Retro Luxo - Revcounter 450

By: Guy Allen

Date: 23.03.2021

Who needs infotainment? Get a car

There are times when the entire motor industry seems to have fallen off its collective little trolley. Harsh? Maybe.

What got muggins on this theme was watching a couple of car ads recently. And no I can’t recall the brands or models – which in itself says a lot about the content.

What I do recall is an enormous amount of information about the seating and, most critically, the entertainment system and its connectivity. By the end, I got this uncomfortable feeling they were trying to flog an infotainment suite that just looked like a car. You really couldn’t be sure that it would actually take you anywhere.

However, that doesn’t mean we should shun luxury. Oh no. As the recent purchaser of 1989 long-wheelbase S-class Benz, which was much cheaper than any new car in the country, I can vouch for having a bit of retro luxo as part of the family fleet. Its infotainment levels are positively spartan by modern standards, but it’s a magnificent thing to cover big miles in.
Fortunately we’ve been blessed with decades-worth of land yachts built right here in Australia. Probably top of my peronal list would be a Brock Magnum verison of the Holden Statesman, and what you see here – the mighty Ford LTD P6 from the seventies.

These were well-matched to local needs and as reliable as a hammer, while being simple and relatively cheap to maintain. And just quietly, the P6 is among the few Aussie chrome bumper cars that haven’t yet seen meteoric price rises. You could get one for less than the cost of a new Kia Sorento, and I know damn well what I’d rather have.

Here’s my favourite P6 story, from reader Steve Koukouletas: "My uncle is a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church," Steve said. "When he got the car some of the church community thought it was a Rolls-Royce and were saying he must have been robbing the church funds to afford it.

"He had to spend quite a bit of time convincing them that it was really a Ford and not worth anything like they thought it was."​

Me, I would’ve fitted R-R badges just to mess with them...

From Unique Cars #450, March 2021

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