£25,500 - wow.. how times have changed

[The Boss]

and damn it was ugly then too.. but wow £25,500... im amazed

maybe some one with more grey hairs can shed some light on the past for me

 

[Dieselman]

In 1975 a decent Semi-detached house could be bought for about £10,000.

 

[WDB124066]

This is a car that does grow on you Boss - can you see here what the Designer/s had in mind....

 

[Dryce]

and damn it was ugly then too.. but wow £25,500... im amazed

maybe some one with more grey hairs can shed some light on the past for me

My recollection is that in '75 a large family car came in at about £2.5K or £2.6K.

So in Mondeo money using that 10:1 ratio it comes to about £200K+ in todays hard earned.

If you really want to think about numbers figure what an E-type went for in the early 60s or the price of a Range Rover in 1970.

 

[The Boss]

This is a car that does grow on you Boss - can you see here what the Designer/s had in mind....

see what you mean... that does look good

 

[Harrythedog]

I was renovating an old flat a couple of years ago and it had a great big crack in one if the walls. A previous attempt was made to repair it with newspaper which turned out to be a 1970 local paper with the cars for sale page. There was a 1962 Aston Martin for sale at £1600, one of its features was a push button radio!

 

[jasemc678]

Bloody magazine was 30p!

Was everything beige in the 70s??

 

[jonthetourist]

In 1975 a decent Semi-detached house could be bought for about £10,000.

FYI My folks bought a 4-bedroom detached house in York in 1975 for £25k.

Jon

 

[johnfromstaffs]

1953 Bentley R-type Standard Steel Sports Saloon, as seen in my avatar to the left, price £3,170 plus taxes, VAT not yet a twinkle in the Chancellor's eye, but Purchase tax at 66.6%. Say £5,300 on the road including a year's road fund licence, (tax disc to you, young feller) at £12/10shillings ie £12.50. The Bentley was worth 10 Morris Minors, currently entry model Bentley about 10 Ford Foci.

October 1955, my Dad bought brand new Morris Cowley, £702, said he couldn't afford an Oxford which was £740.

1965, my first job, £416 per annum, plus a 3 guineas (£3.15) per week living allowance as I was far away from home. Bought 1954 Ford Popular, £55, insurance £7 for first year, petrol 5 shillings (£0.25) per gallon, or a bit cheaper if you bought Jet. This is a real eye-opener, before I bought the car, return rail fare from London to Staffordshire was £3/13 shillings (£3.65) for a weekend ticket, I was allowed to leave work an hour early on Fridays to catch a train at about 4.30.

June 1974, we got married, bought Wimpey 3 bed semi for £7,500. Still live in it, having paid off building society twenty odd years ago. My Mum, when told that the mortgage would be £59 per month said however would we manage! At the time I was driving a Hillman Hunter Estate, firm's car which cost about £1,200.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Time to dig this out again:

Note that the Car article was predicting what the Carmargue would cost ahead of its release. It was actually launched in March 1975 with a price of £29,250, and by 1977 was listed at over £40,000 (around £200,000 in today's money).

The mid-Seventies was time of hyper-inflation: taking the Mercedes-Benz 350SE as an example:

1973: £7795
1974: £7831
1975: £9303
1976: £10900
1977: £11495

 

[Paul/]

Thanks for posting- what a nice surprise to see this again- the first ever issue of a car magazine that I bought for myself, with my pocket money

 

[grober]

Thanks for posting- what a nice surprise to see this again- the first ever issue of a car magazine that I bought for myself, with my pocket money

Was a cracking read at one time. Was quite a revolutionary publication in its early days. The names George Bishop , Ian Fraser, Steve Cropley Gavin Green and LJK Setright just popped into my head there. .:bannana:

 

[Derek Mc]

Ahhh the Camargue! I have only ever seen one in the metal and it did look slightly ungainly from some angles but every inch a Rolls from others.

I recall Shirley Bassey used to get driven around in one in the late 70's

 

[MarriedBlonde]

June 1974, we got married, bought Wimpey 3 bed semi for £7,500. Still live in it, having paid off building society twenty odd years ago.

Jesus I thought I was bad for "only" being in my third house in 15 years

 

[crockers]

In 1975 a decent Semi-detached house could be bought for about £10,000.

FYI My folks bought a 4-bedroom detached house in York in 1975 for £25k.

Jon

June 1974, we got married, bought Wimpey 3 bed semi for £7,500. Still live in it, having paid off building society twenty odd years ago. My Mum, when told that the mortgage would be £59 per month said however would we manage! At the time I was driving a Hillman Hunter Estate, firm's car which cost about £1,200.

We bought our first property in 1976 - a flat on Harrow on the Hill for £13,000. Wish I had never sold it...

 

[bolide]

Was a cracking read at one time. Was quite a revolutionary publication in its early days. The names George Bishop , Ian Fraser, Steve Cropley Gavin Green and LJK Setright just popped into my head there. .:bannana:

I discussed exactly this with Steve Cropley a couple of years ago. He said the magazine was on a high back then and would get back to the same level.

The stories I remember best are "The Banger" about a high-mileage 928 and Gavin Green (I think) writing about a SWB Quattro and the anti-lock brakes pinging as he dived into a corner

I also recall a lovely piece by Phil Llewellin, perhaps in Autocar, about touring the war graves in Northern France in an XJS. He said almost nothing about the car but it was as good a piece of motoring journalism as you're likely ever to read. I didn't realise how well he wrote till that piece

Nick Froome

 

[Deleted member 65149]

We bought our first property in 1976 - a flat on Harrow on the Hill for £13,000. Wish I had never sold it...

I bought a 4-bed house near there in 1977 for £21,000. Had to give it to my ex as part of the divorce settlement and she sold it ten years later for £395,000! The most expensive fun I've ever had.

 

[johnfromstaffs]

Jesus I thought I was bad for "only" being in my third house in 15 years

There are all sorts of reasons. The house was midway between both sets of parents, near a good primary and secondary school, and has a 24foot by 12foot garage with power laid on, plus a small garden. I hate gardening. I never had to move for work, and am now retired, and I've accumulated that much stuff it would take months to move it. Among the stuff, several years' worth of Car magazine, including the issue we're talking about, many many Motor Sport magazines, Bentley spares, and hundreds of spanners, metric, AF, BSF and BA.

The main reason though, I hate paying interest to Building Societies!

 

[Charles Morgan]

I discussed exactly this with Steve Cropley a couple of years ago. He said the magazine was on a high back then and would get back to the same level.

The stories I remember best are "The Banger" about a high-mileage 928 and Gavin Green (I think) writing about a SWB Quattro and the anti-lock brakes pinging as he dived into a corner

I also recall a lovely piece by Phil Llewellin, perhaps in Autocar, about touring the war graves in Northern France in an XJS. He said almost nothing about the car but it was as good a piece of motoring journalism as you're likely ever to read. I didn't realise how well he wrote till that piece

Nick Froome

Car at that time was to cars what the Times Literary Supplement is to books now. Highly literate, erudite without condescension and with a passion for cars so much more convincing by the eschewal of anything juvenile. I took it for years as much as for the photos, gosh how those seventies and eighties cars shone through some fine, if heavily filtered, photography. My passion for Allards was kindled in a George Bishop book (which funnily enough I have just found in a box in the garage) and LJK Setright's rabbinical passion for Bristol and Honda cars made a strong impression on a young 12 year old me.

 

[219]

My recollection is that in '75 a large family car came in at about £2.5K or £2.6K.

So in Mondeo money using that 10:1 ratio it comes to about £200K+ in todays hard earned.

If you really want to think about numbers figure what an E-type went for in the early 60s or the price of a Range Rover in 1970.

On looking up the prices from 1976 ,

a 450SEL was around £11,000 in the UK ; the 450SEL 6.9 was £22,000 and the Silver Shadow II was £22,800

By early 1979 , the 6.9 had risen to £28,600 and the Shadow £32,000 ; the following year the 6.9 was £30,500 and the Royce was £36,650

These must have been times of rampant inflation .