive somewhere, you cleaned it. You hoovered it yourself, of course. Would you have driven would you have driven somewhere and sat in your car while someone else washed it for you? Like no.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Uh no, I actually got it, I and still get it too. Yeah. Up from washing a drive.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

I love minting a car up really do. Um and I just think that we had that, it was a ritual. So you were like, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, clean your car, yeah, fill it up. Do you remember when it was like uh I didn't wait till I necessarily there was a time I was sure when I'd go and put we used to go to Manchester with the girls, they'd be like, we used to take turns driving. Yes. I'd say there'd be four of us, 50p each, two pounds of petrol money to my citron two CV to get us to Manchester and back for an iTunes. But yeah, I do once I started working and could did I actually have enough to put a full tank in. I guess I put the weekends. Maybe how exciting was a new air freshener. Oh, sed in out. Faux orange. I've still got one of those. Yeah. Yeah, and you and your stereo is very important. Your stereo was important. It's crucial.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

Yeah, my mum's asked, I was talking about the sort of silver metallic one. She only had a radio in the centre console. So I had a tape. FM.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Oh, were you just media wave long wave? Just FM stuff.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

I think it was FM, yeah. And we had uh so I had a battery-powered tape player before CDs, battery-powered tape player on the back seat, where I have my we used to tape the top 40 on the Sunday evening. You pause that pause recording blackboards, but it came in. I had that on the back seat before I thought of that. And yeah, that's you, as you as you say the bit oh yeah, you're progressing like blah de blah de blah. You talked before about the aspirational going through LG, LG, and all the rest of it. And more from a basic Fiesta through to Fiesta gear, and then got me XR2, and then I got me XR2i. And you feel a sense of achievement.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

But I mean, I bought that car. I think there's something deeply satisfying in in ending up with something you've hankered after because you worked for it. I really do. And I think that when we go back to stuff like rituals, and it's almost I look back now with really fond memories about what I suppose at the time were really simple pleasures, where if we were, say we were going to I'd some friends that were like Sheffield Jr., for example. So say we were all driving over and piling over in my car. I'd make a mixtape for the journey. Also, and then whenever we went, that whatever was on that tape would always remind us. And even now when we still see them, we'd still be like, there's certain music and certain songs that remind us of that time. Yeah. And it's largely down to our because you put thought and effort to a mixtape.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

And remember the double tape to tape deck. So you didn't just tape off the radio, you could actually. And somebody went to Woolies and bought a cassette and you'd give them a blank. Yeah. You say, Can you make Can you make your welcome to the Pleasure Deck? And I and I And and you write and you'd write your label and you'd put it on the cassette and then you'd put it on the box.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Yeah. And then you write the songs on the card in the box, in the plastic box.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Simple pleasure. So now you're not allowed to like, oh, don't touch your mobile phone, you're in big trouble. But we used to, I could drive with a fag in my hand, and I'd be like under the seat reaching for a cassette in the glove box. Get the cassette box, I'd be going through them on my knee. Now the road's definitely all. There was a lot less traffic on the road for a start, and it was terribly irresponsible, but everybody did it.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

And it's still here to tell the tale.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

I'm so late to tell the tale, but I just I think that it'd be I think that those days made you uh I think they made you a better driver, they made you a more aware driver, and despite the fact you could still find your fire because then they'd gone under the seat for the simple reason that if you crash, it was gonna really fucking hurt. Um and B, you didn't want to crash your car, it was your product enjoy.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Whereas and I think that we had the conversation with Simon Hoge, and we just talked about this so easy now, and you don't even have to focus on where you're going because the car will tell you to turn landing 450 yards or whatever it is. Whereas I think back in those days you had the uh a car journey was fun, it was an event. If you were going somewhere with your mates in your car, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:14

It's one of those I I still enjoy driving the classic. I am I'm pretty conscious of all the traffic. I won't go on the motorways generally in the classics, especially with smart motorways. I'm just very conscious that you are a little bit I do.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

I've got Porsche 928, I'm fine on the motorway in that. I don't with some shoddy stuff like that. I don't mind, XJS, I don't mind. But what does but do you know what though? If we break down on a smart motorway, now we can push ourselves out the way if we need to be. We can be toe-damned sick. Electric cars come to a standstill. But you've had it.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

You've had it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

At least if something of ours conks, we can put our hazards on and try and coast it. But yeah, I think unlike you, I do drive them. I daily them in good wealth. They make me smile, do you not get anything? They do, absolutely. And you drive along smiling, and I know I know the car in front of me can stop a lot quicker than I can, and you just have to adjust your driving side of sighting.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

And there's that jeopardy as well of not entirely knowing whether you're you're gonna get there or not. Um Jason Hall mentioned this.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

He used to go down to the south coast with his pirates for a family holiday, and it was always a mark of a journey as how many times the bonnet was up. But I I still set off now, and it's just sensible precaution. I always have a dump pack, a couple of tools in the boot, bottle of water just in case you never know. Um and that used to be Do you remember chomping along the hard shoulder looking for the orange box? Because totally my own fault because I'd run out of petrol or something ridiculous that could have been prevented. But running on fuel is just a bit of a thing. You didn't have a thing saying you've got ten miles left, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four. You had a light. Yeah. Sometimes you didn't even get a light. You just got a gauge.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

Was temperamental at best.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

It was like coasting into the forecourt of the petrol field.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

And now I'm really funny, I will not I anything in the culture of a tank could go and put fuel in because A, I I don't know whether the callture of a tank is actually that. And B, I don't want to suck a load of shit something on the bottom of the tank through what's normally carbs in my case. Yes. But yeah, but I think the simple pleasures are a dying art. The simple pleasure just enjoying driving.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 36:19

And I worried and I worry that because of that, we might be the last generation that enjoy classic cars in the same way. Maybe I hope not. I think no, do you know what? I there will be kids who get it and enjoy it, but I think it'll be much smaller numbers.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

Yeah, I hadn't done an age profile of my customers over the last six years. But I think the majority of them were probably under 40. Which is good in a way. I sell minis and metros to guys in their twenties.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Uh mine is getting younger with the young tanks, believe it or not. So the uh more things like call vate like Stingrays, C3s, the last one of those I sold was to a lad in his early 30s, and I I I I can't remember the last time I sold a classic American car to someone in their early 30s, and I had a mad come out two weeks ago to look at the Camaro Z28 who was 20. Wow. So I think I don't know whether that with they'll have a renaissance of where they become cool, but I do think it will be a much smaller numbers because I think that nostalgia of I wanted one when I was young, I think the cars that the kids handcraft in now, I don't think they're gonna handcraft the things the way we did.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

No, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 37:27

To be honest, because I don't think their parents are gonna drive a car that they are gonna desperately want when they're forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

I understand and respect modern day cars because they just make travelling far easier and safer. I've we've got a uh a newish Keonera, which is a plug-in hybrid as a daily, does everything you want it to, and and you get in that, you're gonna get to where you want to, and you're gonna get there with heated seats and uh conditioning and a nice stereo and morning lights. But you've also got lane assists and you've got adapted crews, you've got this other, and I turn all of those off because I don't like those. I like to drive the car, I don't want to be driven, and that I think that's a difference. Whereas your friend that mentioned, was it Jason, who said cars supplement don't drive themselves. They do, they do, but that's not for me. I prefer to drive a car and when you're manhandling an MGBGT round a corner at 50 miles an hour, because there's no power assistant steering, and and it's a big old trunky steering wheel, and you're trying to get it round the corner.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

You don't do turn, you need to go faster. You've got to go faster, lighter, the faster you don't.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

But you've got to put your shoulder into it. That's all part of the fun. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 38:43

That is all part of the floor. That's what makes me smile though. That's the bit. That's a massive great smile on my face. And you get home dripping in sweat and glad to be alive, but you've had a popular smile. Now, don't get me wrong, at sort of eight o'clock when everyone's late for the school run on a freezing cold November morning, I don't want to have to sit there with my choke out waiting for the car to warm up so I can drive off. So I hugely see the advantage of having I'm hoping that the viewers know what a choke is. Because there will be some people out there that are choking the kids because they're late for school. Different different kind of choke. I do a different choke these days in that. I think we look back with roasted backs a lot of the time because whilst I love my classics and I do use them and I do daily them.

SPEAKER_03 39:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

There are some mornings when I'm in a rush and I'm sat on the path thinking, oh come on, because I won't drag them off until I'm up to temperature. That I think, yeah, and my husband just jumps in here next to me and backs off the drive anymore. But his car doesn't make him smile.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

I mentioned the Keeneiro before, right? Great car, very competent. But there's hundreds of thousands of Keonero and cars that look like Keonero on those rays from the rails. It is soulless. It is soulless. Back in the 70s, there was nothing like that. Nothing like that at all. But what you did get is two-door coupés, three-door hatches. The body styling.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

The body styling.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Five-door hatches.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Convertibles. Yeah. States.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

A vast variety, which made looking at cars and getting involved in cars far more interesting than it is now.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

And then you overlay that with the mad rush that was the 1st of August for the new red flake coming out.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Oh, it's exciting. The buildbook was exciting. I need weight.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

The dealers must have absolutely hated, which I think is the reason one of the reasons I want to change it. Because there was just its build-up till the 1st of August. It was like this moment in the carnival atmosphere, though.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

Would you remember you drive past the main dealer on the 31st and they'd be putting the balloons and all the bunting and stuff got ready for the customers?

SPEAKER_02 40:42

We also used to time our holidays to go down, normally the first week of August, which is when the dumber's off. And so I have a flip chart thing on my lap. And I always used to sit in the front of the car because I always used to get cars. So Dad sit me in the front. You have a flip chart. It was like a pad. It was like a pad, 70s pad.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

You are a whisker away from a clipboard, Dad. Oh, I'm a whisker away from a clipboard.

SPEAKER_02 41:07

So and I used to tick off the make and model of the brand new cars I see on a six-hour journey down to Sandbank.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Right.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Because I used to say, oh, there's an Red sit from G S or an R-Red. I say an R edge, it could be S, it could be T, it could be P, whatever the year it was. But that was one of the highlights of travelling down south. Because that was an annual pilgrimage.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Oh, there's a two-door, there's a four-door, there's touch flat resin steps. But do you not find in our game now body styles can really affect value? And you'll do things like C stage just for example in a golf chief side like that three-door. Because the value is in the three-door. Or even like I see it one third day. Coupe. Coupe. And it does make a big it makes it double the price based based on the body shell.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

And even down to the more mundane style, we were talking about metros before. Generally speaking, again three-door, five-door, yeah. Even though the five-door top-of-the-range Vandom Plus is a very nice car. An MG Metro three-door will sell better and quicker, and it's probably worth more than an equivalent of Vandal Plus Metro.

SPEAKER_00 42:16

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Even though the Vandam Plus is actually a bit busher.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

But I think you would there was going into a again, I never went into a new car showroom in those days and ordered a car. But going into used car pitch and having a look round, you had such a choice of, like you say, makes models, colours, and whilst we've got these massive car supermarkets now, and I know it's all going very much down the online route. You don't have the same sort of visceral experience of car shopping anymore. So you drive, for example, at the A6 in Stockport and you'd be pitch after pitch after pitch. And you'd go in the morning and have a look round and you narrow it down and then you go for a test drive. And it was a real like I say, it was a very it was a very tile experience. Whereas I think now you go to a garage for you go to a BW garage or you go to a Landover garage or you go to a Kia garage or something like that. And I think if you want to go to a big out-of-town car supermarket or online, but I think what we what we don't have anymore is kind of used car touches.

SPEAKER_03 43:17

No.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

So I don't I think people are distanced from the buying experience because they're not going sitting in half a dozen cars under the bunting.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

They've decided what they want and then they just press the button, they find the colour they want and the spent they want. And it's quite transactional because I think it used to be emotional purchase.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

It was emotional, and it started with securing the brochure for the cars you rented it. Car brochures. So the the motor shows they used to go into bags full of brochures. And it was part of the reason why I went. I remember going down on the coach to my first motor show in 1978 with my dad on the Earth Court. No, that was the first one at the NEC in Seven. Okay. And my goodness sweet, what an amazing day that was. And they came back with bags of brochures. But the two that stand out for me were the British Leyland brochures, you you get the Austin Morris brochure, you get the Jaguar Rover Triumph brochure, and then you get what else was one or two of us anyway? Of the group, as it were. And then you get four that had one brochure, but with everything in it.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

And it was like a book. They'd have all the trim levels and all the trim levels.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Because you g it was like a it was you it was like a matrix diagram, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 44:30

It was so Okay, that's but I'm just saying the logistics of putting that together in that in those days. There was kind of computer to help you with that. But you would have it's all very manual, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

But you would go in and you would be sat talking to somebody who would advise you what do you want the car for? What will you be doing with it?

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

What should you budget? If you'd rather have electric windows, but you're not worried about a stereo, then we can and you could figure it based on a conversation with somebody who knew what they were talking about. And I don't think that that is don't get me wrong, we also have the sticky reputation of being used car dealer back in the 70s and 80s. Absolutely. But again, this comes back to nostalgia and honestly, really fond memories for a lot of us that were in the trade at the time.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

Absolutely. I wasn't lucky enough to be in the trade at the time, but certainly the 70s held very fond memories for me. Yeah. My motoring kind of experience.

SPEAKER_00 45:20

So as a classic car dealer now, looking back at the sort of decades, the 70s, 80s, 90s, noughties, all that sort of thing. What's your what do you think is the best era for car design and manufacture? Oh gosh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

I I think purely because of all the things we talked about, plus the advancements in safety, I think probably the 80s.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Because the 80s, that's when you first started to see anti-lock brakes, is when you first started to see airbags. It's a very sensible grain of pants at that time.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

I'm just thinking more Bjoras and I know I'm thinking holistically. Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

You know, and I think that I think there was a seat change then from the 70s to the 80s. And the 80s is uh worthy of a whole discussion itself, but that like you, it holds very fond memories for me. Maybe more so from the 70s, because they're rememberable what went on in the 80s, it's a bit more present than it was back in the 70s.

SPEAKER_00 46:13

I agree with you, especially with the cars. I was driving than in the 80s, whereas in the 70s I was a passenger. But I think that as a just as a kind of a social documentary, I think that the 80s saw the biggest shift in terms of motoring. I think that's when there was a lot more accessibility to owning your own car. That was multiple cars in a household.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

The ability to save up and own your own car quite young, or for your parents to maybe buy you a little runner, or or for you to stanner it yourself and get it going. And I know that happened in the 70s, but I think in the 80s we started to see a big increase of volume of cars on the road. And I think a lot of it was I think I'm probably the first generation of women where it was okay to not get married and have kids at 21. I could be, I bought my own house in my early 20s, I didn't get married till I was in my early 30s. I I really enjoyed quite a successful career at the time. And my mum couldn't have done that. That would have been really unusual for her generation. So I think we I think the 80s was a real as it I think it was a big social shift in the 80s, and I think that put a lot more people into cars.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

Yes, yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:16

And I think it just gave them a lot more choice as well. There was women in the 80s, it was probably not the first time, but the first time en masse that you picked your own car, you paid for your own car.

SPEAKER_03 47:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

And you were responsible for running your own car. And I think that for me is why I think the 80s was because if you think about the XR3i, they did the special limited colours. It was C foam, amethysts, and the other one, I can't remember, it's three colours. And they were designed, the colours were designed, and it was marketed at women. So the brochure, it basically said that it's we've picked some colours for you, hair girls, and it was all about and it was the big shoulder pad. And it I think it was recognizing that people, not just women, but people were starting to earn a lot more money. There was more accessibility to careers for people from maybe less educated backgrounds. And I just think that kind of as a whole social documentary, cars, the wave of cars that came onto the road and the type of cars that came onto the road and the type of ownership was a real marker of of maybe the social commentary. That was a bit deep and heavy, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 48:14

It was a bit deep and heavy, but you're correct. I think you're right as well, because what you also saw there was more women who were the primary feature in the car advert.

SPEAKER_00 48:25

Yes, yeah, yeah. So they were actually marketing cars at or for women buyers, and that was the in the 70s. A lot of the marketing is impress your woman, you can let her drive it, she'll be alright in it, it's dead easy to drive. Or yeah, chicks will dig it, that kind of thing, chip magnet and all that. But they were with well, whereas in the 80s it was literally the targeted that you can get shopping in the boot, you can get the kids in the bank, you can go to work on it. And I think it, yeah, I think it's a real cars are always a really interesting marker of social commentary, I think, now it's all very kids all want a brand new Merquet class when they pass the test. Half of them are in automatics. They pass the test in the manual, but half of them are in automatics because it's very difficult to argue with them when you know that's probably what they're going to be driving for the rest of their lives anyway. Absolutely. And I think that the there is a detachment from the I've got I've been quite sentimentally attached to cars over the years, and I just don't me both think that happens anymore.

SPEAKER_02 49:22

No, because they're functional and they do a job.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

I can never get highly involved in the city. Some cars have a soul, so it's affected.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

I don't want to jump in it and go for a drive and have a fantastic time.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

When you get in it, do you ask it nicely to start and then thank it when it does? Yeah. Come on, darling. Come on. Come on, darling. Come on. Good girl.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

Let's play ball. Playful, come on.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

That's having a today, not a bit more a bit less choke, maybe, and oh yeah, just we'll let you all through. I do. I have conversations with them. It's like, right, come on, not today, I'm in a rush. Yeah, yeah. Don't mess me about today. Play ball. Play ball. And I can't imagine getting in a new car. And despite the fact that new cars will actually answer you back and probably would have a conversation with you. I don't feel that. I don't feel that emotional connection.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

No. I I I wonder whether mod day cars, they are trying to uh bring in that emotional impact. Only because I saw an advert last night for the Emoda 7. And it's got optional fragrance settings. I was thinking about just so you can get a one free or or what did the.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

Do you know it'd be exciting to find a magic treat? They're gonna show you with something else.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

It was like a combination of bleach, disinfectant, fresh pie. It's not the same as toilet cleaner. And pie and pie.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

It was they came up with another one once I couldn't get it in the car quick enough. Just again, just for a change from fresh pie.

SPEAKER_02 50:47

You're right.

SPEAKER_00 50:48

Um but yeah, I d I don't know. I just I think that kind of talking to your cars generation, I think we might be the last.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

They think the cars talk to you now, don't they? Yeah, which takes for that.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

Do you not miss the kind of for me? I this is probably why I still really enjoy classic cars. I think there's a certain thrill to having to keep your eye on the pressure.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

As if it's working, sir. You do you're assuming it's working. It doesn't matter. It'll be a sensor. It'll be a sensor.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Uh but yeah, I think there is a real thrill to getting going on a journey, getting on the nail road, or getting up to temperature going and having a look down, and everything is as it should be. Oil pressure, when it's holding the correct oil pressure, your temperature's exactly where it should be. Absolutely. You're absolutely and I just think there's simple pleasures.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Simple pleasures of having a dashboard with some clocks in there.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

The relief of arriving.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Yeah. And the relief of arriving, but instead of a digital readout, and then you've got to go into scroll down some menu to find out what your even if it says what its oil pressure is, or what its temperature is, or what its ampage is. You just don't get that.

SPEAKER_00 51:52

See, I've got to go to Gloucester tomorrow. So I'm going to be driving for six to seven hours tomorrow. And I've got a car that 2011, so it should tell me when my wheels are in, it should tell me when my tire pressures are there. But I still check it before I set off on the job. Because I just don't I just have this mental thing of I'm responsible for my car not running out of oil. Yeah. And what's the sensor gone? What if the bulb's gone?

SPEAKER_02 52:14

But would you swap and be young again or if I know now what I could do back then, as it were. So if I was younger and I have the knowledge I have now, that would be wonderful. But but that's a perfect world that would never exist. I think there is an appeal about going back purely because of the naivety of it all, and the fact that you don't know everything and the fact that you're still learning. Whereas now, yes, I every day's a learning day, and I still I still think that holds true. But I've got the benefit of experience now. Whereas you didn't have that when I was 18.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

Just to finish, yes. I'm gonna flash forward to present day. Obviously, you own Stocks with Plastic.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

I do.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Classic car dealer. What do you think about the classic car market at the moment?

SPEAKER_02 53:00

I think it's tough. I think there's a lot of cars chasing too few buyers.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

And there's a lot of months left at the end of the money sometimes, isn't there?

SPEAKER_02 53:07

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I think the right cars, the good cars will always sell. But I think price prices are people focus far more on prices than perhaps they used to. So they're looking at more value. What are they getting for the money? And I think if they can spend two, three, four, five thousand pounds on a classic rather than twenty, and they get 80% of the job, as it were, 80% of the feel, then they'll probably do it. Because there are other priorities in people's lives. And maybe it's not a classic car, maybe it's actually making sure that you can heat the house and pay for the electric and get the carry on running the daily car, as it were. And I I just think it's a whole mixture of things, it's almost like a perfect storm of stuff, and you throw in what's happening in the Middle East at the moment. Notwithstanding that, and it's very easy to be negative about it all. I think from what I see, the club scene for classic cars is great, thriving.

SPEAKER_00 54:10

I think that the club scene, the social scene, yeah, the community is what will keep the classic car industry alive for the foreseeable future.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

100%. And you've only seen you can only see over the la over the last three, four, five years.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

And I am talking the sub 20 grand cars. I'm not talking about.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Yeah, we'll be okay. And I think the you've seen the growth in cars and coffees. You've seen the main thing hubs which have rung up over the last five years.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

Yeah, I mean a couple of friends set the Plan Fair car meet up a few years ago. And that the uptake was fantastic because people just really enjoy getting together and talk and talking about cars. It's an excuse to take their car out for drives.

SPEAKER_03 54:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:53

And I think that look, I think for a lot of people, to me, it's my hobby. It's cheaper than a golf club membership, whatever I spend on diesel and servicing and whatnot for my own cars. That's my hobby, not what I choose to spend on money on. But I do think that we've seen an uplifting price. I think that people, like you say, they're becoming a little bit more condition-sensitive as well. I think I think the money's always there for the good cars, is what I would say. I think that cars that maybe are not the best need to be priced accordingly.

SPEAKER_03 55:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

And I don't think there's anything wrong with those cars because it gives people the chance access into that car, and then they can improve it slowly over time as they want to. So I'm actually pretty optimistic. I think we had a real softening off last year and a real reconciliation. I do think there's still some reconciliation to be done in terms of pricing and market value. I still think some people are still overestimating or overvaluing where the buyers are for them. And I think because of that, we will maybe just go through a few adjustments this year. But I'm I feel really positive.

SPEAKER_02 55:54

Do you go into a classic car and buy a classic car to enjoy it, or do you go into it to make money on it?

SPEAKER_00 56:02

I think some people do one, some people do the other. Some people want to do both.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

But you have to you I think you've got to be clear, Sam, on when you go in just to avoid disappointment, effectively.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

And my view is I do this because I enjoy it. If I make money on the side, that's great. But I've got an acceptance. Uh I won't make money on every card that's out. It's impossible. That just does not happen. Because you buy it wrong and you pay too much for it. And or, like I said before, I spent too much money on it.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Yeah, and let's not forget, and you still got to pay about on the growth.

SPEAKER_02 56:33

I've got, yeah, I've got to, yeah. So it's the die is sucked against you to some extent. But as long as the business is heading in the right direction overall, I'm okay. And it pays me a wage, I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_03 56:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

So what have you got for sale at the moment? I've got a 4KA, which is a great classic starter. I've got a little Rover Metro in there, which is coming to market very soon. I've got two project cars, a one-on-a rover 214 SI, and a one owner Ford Escalls.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

So it really is accessible clipsink. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

Absolutely. There's two projects out there. I've got, they start running drive, I'm selling those a project. I want 450 quid for the rover, and I want 950 quid for the escort. They're one owner cars with history, and then they'd be commissioning. But I there's just not enough money in them for me to do them for the colour.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

There's no point you sending a ground. There's no point you sending a ground to get another ground.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

But for somebody who buys that car and wants to do a bit of work of themselves over the summer, fantastic. They have the foundation, they each have the foundation of a good car. Big glow owners with history, you know, and the classic.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

And you've saved them from the banger track.

SPEAKER_02 57:38

Yeah, there is that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

If anybody wants to find you online, maybe got websites for the website.

SPEAKER_02 57:42

Yeah, stockleyclassics.com, have a look on there, have a look at our latest offerings. Any questions, give me a ring.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

And that is Tim Ashworth from Stockley Classics. If you want to see what Tim's got on his forecourt right now, head over to his website, stockleyclassics.com. He does specialise in minis, metros, and accessible British classics. They're well worth a look. Proper usable motors at sensible money. If you enjoy this episode, please do subscribe, leave us a review, and share with someone who you think would get it as well. You know the ones that get a bit misty-eyed about trim levels and 70s colours like citron yellow. So until next week, happy motoring.