The cars we should have bought, or are delighted we didn’t…
May 1994: Hillman Imp
$2,499 then to $9k to $11k now
This may have been the last Hillman Imp advertised in Unique Cars, because these innovative cars disappeared at a prodigious rate during the 1980s and ’90s. Body panels were difficult to source even when Imps were near new and breaking a windscreen could sideline your car for weeks while waiting for one to arrive from overseas. If this one, some 30 years into its life, still needed work then $2499 was excessive and $1500 more realistic. If it has survived or you find another Imp in good condition today it could make $10,000.
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February 1997
HSV VN LE WAGON
$26,990 then to $30,000-$35,000 now
Holden Special Vehicles in its early, struggling days, wanted to build cars that satisfied a range of buyer needs. That included being a performance car that was also a load carrier/family transport and wasn’t going to look like all the other station wagons parked at under-12s footy. Enter the LE wagon, with Clubsport mechanicals and 180kW of power. Only 80 would be made, and although not an easy car to find, they were never expensive either. They still appear occasionally and in mid-2025 a good one was available at $35,000.
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December 1996
Pontiac Ventura
$10,500 then to $35,000-$40,000 now
If the nameplate seems obscure, then try delving into a 1960s Pontiac catalogue where you will find Ventura listed as a subset of the better-known Catalina range. By 1966 when this car was built, Pontiac had a firm grip on third place in USA sales rankings and in that year would sell over 240,000 Catalinas. Of that number, only 6300 were Venturas. While scarcity sometimes leads to enhanced values, in this instance it isn’t a factor. This car being right-hand drive suffers issues of authenticity and is likely worth less than a LHD original.
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February 2007
Ford EB Falcon XR8
$6,500 then to $35,000-$40,000 now
Ford in 1983 was telling Australia we no longer needed V8 engines and even if we did, we bloody well weren’t getting them. Eight years later, at a cost of $25 million, they were convincing us we again needed the V8, especially as installed in the very appealing EB S-XR8. This car is one of 1348 XR8s built from 1991-93, of which only 362 had manual transmission. At the advertised $6500 it was holding about a fifth of new-car price, so if you bought this XR8 and kept it in excellent condition, the reward 18 years later would be very gratifying.
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July 2001
Fiat X1/9
$11,000 then to $16,000-$18,500 now
In 1969, when someone in Bertone’s styling studio decided to combine the attributes of a car and speedboat then turn the result into a motor show display, no one took much notice. Three years later though, when the Autobianchi Runabout had become Fiat’s X1/9, everyone was talking about the groundbreaking, mid-engined sports car. Australia didn’t see any X1/9s until 1978, with the original 1.3-litre followed in 1981 by a 1.5. This car would be one of the final 1.3s, looking tidy and hopefully not rusty but even now not expensive.
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April 1993
Studebaker Daytona Convertible
$35,000 then to $40,000-$45,000 now
Three years before the phrase ‘tell him he’s dreaming’ entered the Australian idiom, the vendor of this open-top Stude might have been hearing something similar in response to its pricing. Without doubt, the Daytona is a pretty car with lots of inclusions, but $35K at that time would also have bought a convertible Pontiac GTO or a GTHO Phase 2. Similar Daytonas at that time in the USA were priced at US$10-12,000, and even adding import costs and a steering conversion, the bill wouldn’t have got close to the money being asked for this car.
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November 1987
Ferrari 250 GTE
$65,000 then to $600,000-$650,000 now
Just weeks after Black Monday 1987 sent stock-market investors scurrying for safer places, this Ferrari likely sparked a bidding duel and sold for more than its $65,000 asking price. Had you been the lucky buyer and kept this rare car – one of 950 built from 1960-63 – in the condition seen here, today’s market would reward you with an auction value between US$350,000 and $400,000. That, after currency conversion and other charges, ranks as a tenfold increase on this car’s 1987 value – less of course the cost of maintaining a Ferrari for 40 years.
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