i waved goodbye to our first townace today,as it was taken away for scrapping.some little b****rd stole a car and drove it into mine-while drunk-while high on drugs-and while disqualified!!we only had it 3 months,but loved it,and we are now very sad.the insurance company offered £1500,but i can haggle if i can argue that it was worth more(if i send them details of classified ads,etc of similar townie with higher value)so if anyone knows of any ads anywhere with 1988 townaces for sale at more than £1500,i`d be grateful for the info.
we`re still undecided what to have,but have a budget of 2,000 to 2,500 pounds,so we are looking for another townie.only worry is,the engine on ours was fautless,but we could spend 2 grand on another and maybe not be so lucky.
we hope to be back soon.
bye for now

- (#11303) jamie white, 3 Jun 04 12:42

Hello Jamie,

As some will know, I sold my 1990 Masterace Surf Last Month. As with the majority of our vehicles from the East, my vehicle had no rust , scratches, dents, marks on the interior and the engine was sound and has been since the rebuild.

The price began at £2,750 in September with a full MOT as advertised in the Autotrader which seemed the going rate with similar vehicles but I didn't even have an enquiry for the 2 weeks of the ad.

In January I dropped the price to £2,000 and once again advertised it for 2 weeks and recieved just one phone call from a guy 80 miles away which came to nothing.

In March the price fell to £1,800 to which I had 2 phone calls and a single viewing, but they wanted an automatic.

In the end I dropped to £1,500 and had 10 phone calls and the first viewer bought it, not very good news for your campaign but I feel the market in these imports may be coming to an end.

For the meaningful owner, they are an ideal vehicle with bags of character but for up to £4,000 you can get a variety of Previa, Serena, 626, Spacewagon, 406 and Laguna that are all newer, up to an R reg and all capability of taking 7 people.

Although the ads show our style of vehicles at about £2,500 I don't feel people are actually selling at these prices. My one cost me £4,000 five years ago but back then there wasn't the choice of people carriers there are now.

Good luck in your argument if you go along that route.

- (#11303) Mark, 3 Jun 04 13:40