Let's Do The Time Warp - 1988 Edition of Auto Trader

Reading this article stirs the mental pot:

https://classicmotorsports.com/articles/bring-trailer-todays-auction-company-todays-auctio/

In his youth, Randy Nonnenberg was a typical California ne’er-do-well, riding his no-doubt customized bicycle to the local 7-Eleven, sipping his Slurpee as he hung out near the checkout counter, flipping through page after page of little rectangular black-and-white photos with paragraph-long captions printed on cheap newsprint that many of us, unfortunately, have discovered did not hold up well when stashed in cardboard boxes in our parents’ attic.

Tuesday was an especially important day to forgo more constructive activities, Nonnenberg recalls, because that’s when 7-Eleven received new copies of Auto Trader. Flip, slurp, flip, flip, flip, flip...

...it ignited in me a nostalgic desire to try and find some old copies of Auto Trader because I used to love looking through them, even when I didn't have any money to buy a car it was just sort of exciting to find something cool and think if I had some cash I'd grab that! - it was fun daydreaming and seeing what was available.

I admit that sometimes I was a tire kicker, wanting to check out a car that I couldn't afford to buy, not too many times mind you because I wasn't that big of a sellers' irritant, but man a couple of those experiences were grand, like getting to inspect and goo gaw over a Citroen DS, or best of all was a 1969 Alfa Romeo GTV where the seller was a joyous happy guy and let me test drive it egging me on to give it a good go and quit grannying it! LOL

Anyway, I may have several copies of Auto Trader somewhere deep in the dungeon archives but would require real effort to dig them out. They were totally disposable cheap newsprint and I didn't have the foresight to think that one day it might be neat to look back in them, so almost every one I ever bought got chucked in the trash.

I'd gather most people did the same as me because the pickin's are slim on the ebay and its recorder Worthpoint has very few.

Ephemera is it exactly, it really is incredible just how few pop up for sale.

Finally came across a copy I thought would be worth a gamble, even though I'd prefer a vintage copy or three from my local region, this one was from PacNW which usually has cool cars and it was the "poverty edition" so I thought there'd be a nice diversity with varied content.

Questioning my sanity, I laid out $25 for it and it came in the mailbox yesterday.

March/April 1988

So, let's look back 34 years and check out a few ads...

That's awesome!  When I was a teen, I used to ride the train too/from my parents house to my grandparents for weekend visits.  It was an hour ride and I would ALWAYS grab an AutoTrader and daydream.  Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories for me!

Oh god, please don't do this to us. 

I used to love going through that, too.  I also miss the car ads in the newspaper classified section with all the crazy abbreviations and acronyms.  On Sunday morning, I'd read through that section of the paper first - even before checking out The Far Side.

As you're looking at those prices, in today's dollars (according to usinflationcalculator.com), a car advertised for $3,000 in those pictures would be about $7200.

So much want for those cars!!!

Oh and because Timewarp. :-)

As a kid who grabbed the AutoTrader, Money Saver and Nickel ads every week back then this was a nice trip down memory lane. The prices made my eyes pop until I remember I was paying $250 in rent for my apartment back then.

We used to have something here called the Tri-ad which looked just like that only you could sell anything and it was a newspaper not a magazine.

I pulled out some 911 cams a few weeks ago wrapped in a few issues from around 2000 and spent way more time looking at the ads than I should have

That was great to look through. Thanks for posting all those pics.

I didn't see a single ad that said "I know what I have".  How times have changed! 

And the one that says "pregnant wife, need money"!  Really showing his cards there.

Thanks for taking the time to post all of those.  Happy and sad all at the same time....

A fun trip down memory lane. Lots of pictures there.  The reality was that most listings were two lines, no pictures.  The cheapest ads were mostly what was used to sell the cheapest cars. 

So, the gist here is we used to buy/inquire about cars either with no pictures or at most, one picture.  Now a days, I'm mad if the CL/FB ad has too few pictures. Ha. 

Oh wow... that brings back memories... I spent more time than I should have pouring over old AutoTrader rags from back then.  Looking at $2000 cars when I didn't have $200. 

And AT hired photographers who came to YOU to take that photo with a film camera. Sometimes they would mix photos/ads so you'd flip through the issue to see if the correct photo was somewhere else. It was an early version of "where's Waldo?"

Like others, that brings back a TON of memories.  I started buying autotraders around 14 when I started noticing cars more than BMX bikes.  I was fanatical about buying one every week and looking through every page and circling the ones I wanted.  Funny enough, I don't think I ever bought a car from it, though.  My first was one my dad traded for a TV.  Second was one I think my dad found.  The MGA was owned by the brother of a friend and my Bugeye was owned by the shop that had parts for my GT6. 

-Rob

So even back in 1988, Lotus Europas were already on trailers and in-op? Hmmm. Checks out.

Doesn't someone here work for (or worked for) Autotrader?  I wonder if they have any back issues on microfiche or something.  Would be fun to digitize them.

Fun game idea, of the ones posted above, which car has gone up the most in value?  Which the least?  Using BAT as a guide.  I'd guess the 356 or the 912, but some of the American muscle might bring a pretty penny these days.

-Rob

I want several of those cars, but the one I kinda really want is the 72 142E, to replace the one I had when it was only 12 years old.

Also, probably one of the cars shown that gained the least in value.  A quick glance, I'm sure the Porches are way up, but there's a 73 Cuda as well...

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

The 1970 Charger for $2400.  383/727 with A/C?  That's easily a $50K car today.  The market for 68-70 Chargers is just insane.

The 1969 AMX for $1500 isn't far behind.

Amusingly, the '72 GT6 for $3500 isn't that much less than the price I paid for mine in 2011.