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Car brochures from years ago...have you any?
legacylad
on 21 August 2008
Decided to spend a day clearing out old filing cabinets and came across the following:-
Triumph Spitfire 1500
MG Midget-MGB-MGB GT
Morgan circa 1980 (I bought RUG 699W for £6545.46 in Dec'80)
VW Corrado 1995 (almost bought a VR6 but got a Transporter instead)
All brochures in pristine condition...now back in my filing system..how sad is that!
Triumph Spitfire 1500
MG Midget-MGB-MGB GT
Morgan circa 1980 (I bought RUG 699W for £6545.46 in Dec'80)
VW Corrado 1995 (almost bought a VR6 but got a Transporter instead)
All brochures in pristine condition...now back in my filing system..how sad is that!
Comments
DP on 21 August 2008
Not sad at all.In a box in the attic I have a selection of stuff from motor shows in the 80's including a Ford, Vauxhall Honda and BMW brochures. I also have most of the Ford and RS brochures from 1993-1994 (when I sold Fords), including the "all new Mondeo"!. These are still in near perfect condition - I got them specifically to stash away and look back on, and have done so a handful of times.
Edited by DP on 21/08/2008 at 14:11
DavidGlos on 21 August 2008
I reckon I've got about 3,000 of them in the loft of the garage. When I was a kid it was a real interest of mine to collect them. Spent many hours riding round the dealers of the local town on my pushbike feigning a story of my Dad wanting to change his Opel Ascona for a Mazda 626, Austin Montego or whatever! Mainly from the '80s and '90s, but with a fair selection from this century too. A few foreign language ones picked up on holiday. There are quite a few people flogging them on a certain well known auction site and they seem to get quite good money for brochures for pretty run of the mill cars. Fortunately storage isn't a problem for me and it gives me somehting to read if I get sent to the dog house for causing trouble!!David
drbe on 21 August 2008
Morgan circa 1980 (I bought RUG 699W for £6545.46 in Dec'80)
>>
>>
What happened to it? It's no longer shown on the database.
Honest curiosity, that's all. When I look up my old cars they have all vanished without trace1
Lud on 21 August 2008
Rootes Group brochures from the fifties, artists' impressions with midget humans to make the cars look big, prices in the hundreds, anything over £1,500 a rarity...
Lud on 21 August 2008
When I look up my old cars they have all vanished
without trace1
Either they couldn't bear life without you drbe and did away with themselves, or they couldn't bear the shame of being associated with you and are living in Spain under assumed identities...
Stuartli on 21 August 2008
Actually such brochures can be worth quite a bit.
Dude - {P} on 21 August 2008
I haven`t got actual brochures, but I have a Glass`s guide from 1939, which is an amazing historical record of all the old British marques, which are sadly long gone.There are too many to list, but for example I just opened the book and the page showed Brough Superior (not their motorbikes) but a 3.5 litre car.
Marc on 21 August 2008
I had a couple of brochures from the early 90s that I sold on ebay - bit of a market for this kind of thing it would seem.I still have a badge from the Sierra's launch in 1982 - "Man and Machine in Perfect Harmony"
Stuartli on 22 August 2008
>>bit of a market for this kind of thing it would seem.>>Exactly the point I made. I know because I used to get Press releases and brochures and I was pestered something rotten by a number of individuals for them.
Some discreet enquiries revealed the real reason why they were so much in demand and one of the reasons I didn't dole them out to all and sundry.
Edited by Stuartli on 22/08/2008 at 00:58
Andrew-T on 21 August 2008
Peugeot 205 from 1988 and 1990; 306 from 1998. Only ten years on and things are so different ...
AlastairW on 22 August 2008
I used to love the thick brochure Ford issued in the late 80s covering the whole range from Fiesta to Granada. I kept pointing at the Granada Ghia (its got a huuuge boot - just the job for your work kit ma...), but she settled fior the 1st of 3 Orion 1.3L's (all the same colour too - the neighbours didn't even notice when we got a new one). ;(
tom_79 on 22 August 2008
Just last month I too recalled these, and for about £4 from eBay was able to acquire a near-mint 1985 motorshow edition. Pride of place went to the then new Mk III Granada/Scorpio but everything else from the base model Fiesta upwards was covered in quite some detail. It really took me back to my childhood and made my day when it arrived in the post.
frazerjp on 22 August 2008
I have a few various Ford, Citroen, Pugueot & BMW brochures from the 80's & 90's when they were freely given out at motor shows & dealers etc... I found out they arn't worth al lot any because of their popularity, but nowadays you have to order them & have them posted to you.But yeh things have changed since the net took over I suppose.
Edited by frazerjp on 22/08/2008 at 01:39
Mutton Geoff on 22 August 2008
I briefly lived in Japan and it was at the time Nissan launched the Figaro with sales through a lottery. I picked up a brochure but nothing ever came of it.I found it in a cupboard last year and put it on Ebay. It was just 8 pages, dog eared with handwriting on the back. I described it honestly and it still achieved over £70 on Ebay! Well chuffed as it almost ended up in the bin!
DP on 22 August 2008
Peugeot 205 from 1988 and 1990; 306 from 1998. Only ten years on and things
are so different ...
Ah, back when Peugeot made cars that were ace to drive!
Cheers
DP
dxp55 on 22 August 2008
Haven't got any car brochures but did find about 8 Castrol Year books from 60's in loft when I moved recently. My how things have changed-- Is there a market for these.
legacylad on 22 August 2008
And another thing...just found a mint copy of Rothmans World Rallying circa 1982. Front cover is a picture of my hero (at the time) Ari Vatanen piloting an Escort RS in, would you believe, Rothmans colours, thru snow on the Monte Carlo. Guess what I'll be reading this weekend...
*Gongfarmer* on 26 August 2008
Yes, those will be very saleable on ebay. Wait until winter for the best prices though.
Andrew-T on 22 August 2008
>>Ah, back when Peugeot made cars that were ace to drive! <<My GTi 1.6 still is ...
DP on 22 August 2008
I don't doubt it for a second.One day I will crack and buy myself a nice clean 306 GTI-6 just to get it out of my system. If Peugeot could make a £17k front wheel drive car go, handle and steer like that, it makes me wonder what most of the other manufacturers excuses are?
Hamsafar on 22 August 2008
I had a handful of BMW E28 5 series brochures from 1986-1987. I sold them on ebay (plenty of bids) just before the credit crunch for £21 to someone in the U.S.A. Not bad for a free investment. Nobody seems to be buying anything like this on ebay at the moment.
Andrew-T on 22 August 2008
>>One day I will crack and buy myself a nice clean 306 GTI-6<<Better start looking round soon, DP, while there are a few decent ones left ...
*Gongfarmer* on 26 August 2008
As a teenager in the mid 70s I built up collection of 3,500 brochures, I've sold about 2,500 of those on ebay for around £7000! highest selling prices were Lancia Stratos £25, US Volvo 262C £35, Volvo F82 Truck £32. Strangest of all '80 Avenger £18, 2001 Rover 75 £26!Legacylad; If you have an ebay account I would start those at £3 and expect £5 at the most, unless you're lucky enough to get a couple of nutters bid each other up to£30.
mattbod on 27 August 2008
Got a loads in the garage but thew out many more which I deeply regret. Still got some l've porshe, Bentley and ferrari stuff and people tell me i could make a load if I sold them on ebay but i am too much of a car buff and they are motoring history and look at them a lot. I used to bag them from dealers as a kid and come back with bagfuls from motorshows as a kid. can't do this anymore no brochures available at all at the London show, they had to send off for them. The brochures I really regret getting rid off where the 1980s Ford and Vauxhall Catalogues, the big thick range brochures. Would give my eye teeth for one now but I bet they fetch a bit. I think a lot of young petrolheads of my generation collected literature.
Pugugly on 27 August 2008
I have a few in the attic - must pop up there one day now I have network up there. May be some time though.
Tornadorot on 28 August 2008
I still have a collection of brochures going back to the mid-70s. Nothing too exotic... I can remember Ford, Vauxhall, Renault, Reliant Robin and Kitten, Alfa Romeo (very glossy with a peculiar smell!), Rover SD1 launch brochure, 1974 Land-Rover range, 80s Austin-Rover range, and a selection of VW brochures that an enterprising dealer had on display in a cinema foyer when they were showing "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"!Must dig them out some time...
Most recent ones I've acquired are a hardback(!) VW Phaeton brochure and a 2004 MG-Rover range brochure - probably the last one they issued!
Also have one or two used car price guides from the days when they gave detailed histories of each model ("Aug. 1977: heated rear window now standard", that kind of thing!)
Paddler Ed on 28 August 2008
Got a variety at home; including some from when I did work experience at Porsche GB's workshops.Dad's got a load that date back to the '60's, whereas most of mine date back to the 80's and 90's.
Pugugly on 28 August 2008
I found an XJS one nicked from a BL dealer in Antwerp in 1977. We were drunk and missed Amsterdam by a country mile.
boxsterboy on 29 August 2008
Yes, a fair share of our loft is devoted to old car brochures (but don't tell the Mrs)I have a range from circa 1970, with a predominance of Citroen brochures including DS, GS, SM, early CX, etc.
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