Regular readers will know that I recently invested a fairly small sum of money in a new (old) classic runabout, because I had become so bored with commuting in a modern. And it's a revelation (except perhaps for the dog).
Several people have since asked me how I managed to come by a bona fide classic with a year's MoT for less than a grand and, while there was – and always is – an element of luck, it was pretty simple. All it took was a saved search on eBay for 'Classic Cars/less than £1000/within 100 miles' and an awful lot of patience. Oh and, as it turned out, a couple of glasses of wine to loosen my inhibitions and stick a £950 bid on a ’79 MG BGT that had stalled at £705.
Somehow, though, now that I have the thing and it has been (sort of) accepted by my wife as part of the driveway furniture, the knowledge that it cost so little makes it more fun. It also has a happy knack of helping me to ignore – or at least not be so bothered about – any niggles that might have stressed me out in a car on which I'd forked out my kids' trust funds.
