Did you buy a classic new?

With thanks to the MG Experience forum, from which I completely and without shame stole the topic...

Did you ever purchase a classic brand new? Walk right into the dealership and pick up a '67 BGT, '71 Alfa, etc?

If so, tell the story. What was it like to buck the trend and buy a funny furrin' car instead of a nice sensible sedan?

Most of what we now consider was long gone by the time I got my license in '84, but I do remember going to the Bertone/Ferrari dealership in Jackson, MS, trying to figure out how I could possibly buy an X1/9--and never quite figuring out a way.

Almost.

I bought a '67 Austin Healey Sprite when it was 18 months old and had 19,000 miles on it. It was bascially perfect. For $800.

At the time, I was an almost destitute undergraduate student at Trenton State College, so $800 was a lot of money. The seller was a beautiful Princeton graduate student who I'd met. She had just finished her PhD and was returning to South Africa.

Oh well....at least I got a car out of the deal [/sigh]

I drove that car to college.

I slept in it at Watkins Glen in '69 (next to the bog).

~I Autocrossed It~

I eventually stripped the Sprite down and built it into a ~Race Car~ (I'd bought an old Mini for the street)

I did lots of laps at Bridgehampton with it in the early '70s.

After many years of neglect (while I was fooling around with motorcycles and airplanes), it became a parts-car. I still have the tub squirreled away in an old shed.

My present ~Spridget Vintage Racer~ still wears one front and one rear fender from that car as well as most of the front suspension. The engine, trans and other stuff is in another car I have.

By the way, your kind of limiting yourself to the "old guys" with this question.

Unless you want to include cars like the new Miata I bought a few a few years ago.

Considering the fact that I was born in the early '50s and could have bought several cars now considered classics when they were new.....it is with a lot of ? , shame? I profess I was stupid and bought Ammurican. Given the choice between, say, any Fiat (and I visited the dealerships in Jacksonville and Gainesville several times) and a new Vega....I fell for all the hype and bought the Chevy. The only classic I ever came close to buying new, was a 2 year old Spitfire that I traded my Vega for.

Go into a dealership and buy a new Miata. That is the experience. My generation bought MG's, Fiats, Minis etc... often as cheap used cars. They were lousy for winter driving and had parts issues. (on back order). At the time we cursed them as much as we cruised them. A few were cool rides in their time and our dates were impressed unless they broke down or leaked. In their day they were no more classic than a nice Miata with about the same cool value (whatever that means) but they were cheap as used cars with difficult upkeep.

Cheers Ron

In 1972-1973 I was "upside down" on my Vega when I went into a Triumph dealer in Jacksonville and took a new TR6 for a spin. It was everything I wanted in a sports car: a wood trimmed dashboard, a folding fabric top (one of the other cars I had looked at previously was a Fiat 850 coupe) and it was my favorite color...that pale yellow early 6s came in. Unfortunately, it cost a little more than double what I owed on my Vega, and the Chevy dealer that "appraised" my car gave it no value (I HAD to by that panel express). I later, several years later, traded a '72 Spitfire for a TR3.

I'd consider a new Miata if I didn't think my top would be shredded by the lowlifes in this area.

I was too old to buy any classic at a dealer, but I do recall vividly a few early car memories related to present day classics.

One if the Fiat dealer with X1/9's all lined up. I was like 7 years old, and this was the end of the line. I thought they looked so cool and made "normal" cars look so mundane. Likewise for the Alfa dealer. I still covet the last US imported Alfa's, classic lines but so cleaned up. I never understood the 164 or Milan as a youngster, and of course never saw a GTV or anything else that was cool from Alfa.

The other thing is so simple but stands out in my mind. Seeing the Kirkwood, MO Peugot dealer sign at night, lit up in yellow, with the lion and Peugot spelled top down. Just thought it was so totally cool. Had GMC and Ford signs beat hands down.

Me personally? No, since I didn't turn 16 until 1986... and the closest my family ever got to owning "classics" were my mother's '71 Dodge Demon (/6; auto - wish I still had it) and my father's '78 Datsun F10.

The Demon was purchased used in '72 and was my mother's DD until she got a new Subie wagon in 85. The Demon was supposed to be my car, but it didn't work out.

However, the F10 was purchased new. My father had just taken a teaching job in northern GA and he wanted a FWD car. At the time, the F10 was the only FWD car available with a 5 spd tranny. I remember him looking at other cars, but Triumph TR7 is the only one I remember. My father is mechanically enept so as cool as a TR7 would have been when I was 8, it's probably best he didn't get it.

He kept the F10 until it finally died from neglect and was towed from his house to the crusher in the early 90's...

Not me, but my Uncle bought some awesome cars......

1957-ish Oldsmobile with manual trans - Said it was a special order.

1958 Corvette

1960's Austin Healey Sprite, not bugeye

1963-1964 Impala SS 409 Convertible

1965 Ford Shelby Mustang

Please note that I am fuzzy on the exact year of the above cars.

And he did a lot of corner working at Road America through the early days. He took my Dad and I to a Can-Am Race at Elkhart Lake back in the late 60's.

I called and talked to him a year ago and he still has the Shelby Mustang. He flew out to California and drove it back on his honeymoon.

The odd thing is he tells me he wish he would have kept his 409 Impala. Go figure!

I was hoping to do a story on his life and cars, but he does not seem too interested.

At 13 years old I went into our MG dealership in Tucson when I was supposed to be at a restaurant with my parents and drove the last new MGB they had. It was BRG with Rubber Bumpers. It was fun and I was never found out. I drove a 1976 194 as well. I liked the MGB but I Loved the 914.

I was born in 1985, ask me again in 20 years.

Tim: If you get the latest copy of Ricambi, the magazine of Fiat/Lancia Unlimited, you will find my story of owning a late model Fiat 850 Sedan in 1972. Then there were vintage cars, for sure, but very few were high quality restorations. Most would be classed as survivors and lucky to have a new coat of paint.

Cheers Ron

I am almost ashamed to mention this but the only "classic" I bought new was a 1977 Fiat 128... and I think using the term "classic" is a stretch. I was a horrid little car and the list of problems I had with it are as long as my arm, and I have long arms.

Since then I have not purchased a new car, always used. I figure I get more for my money and there is a track history to the model.

Hard to believe it's 24 years ago but... I walked into the VW store in February of 1984 and walked out with a spankin' new A1 GTI. Nowadays those cars are fairly rare and I would never have thought of it as a "classic" but the prices being sought for clean ones would indicate otherwise.

I hated that car. It embodied the very best of VW's then and probably now laughable quality assurance. It rattled, it buzzed, it leaked water and broke sway bar mounts at a ferocious rate. Fit and finish weren't even up to Yugo standards. It was the single worst piece of crap I have EVER owned, at least until it was replaced by the '87 Jetta, which put "Pig Effer" as the GTI was known, to shame.

The Jetta went away in the divorce. I know, an extreme method to get rid of a car, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I bought new a Mazda Protege5. If every panel did not receive rust holes in it, I would still be racing around in it. To me it is a classic now. After all it would be 21 years old now.