Cooper S?

[steve1071]

Looks a good project with some nice period extras;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MK-1-AUSTIN-M ... 2336wt_922

[In the shed]

£3600. I'd say that's what it's really worth on a good day.

It needs a lot doing to it to make it a £12000 car.

[coopertim]

Just been looking at that one Steve!! It does look very nice and original with its Dulles dash and very period interior. Looks like it may have had a competition past with the BRDC sticker in the window? The down side is that they want just shy of 10K and despite what the add says, it still needs a hell of a lot of work to get it where it needs to be. Fantastic late mk1 though with original shell, engine and glass.

Tim

[Pete]

It needs a lot doing to it to make it a £12000 car.

Funnily enough the last timewarp S project we saw come up on Ebay fetched just that ! And that was arguably worse for wear without the expensive period goodies..

That car's also here....


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/280897456990? ... 1438.l2649

[In the shed]

Well, I'm sorry, that's just bloody silly for an old, gold mini.

It's the same as paying £1700 for a set of porous, pumice like original rosepetals, or £700 for a factory recliner seat frame. This is ridiculous.

That is a proper project which needs some proper work. It's not even a shabby, just scraped the MOT job. It's a major rebuild.

So, the going rate is about ....well let's be really romantic..... £14000 for a proper cooper S with the right bits.....not a rebuild or a "It's been mostly replaced" mini. You are going to have to put a fortune into that car in parts and time in order for it to be viable.

I can't see it's worth it.

Clearly, I am wrong and everyone else is right.

Which means that the contents of my big shed and little shed are probably worth about £40k. Which is ridiculous for a different-shaped-morris-minor. Bloody bonkers, the market has gone mad.

Let's really cut the crap. A lot of those period bits are very sorry indeed. The whole thing is a f#%#*~g scrapper really.

Since it's now well over £5k, I might as well flog mine. It seems the market is mad enough.

[251 ENG]

Where can you buy a restored proper cooper s with all the right bits for £14,000 ?

Oh yes about 1997

[steve1071]

It needs a lot doing to it to make it a £12000 car.

Funnily enough the last timewarp S project we saw come up on Ebay fetched just that ! And that was arguably worse for wear without the expensive period goodies..

Pete, last I heard the buyer of that one had gone AWOL!

[Pete]

Not so Steve.


"ridiculous for a different-shaped-morris-minor"

Comparing a complete Mk1 Cooper S , largely in it's original state with period extras and history with a Morris Minor is like comparing a Porsche 911 with a VW Beetle. That car is a real rarity to find even in that state.

[guru_1071]

Q: How much extra would you want for the trailer? Jim
A: 100



i think this is the best part of the deal!

[In the shed]

Well, a couple of years ago, I saw a 64 cooper S in horrible metallic blue with arches, wrong seats and some dodgy alloys go for £3.5k. It was very ratty, but drivable.

Let's have a big dose of reality here. It appears that ebay has bought a load of mad, rich people together. You see the prices on ebay and not that much sells. Let's be real here.

I have a 66 Morris Cooper sat in my shed. It has no rust and has all the bits. It is a £5k car at best. It would probably get £8k on ebay with the nutters out in force.

This is a huge amount of work. It is tired and requires a complete rebuild. It is better than a lot of "Jason" logbook jobs, but really when you finish throwing thousands at it, you'll have something which is totally original-unoriginal. I know a lot of you have restored piles of rust and cars out of boxes, but to me, it's mad. A Mk1 mini is not a 60's 911, or an E-Type. It's an old mini with a go faster engine. Let's keep it in perspective here. This is not a good condition, original car like the one in my shed, it's a gold rustheap with a load of very tired bits.

I have another mini in my garage, an ex-racing car with a lightweight shell. Metalwork like new. It is also shabby with some wrong bits. If you look at the funny speedo binnacle, it is tired and not up to scratch. The whole thing will not clean up. The seats will need recovering.

I'm not going to patronise you by saying "clearly you have no idea what this will cost to get to a premium price" but as you know, the answer is a fortune, even if you do a lot of the work yourself.

This is totally and utterly barking mad for a "good project". Let's be real here, it's several months and several grand away from even being a shabby runner which could pass an MOT. Let alone being one which anyone would say "nice" to.

It's at best a £4k car. Anyone else paying more than this is bloody mad.

Let's consider a raced up midget with all the right bits in that condition....there, back to sensible land.

I don't know if I am the one who is bloody nuts, but the whole phenomena is totally nuts.

I suppose it's like the splitscreen 99.9% filler VW vans.

I apologise if I have offended anyone who disagrees with me. I am just totally bewildered that the market is this mad. Having said some lunatics paid £40k for a car a couple of chassis numbers older than my old racer.

[guru_1071]

but you cannot compare a midget with a mini

midgets and mgbs have the luxuary of heritage shells, so there is an utter glut of them, fully restored by men with beards who cared not what they spent on them - the trouble is that the market is now saturated with imaculate mg's with a shrinking base of middle aged men with beards who actually want them - hence the price of them is, fairly, low.

the trouble with minis is that its the opposite, the shells are scarce, so the cars are valued as such, this coupled with the fact that the people who are wanting minis and restoring them now are now, mainly, middle aged and fairly wealthy.

the value is also competion driven, same as escorts, people will pour money into the cars as they are a competative car that has a good spares base - again, midgets are not a 'classic' race car, so once the shiney, shiney polish brigade have spent the money the 'ceiling value' is reached - minis are so much more than this.

just look at what you can do with a classic mini pound for pound against other classic cars - it becomes obvious why the value of them is creeping up and up.

[Pete]

Well, a couple of years ago, I saw a 64 cooper S in horrible metallic blue with arches, wrong seats and some dodgy alloys go for £3.5k. It was very ratty, but drivable.

It was also a bloody bargain because it was in a farm sale ! Not rocket science really ? And it had been reshelled at least once , and it was missing parts and the shell was, and still is absolutely knackered beyond repair. I know cos I bought it !

Why is someone that pays let's just say £8K for an original rusty but complete project a looney ?Even more baffling is why does that mean they're also a rich looney ? I know people (and this is a common scenario) who drive around in £40K Range Rooneys that they do 100K miles in every year and change every two who don't have a pot to piss in yet the man that lives modestly and drives a cheap runabout spends £8K of his savings on a project cos that's his 'thing', does that make him rich ? What a very weird theory.

To say that car's just a rusty old Mk1 Mini is complete and utter cobblers, all those bits that make up an S are the things that set them apart, and did in their day remember ? All those bits are obsolete now and don't come cheap, go figure ?

My dad paid less than £5K for his first house and he if he now sells it for £200K does that make the buyer a looney ?

Competely baffling argument this which will just go round in circles, I just find the idea that people who spend their own money on cars that they love that used to be alot cheaper thirty or forty years ago to be mad , rich or looneys a very condescending one from someone who's obviously never had to trawl around the country looking for one cos he's got one tucked away in the garage ! Lucky you Mr Shed !

[steve1071]

Not so Steve.

Good to hear the deal was concluded.

[In the shed]

I suppose ebay has warped the prices as it is a unique market.

Interesting you bought the B reg one. When anything comes up at auction, the word always gets around.

I remember buying some JA Pearce wheels (set of 5 8 spoke 6" ones for £150) Perfect order from a metal foundry owning chap in the midlands. He had recently bought a set of rosepetals for £50 and had a 1071 S race car he paid very little for. Rightly so, as it was a butchered heap.

I suppose I'd better recalibrate my mind away from ad-trader and things you hear about in the pub and start thinking in ebay prices. However, I did buy 5 4.5 mag minilites (proper ones) for £100 on ebay. Not sure how that happened.

I suppose it's down to what people are prepared to pay. I most certainly am not willing to pay what some people are, not because I can't afford to, but I see better value elsewhere.

Period bits are a funny one as well. You'll get someone paying as much for a recliner seat as I paid for my whole restored car!

Mad mad mad, but I suppose it's the way it is.

[vmaxscart]

Times have changed cheap minis are a thing of the past, minis are cool unassuming classless and yet the right car in the right condition is a sure way to invest and enjoy your money. Even now the financial markets are at the most uncertain they gave been for years and yet a good mk1 S with original parts and history for say 25 k may seem a lot to some people now, will cost 35 k in another 5-7 years.
Good cars will always find buyers many don't make it to an advert .
People get sentimentally attached to a project and while the ebay listed car may not make immediate financial sense it's a challenge which many people find just as enjoying as driving, and are prepared to put the time money and work in.
Will it get to 15 k ? It might !

[Old English White]

Will it get to 15 k ? It might !

If anyone is thinking they're prepared to pay that then they ought to "buy-it-now". Wierdly the seller has two listings - the auction (just over 7k as I write) and a "buy-it-now listing at £9995 so......

Very rare car now in that condition, whatever you think its value is.

[vmaxscart]

So I see
Won't make 15 k then!

[Old English White]

Looks as if somebody's bought it? Both listings have disappeared from ebay .

Whoever it is, they're going to be busy for a while......
How often do they turn up though - a REAL Mk1'S' restoration project like that?

[JC T ONE]

How often do they turn up though - a REAL Mk1'S' restoration project like that?

There was the Blue ? (or Green?) one a while back, it was mentioned earlier on this thread.

Here in DK, there was a genuine (but empty) body with paperwork, a year (or more?) ago.

[In the shed]

I'd say it's time to sell really.

We'll see if history proves me wrong, but we're probably at the peak of mini values....in fact I'd say past the peak. A lot of stuff isn't going for "that much". Looking at completed items there are a lot of BIK £15k not getting anywhere near that. A few good cars get good money, but it's not totally silly.

When you consider other desirable ways of parking your cash, some offer much better value. Lots and lots of things are well undervalued at the moment, when you consider Camper Vans and Minis as a sort of barometer.

I reckon the big push has gone and the values will rise more or less in line with inflation.

Let's give it a couple of years and see.

However, gold just continued going up. If people are looking for a hedge against inflation (and there will be a lot more of that coming. A LOT MORE) the last thing they'd buy is an overvalued asset.