To rectify an old post - just scrolling through the forum and found this.
I couldn't agree any more. I hate to see old cars being scrapped, whatever they are - morris marina included.
I agree that for what we can pay for a P6 won't buy much else that's comparable, for example an exceptional low owner/mileage unmolested 2200 auto recently sold for £3000 - which I'm sure wouldn't buy a triumph 2000/2500 that's had the same story to tell.
There's also the story of how some cars that are unbelievably cheap, that are then purchased to scrap - just for the purpose of making money. Ok this is a good thing in that it brings down the supply slightly closer to the demand - raising prices ever so slightly, and it also gives us enthusiasts extra parts at a cheaper cost. However what I feel will eventually happen is there will be more parts than needed - creating another supply vs demand effect and people wanting to make money out of their unwanted slightly rusty wings that would otherwise sell for £5 - they'd then take those to the local weighbridge to get more money out of them - whereas all they need is a little filler and paint to make them look good. Something that then reverts from this, is that as more 'scrap' cars are scrapped, and slightly rusty but useable parts are weighed in, we will then eventually run out of said parts - e.g. a certain Mr D. is on the search of a decent nsf wing - for some reason that's the wing that seems to be hard to get. - This is comparable to quite a lot of cars, I'll use the vauxhall chevette as an example - there were about 415,000 made, yet a count by the DVLA suggested there were just under 500 left on the roads at the end of 2009.
Making the values higher can be done in a few ways, but the questions are how much do we want the values to go up by, and what will this do for the Rover P6? *I don't think the prices of P6's should go up to £10k for minters, although some P6's do have insurance values of around this much. I personally think that P6's should be in a value that they're worth more as a car than in parts/scrap metal, however not so expensive that people on a budget can't afford what they want.*
One way, as mentioned earlier in this post, is for people to use their P6 as an every day car - this is going to advertise to people that these are not "rusty old bangers that break down every day in the week" and that these are very nice classy cars that are overall cheap and more cheerful than any modern car, as well as of course reliable - so long as they are used and looked after. This would then raise the interest and demand for P6's, thus raising values only as need be. This is my favourite way as it raises the demand to the supply. (This also counts for cars shown in films, and magazines).
Another way is to lower the supply to the demand - by scrapping cars. On the bright side this says to people that there is a wonderful supply of spare parts for the Rover P6, however if this scheme is taken too far, we'll end up with cheap useable parts getting scrapped (as mentioned above) or an abundance of parts for a car that would eventually hardly exist.
Another way is of course, as mentioned in this post, to 'massage' the insurance values upwards, making classic car values increase - then people who are newly introduced to these cars, who are none the wiser, set the trend for actual values to go up - in which case the 'be careful what you wish for' statement comes up - people will then buy these cars to store, as an investment, not enjoyment - again mentioned previously in this post.
The writing *in asterisks in the 5th paragraph* has an exception - for the rare variants - The 'Sharkstooth' P6 (63-66) is getting very rare, and all 2.2's (74-77) aren't that far behind. I feel that these variants ought therefore to be saved whatever the cost. (I really think that every P6 ought to be saved, but seeing as those ones are the rarest, those I feel should have the priority to be saved)
Is there anything I'm missing or not quite understanding here - or does anyone have anything to add?
Cheers, Adam.
