Purple

Getting somewhere near completion. Welding, paining and putting the badges back on is done. Now a couple of minor fixes and an MOT and I am at the making it very clean and taking photos stage.

The predictable cautionary tale is that it has cost about £2k more than i naively thought.

Anyway - number plates - do I try to find a way to get a 1996 style dealer plate made, just get one from a friendly Ford dealer, or just go plain blank style?

I think the mk5 was the bad one. The mk6 was ok but clearly fell behind Golf 4 then Focus.

These are quite interesting as 1990’s hatches go. 33/66 torque split, lsd, bespoke independent rear suspension, aluminium crossmember, plastic fuel tank.

I just had a look and it seems I well missed the boat on that one. 156 and 147GTA are not cheap for good ones, not so long ago people were giving them away. 

It's funny how values go - a good friend of mine had a Corrado VR6 storm edition that had got down to about £3k in value despite being in great nick - he just refused to sell it for that, and parked it up until it was worth about 5.

Now - a dozen years or so later - I'm guessing that woulf fetch £15-20k!

I still can't really understand what is going on, except that minters from that era are a dying breed, and cars of that time were simply so much more mechanical and enjoyable to drive in many ways. Which is the appeal of oldish Porsches...

I had a meeting with a used car dealer this morning and he is basically selling all his stock and shutting up shop for a year or two. He says the price of everything has gone crazy and he just can't get good stock. People are holding on to good cars and much of the used stuff needs lots of remedial work. He feels the current position is unsustainable so he is having time out, going to Australia to see family, playing a lot of golf and going out to US later in the year. He has put all the money for stock in the hands of his IFA and he will come back to it in a year's time. Apparently his views are shared in the trade and everyone just wonders when the bubble will burst. New car manufacturers are restricting supply and have pushed up prices but with current interest rates there are only a select few who can afford to pay the high monthly figures when only 3 years ago the same car could be had for nearly half that. Take the family who bought a Touareg 3 years ago and for the same money they can't even get in to a T-Roc now - they are just refinancing the balloon payment.

I think it is an optical illusion. Hope so anyway!

Why? Everybody knows it is from the 90s. In fact, seeing it so well preserved, while proudly declaring its age is surely a good thing.

Bit late, but that’s what I would have voted for.  

+1 I think these will rocket in value so I'd hold onto it as it looks like a sound investment, even with the extra expense. 

Ohhh...  My Dad had a 1990 Granada Scorpio (saloon with the body colour cladding) company car, but only the 2.0i Auto.  My best mates Dad had a 1991 Scorpio Cosworth and he was allowed to drive it at 17, many happy memories spinning wheels, V6 engine and something that felt properly quick.

My Dad had a blue 1988 2.0i Ghia, the first car we had with air conditioning so massive step forward for summer holiday travel to Switzerland or Italy.   The Scorpio trim level that followed it was another step up for long journeys as it had electric reclining rear seats.  They completely ruined it with the bug eyed car, but thankfully the company car options had opened up by then and he had a 3 x Saab 9000s in a row followed by a 95 Aero etc

My Dads Ghia and ‘luxury’ velour!

My car does a very good impression of a motorised sofa!

I've never owned a Ford.

We pretty much were for years. I was trying to remember my dad's company cars through childhood:

Mk3 Cortina 1600L in dark green
Mk3 Cortina 2000L in silver (met it's end when a cow jumped on it)
Mk3 Cortina 2000E auto, metallic green, black vinyl roof. (nasty encounter with cement mixer, never quite the same)
Mk1 Granada 3000S, signal yellow (aka The Bananamobile)
Mk2 Granada 2.8GL, Jewish Racing Gold
Mk2 Granada 2.8i Ghia X, silver, stolen and stripped
Granada Scorpio 2.9i, burgundy
then he went to the dark side: 
Jaguar XJ 2.9 - the cheapo entry level model, but he specified tweed seats! (no idea what was going on as I had left home by that time and it was too late to "have a word".
Finally Lexus LS400 - arguably too perfect all round.