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Death In Trollhattan – Saab and Insolvency

In reaction to yesterday’s negative press about an appointment being made at bankruptcy court, NEVS managed to convince the petitioner to withdraw his claim. That’s good news.

NEVS’s anaemic PR division followed this up with a press release:

Nevs hereby clarify that the company is not insolvent. The company does not have enough liquid cash as today to pay all outstanding debt but Nevs’ assets are larger than its debt. Nevs today cannot say exactly when, but Nevs’ suppliers will get paid.

During the summer, the dialogues with the two major vehicle manufacturers have continued and developed in a positive direction. It is a thorough evaluation process that is still ongoing, and the discussions have not been finalized yet.

After the funding is secured, and that Nevs business plan is updated together with its new partners, Nevs will be able to make the decision on when the Trollhattan factory can resume its production.

The company whose representative filed a bankruptcy petition has informed Nevs today that they will withdraw the case after the information they have got regarding the ongoing dialogues.

A few quick thoughts on this:

“Nevs hereby clarify that the company is not insolvent” being followed by the words “The company does not have enough liquid cash as today to pay all outstanding debt….” is more than a little strange. It changes marginally from place to place, but in general terms, insolvency is where your debts outweigh your capacity to repay them as they fall due. It requires liquidity, not promises or claims about total assets. NEVS may claim solvency in this press release but such a claim has to stand up in court if/when they’re pressed to prove it.

Here’s a question someone in Sweden should be asking – Why doesn’t NEVS protect itself from creditors by going into Reorganisation, as Saab/SWAN did more than once a few years ago?

“Reorg”, you might remember, is the rough Swedish equivalent of a Chapter 7 11 bankruptcy in the US or ‘Voluntary Administration’ here in Australia, where the company gets some protection from creditors and can reorganise its business in order to maintain solvency and become profitable. The answer, I believe, is that if you go into Reorg you’ve got to prove to the court that you have a realistic chance of coming out of Reorg and trading successfully. NEVS’s ability to prove that would be severely limited because right now, they don’t have a finished product to sell nor a distribution network to sell that product into.

Consequently, I’ll take a stab and say that NEVS quite possibly exists right now only because of the good graces of its creditors. KJJ has already liquidated plenty of assets in China and elsewhere to keep the doors open this long and his capacity to keep doing this must be limited at this point.

And another question, on a slightly different matter….. Unless there’s going to be a three-party effort going on here – NEVS, DongFeng and Mahindra all working together – why is NEVS still in discussion with two potential partners?

This has been going on for months now and it will likely go on for many, many months more if NEVS still hasn’t got past the point of isolating one partner to deal with (if indeed one partner is the intended goal). If I were a creditor, I’d want a little more information as to exactly where things are at. I’d want a more realistic timeframe as to when I was going to get paid. If the goal is to secure a single partner/buyer/investor and NEVS is still sorting out who that might be, then I wouldn’t be planning on recovering my debt any time soon. Maybe the creditors have got that info from NEVS, but to the general market it looks like very little is happening in the way of progress – again, this is down to the anaemic PR department at NEVS.

We continue to wait and see.

Death In Trollhattan – Saab Bankruptcy Looming (again)

Scandinavian thrillers have been in vogue for the past 5 years or so, but this one’s becoming less of a thriller and more of a “why-dunnit?”. The conclusion is fairly well known to most objective observers; Saab is highly likely to be skewered and fairly soon. The only remaining questions are to do with any minor flips or twists along the way and the inevitable examination of why it happened.

My memory on the exact procedure from years ago is fuzzy, but hopefully I’m not putting anything out of context here.

Petition for Saab Bankruptcy

So what’s the latest?

Here’s the word from just-auto, which is a reliable source of news from my experience:

National Electric Vehicle Sweden says 250 production employees are at home following further struggles with short-term financing.

Staff only recently returned to the Saab-producing parent after summer holidays, but a petition filed with Swedish authorities from a supplier, today (12 August) has seen many without production work.

“The vacations ended this weekend, so when they came back we informed them [production staff] we still have things to do in the factory,” a NEVS spokesman told just-auto from Trollhattan in Western Sweden.

“So everyone comes back every Monday, but during the stop of production they stay at home and wait for new information.

“Those 250 people are being paid – they are at home with wages. The petition to the Court was today and they made a decision to have a negotiation on 8 September. It is the Court here in the area [of] Vanersborg.”

That’s a bankruptcy court they’re talking about.

So while NEVS continues to talk to two ‘prominent’ OEM’s about the company’s future – those two companies are widely believed to be Mahindra and Dongfeng – a supplier has had enough and petitioned the bankruptcy court to step in. The company that has filed this motion isn’t owed much (150,000SEK is not much at all in car company terms) but it doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling.

It should be noted that the filing was actually made by a debt-recovery company engaged by the supplier rather than the supplier itself. The CEO of the supplier company was surprised the debt recovery boys had taken this action but didn’t commit to withdrawing it. As we saw back in 2011, it only takes one to encourage a few more so even if the motion is withdrawn, others may follow.

The Likely Outcome

Back to NEVS/Saab:

The two companies [with which] we are in dialogue are fully aware of our situation. That it takes some time to complete a cooperation is a sign they are very serious.

I’ll bet they’re fully aware of the situation and I’m sure they’re quite serious. But I doubt they have the honourable intentions that NEVS is leading everyone to believe.

Trollhattan’s mayor, Paul Akerlund, remains ‘optimistic’ according to TTELA, but his statement sounds neutral-at-best, to me:

I am quite hopeful that there will be a solution in the pipeline that will be stable for the future.

And of course he’s optimistic. He might have been a former Saab guy and union guy in the past but in 2014, he’s the mayor. It’s his job to remain optimistic about his region.

Jonas Froberg from SvD has an informed and realistic view, I think:

A likely outcome is that the Dong Feng, or any other player, buy the rights to the [Phoenix] platform and that Kai Johan Jiang sells the factory to someone else – paying debts and accepting a dream shattered.

That’s where I think this is going, too.

No company is going to commit massive funds to Saab when it can let the inevitable happen and pick up the technology or property it wants for pennies on the dollar.

Why Has This Happened?

I’m far away from the action and like most of you, I’m left to read between the lines. From afar, however, I can say that any company looking to rejuvenate Saab needed two things: Plenty of money and a credible plan.

Victor Muller had one, but not the other. He had new models ready to go, an outstanding bunch of engineers that were already making progress on improving/replacing those models and a global sales pipeline that was hurting, but still alive. Things needed improvement, but that was known and it was being addressed. That’s as close to a credible plan as Saab has had in a long time. What he didn’t have was the money or the political support to get it.

NEVS – and this is only my opinion – had neither.

Converting to an all-electric fleet was always a massive gamble. Not only does it require massive resources, it needs the product to be an absolute groundbreaker in order to sell. A short history of Tesla will tell you that much.

NEVS had some good PowerPoint presentations in the beginning but time told us that the thoughts therein could not be turned into actions. The electric vehicle they promised was delayed to the point where they had to divert scarce resources into redeveloping a petrol version of the Saab 9-3 – a car they’d only ever be allowed to sell in tiny numbers because it didn’t meet regulations for selling in volume. The move to a petrol powered Saab 9-3 was the first sign that NEVS was in genuine trouble.

That’s the credible plan part.

We all know now that they don’t have the money, either. Kai Johan Jiang has made an honourable effort and continues to do so, but he couldn’t do it alone and he was let down by a Chinese partner that didn’t make good on its promise. I sincerely doubt NEVS’s long-term viability even if their Chinese partner had made good on their commitments, but they didn’t.

That’s my short theory as to why. I’ll leave it to people closer to the action to tell us the gory details in good time.

It Ain’t Over ’til It’s Over

There is a small, small chance that this could all come good. Either DongFeng or Mahindra might surprise everyone and come through with a deal that keeps a Saab presence in Trollhattan. And because I love the town and the factory, I sincerely hope that happens.

But the realist in me says we’re witnessing the final scene in a Scandinavian drama that we’ll all say would have been nice if it had a more un-Scandinavian outcome. A happy ending would be nice, for a change.

Roll credits.

Swadeology Readers’ Garage – in pictures

Your pictures were appended to your census comments last week, but I figured the effort people went to to send in some photos deserved a bit more recognition than that.

So, here are your cars in a post of their own. There’s an undeniable Swedish theme hanging around, which is never a bad thing. It’s not as Swedish as it would have been a few years ago, though, which in light of the recent article about Saab people driving cars that aren’t Saabs is an interesting thing in itself.

Thanks for sending in your pics. I like tracking where people are going with their vehicular choices so I’m sure it’s an exercise we’ll repeat at the some time in the future.

Andy’s Jaguar:

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Ed’s 9000, 99 Turbo and 900 T16S

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Nigel’s Jensen Interceptor and VW Kombi

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Allan’s MCY 900 SPG

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Eggs’ 900 Vert, MB Oiler and ‘craptastic’ Dodge people carrier

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Phillip’s Saab collection: 900×2, 9-3 vert and Dame Edna 9-5

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Dan P’s modified 9-3S

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Jos’s eclectic and wonderful bunch – Saab 9-5 Wagon, Citroen 2CV and aged MB S-Classe

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Mats’ work-in-progress: Porsche 914

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Graham’s Saab 9-5 Aero wagon and 900 Convertible

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Sebastian’s oil-burner collection: Saab 9-3 TiD SportCombi and MB 250D

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iiari’s Lincoln MKZ Hybrid and Saab 9-3 Turbo X SportCombi

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And of course, my own trio – Saab 9000 Aero, Subaru Brumby and Porsche 968CS

Saab People Buying Cars That Aren’t Saabs

There was some chagrin recently when Tim mentioned in comments on Saabs United that he was thinking of buying a BMW. How could someone so dedicated ever consider another brand? Some people expressed surprise, others disappointment. My advice: build a bridge and get over it. People everywhere are capable of loving a brand, remaining fully invested in that brand while buying something else.

How do I know this? I’ve done it myself.

Let me tell you a few things about running a website like Saabs United that you probably already know. For starters, it’s a heck of a lot of fun. It’s all-encompassing and it’s exhausting. I used to average around six-to-eight entries a day at the busiest times and three or four entries a day over the longer term. I used to monitor every comment in real time during waking hours and I had to manage any flare-ups in the community on the fly. I learned something new nearly every day and met some amazing people who were totally, absolutely dedicated to the brand.

There are a few things about running a site like SU that you may not realise, however. I won’t speak for Tim, or Till, or any of the other guys at SU, but this is definitely something that happened to me.

When I was running SU and Trollhattan Saab, the whole notion of chasing, writing and explaining the story became as important as the cars. I started the site(s) because I loved Saabs and I wanted to write about them. It was a 50/50 situation divided between the cars and the writing process. As you get deeper and deeper into it, the process does tend to take over. You’re still a car guy, but it changes the more you get into it. The more you learn, the more you want to learn – about ALL cars. About technology. About driving. About classics.

The other thing about doing a ‘job’ like SU is that when it’s over, when you’ve given it 110% and the stories stop (through no fault of your own), then if you’re a car guy there’s little choice but to take your car interest elsewhere. For a Saab person, there’ll most likely always be a Saab in the garage or a strong interest in Saab cars. For a car person – note the subtle difference – other interests will develop.

I loved Saabs. I love cars in general but I loved Saabs the most. That’s why I owned them and why I chose to write about them. But that doesn’t rule out any interest in other brands. That’s as true for me as it is for you, as it is for Tim and anyone else involved with SU. Remember that while I was right in the middle of my SU/TS experience, I bought three Saabs as well as two Alfa Romeos and a Mazda MX-5. Just because something is your primary interest doesn’t mean it’s your sole interest.

While I was associated with Saab I dealt with a designer who drove a Porsche 928, a PR guy with a 911, a USA staffer with a Ferrari, a Swede with a stunning Alfa Romeo SZ and of course, the former Saab USA public relations chief, Jan-Willem Vester, had an award-winning Porsche 911. All of these guys loved Saab and gave decades of their lives to work for, and support, the brand.

For me, my interest is in cars and back then, I had a focus on Saabs. My focus has shifted now, but there will always be a passion for Saabs and Trollhattan. We own a Saab 9000 Aero at the moment and I think that’ll be the second-last Saab we buy. The last Saab I plan on buying is the Sonett III I’ll import from the US one day in the future.

For Tim? Knowing him and his connection to Trollhattan just a little, I’m sure there will always be a connection and I’d be surprised if there’s not at least one Saab in his garage for a long time to come. Tim builds good cars and I’m sure he’ll want to preserve at least one Saab in his life, maybe more.

He’s given plenty to the cause, so don’t begrudge him (or anyone else) the expansion of their horizons. It’s a big wide automotive world out there and there’s room to invest yourself in more than one brand.

Some people will only own Saabs for the rest of their lives and more power to them. Some people will cherish what they see as being the Saab classics and will keep one or more of those. More power to them. Some people will lose interest all together. More power to them, too.

Selling Your Car? Take Great Photos!

I’m always amazed at the number of people who include terrible, poorly lit and poorly composed photos in advertisements for cars they’re trying to sell. If you’re selling your car and trying to coax someone into spending thousands of dollars – or maybe tens of thousands of dollars – surely you can make a bit of an effort to present the car in a way that’s actually going to make the person want to see more?

This is a no, despite the effort the lady might have gone to:

You’re selling a 1984 Porsche 928 S!! It’s one of the most desirable years for a pre-S4 928 and you go and put the car in the shadows with a woman next to it? Are you trying to sell your car or your girlfriend?

This is a no. Get some even light so you get an even shot. An interior shot from 8 feet away is meaningless.

Wait a minute……

Instead of showing you examples of bad photography, why not just show you the photos from someone who’s done a fantastic job presenting their car in the best light?

Truth be told, I’m doing this post partly because I wanted a reason to save these photos and present them on the website. They’re that good. But I’m also a firm believer that good photos take only a little extra effort but provide a huge boost to an online car ad.

The following example is from an Ebay ad selling a Volvo P1800. What the seller has done is wait for the right time of day for the right light, and they’ve shot the car in settings that show it off nicely. They let you see the details you need to see and they’ve conveyed a spirit befitting the car’s design and presence.

These guys are obviously pros, with access to a good camera and specilised settings such as the turntable. But it doesn’t take that much effort and/or equipment to get good quality photos in your local area.

Enjoy these. Click to enlarge.

Wednesday Snippets – 968, Saab Justice, Video, Le Mans, Porsche 914 and an Unknown Lambo

A big THANKYOU to all who participated in sharing the contents of your garage. It was great to see the variety of vehicles and the extent of people’s collections.

I think we might have to do this again in the future, but perhaps in a more organised way.

Anyway, thanks a bunch. It was a lot of fun.

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968 Update

Let’s start at home…..

My 968 ClubSport is in the shop right now, getting the some uprated suspension parts fitted – the famed Porsche M030 option. I ordered all the M030 suspension components except for the front dampers as my car already has coilovers in the front. So we’ve got sway bars front and rear, dampers and springs on the rear as well as all the associated bushes, etc.

That’s good news in itself.

The even better news is that the bloke who’s doing the work is outstanding!! I’m so pleased to have found someone who knows this model of car and is so friendly and happy to pass on his knowledge.

He called me today because I asked him to adjust the ride height on the car (it was riding too low at the rear). We thought this adjustment would involve manipulation of the torsion beam at the back. Nino fitted the new rear suspension and that alone raised the rear of the car so he wanted me to come in and see it. Adjusting the torsion bar was going to involve days of work, which equates to a LOT of $$$ and he wanted to avoid this cost unless I really wanted it done.

I called in there today and the car looks great. We took it for a quick spin and it feels great, too. Nino has to do some final tightening-up of various bits and the car will be ready to go. I’ll pick it up on Friday – and I can’t wait!!

Don’t you love it when you find a mechanic that knows your car and looks after you? I couldn’t be happier.

And for any Tasmanian Porsche owners reading this, you probably already know who I’m talking about. It’s Bocchino Motors in Albert Road, Moonah.

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Saab – part 1

The sadness of Saab’s state of affairs has been reflected in text by the sadness evident in an article by a guy I rate pretty high – Ezra Dyer.

It’s been about five years since Old GM morphed into the sinewy paragon of corporate efficiency known as New GM. While I don’t really weep for the axed nameplates — a brand is 10 percent history and 90 percent marketing artifice — there are a few specific vehicles from Saab, Saturn, and Hummer that I’m really starting to miss. And, as the Chevrolet SS née Pontiac G8 proves, New GM can revive a dead car if it feels like it. Join me, then, in my petition to resurrect three machines that deserve to ride again…….

……Saab 9-3 Turbo X SportCombi. Raise your hand if you like the idea of a 280-hp, turbocharged, all-wheel-drive wagon with a manual transmission and rear-axle torque vectoring. That mouthful of car-nerd nirvana describes the late 2008–2009 Saab 9-3 Turbo X SportCombi, a sharp-handling hatch that proved Saab could build a competitive car, just in time for Saab to build nothing at all.

See, that’s some very clever wordsmithing towards the end there, but I think Ezra’s missing the point.

Solution: Bring the Turbo X back as a Chevy, with cloth seats and a ,000 sticker, to battle the Ford Focus ST. In the company’s final years, the Saab badge was desperately slapped on other GM vehicles. Poetic justice demands that the badge engineering go in the other direction one final time.

There’s nothing that’s either poetic or just about this proposal.

Justice is where someone pulls the plug on GM just when it’s developing good models (which means that it’ll never happen). Justice is GM falling on its sword as Saab rises like a ……..a …… Phoenix to take its rightful place as the manufacturer of very pleasant and occasionally racy Swedemobiles. Justice is Bob Lutz working as a bathroom attendant in the mens room at Saab’s offices in Trollhattan (and those mens rooms weren’t shiny, new and fresh-smelling, I can assure you).

Justice might be blind, but I’ve got 20/20 vision and I know damn well who sucked the life out of our favourite Swede.

So yeah, bring the Turbo X back, but bring it back with a griffin proudly emblazoned down the side of the car with a FUGM93 plate on the front. Put some monster truck wheels on it and crush a fleet of Cadillacs right before parking it in front of the Ren-Cen and inflating a giant middle finger out of the sunroof.

To paraphrase the taunting Frenchmen from Monty Python’s Holy Grail – the Saab world farts in GM’s general direction!!

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Saab – part 2

I’m not sure what’s more sad: that the Swedish debt collectors are now moving in on NEVS, or that few news outlets or people really seem surprised, let alone care.

I guess this is why NEVS employed a “say nothing” PR strategy. But the lack of interest when the fit’s hitting the shan is symbolic of what they’ll face if they ever get out of this mess and start building cars again.

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Murray Walker

When I get a spare hour, I’m going to sit down and watch this documentary on the greatest voice in Formula 1 history – Murray Walker.

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Le Mans

When I get another spare hour, I’m going to really drink in this amazing post from FlatSixes.com, which details their trip to the 24 hours of Le Mans.

A great story with outstanding pictures, too.

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Porsche 914

It’s articles like this that are going to keep pushing up the price of cars like the Porsche 914.

In all, Ray Nadda of Allendale, Michigan, figures he’s had 97 or 98 different cars over the years – British cars, Italian cars, American cars, you name it – and he’s sold every single one of them. Every one of them, that is, except for the 1974 Porsche 914 2.0 that he’s now owned for 26 years.

“A couple times over the years I thought about selling it, but this is the one car I can’t ever bring myself to get rid of,” he said. “Living in Michigan, I have to put it away every winter, but when I get it out of the garage again, it’s like having a brand new car every spring.”

You used to be able to pick up a 914 for under $10,000 here in Australia a few years ago. Now they’re starting at minimum $15K and only seem to go up from there.

I think my mate Mats, in Sweden, did well picking one up when he did. It’s mid-restoration right now and is going to be a cracking car when he’s finished.

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Unknown Lamborghini

I’m not the type to delve into every offering by every carmaker. As large as my cranium is, there’s only so much room in there and I’m too busy enjoying the cars I know to search too long and hard for ones I don’t know.

But it’s always a pleasant surprise to see a car you don’t know from a brand that you do know.

Example #1 – the Lamborghini Islero 400GT

And if you like it, it’s for sale on Craigslist – for $225,000!

(but seriously, who takes out a free ad with one photo for a car they’re selling for nearly a quarter of a million?!)

via Bring A Trailer

Census – How Many Cars Are In Your ‘Garage’?

UPDATE! – Everything works better with photos. If you’d like me to include a photo with your comment then send a picture to swade99-at-gmail-dot-com and I’ll weave some magic and include the pic(s) with your comment.

Check out some of your fellow reader’s rides in comments below. Outstanding!!!

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When I posted my question a few days ago – What’s your ideal 4-car garage? – I was rather amazed at the number of people who already have a very nice collection going.

So my question for today – how many cars have you already got in your ‘garage’? I use the term ‘garage’ but of course, the car(s) don’t have to reside indoors. My wife and I have three between us, for example – the Saab 9000 Aero, the 968 and the Brumby – but only the 968 is properly garaged.

I guess the main criterion is that it’s a car you care about. For our place:

The 968 is self explanatory.
The Saab 9000 Aero has been a source of some frustration and it doesn’t get looked after like it should, but it IS a Saab I wanted to own for a long time and it does seem to be running pretty smoothly (even with some frustrating malfunctions)
Some wouldn’t care about a Subaru Brumby, but then they’re probably not a Brumby owner. These humble little utes steal your heart. Mine’s going to get a little pampering soon.

So…. census time.

How many have you got and if you feeling like sharing a little info (makes, models, favourite bits) then please feel free.

I love having a peek behind people’s doors.

(Mega) Classics By The Beach – August 2014

Today was the first Sunday of the month and after a few months away on family visits, it was great for me to get back to Classics By The Beach.

And what a day! We had some terrible weather in Hobart last week, but it’s almost as if the weather gods were trying to get the bad stuff out of the way early so that Sunday would be perfect. And it was. In fact, the conditions were so good that today was quite possibly the biggest attendance I’ve seen at Classics.

You know things are busy when you can’t get parking for your Ferrari! There was a Lamborghini Uracco parked in an overflow car park, too.

I’ve got a mega-gallery on site for you today, with a few special cars to show in slightly more detail.

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Fords!

The Classic Ford Car Club was present today with a nice collection of Mustangs, 60’s and 70’s Falcons and very nice singular examples of both the Cortina and Escort.

That’s 400hp of Bling!

Click to enlarge.

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Jensen

Apologies are in order….

The hood and hatch were both up when I was chatting with Nigel, the owner of this Jensen Interceptor, and I forgot to go back and get photos of the exterior before he left. All of which creates the perfect excuse to catch up with him again and maybe accompany him on a drive to a nice photogenic spot 🙂

The Interceptor’s been in Nigel’s family since his Dad bought it in the late 1980’s. After a lot of recent work, the car was finally re-registered for use on the road just last week and Nigel plans to drive it as often as he can. Lucky he’s got the one with the small, economical engine – at just 6.3 litres 🙂

Inside is like a 1970’s gentleman’s club but without the funky colours or the shagpile carpeting. It’s pure comfort in classic black. The only repair considered necessary is one of the seams in the black leather driver’s seat. The rest of the inside has a genuine 40-something-year-old patina that’s just fantastic.

More to come on this one. Count on it.

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De Tomaso Pantera

I can’t get enough of this 70’s supercar. It’s in such amazing condition. I followed it from two cars distance on the road to Classics this morning and the sound, even at a staid 50 km/h, was just magic.

I only took a few photos today because there was so many cars to see, but I tried to capture a few details. Again, the promise of things to come.

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Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce

I hope I’ve got the naming right on this one.

I’ve photographed this Spider before, but the conditions and space are never quite right to capture the true beauty of this car. The car is owned by the same guy who has the amazing Riley I photographed earlier this year. Yes, he has superb taste in cars 🙂

As with the aforementioned Riley, the beauty is in the minutiae. The flowing Pininfarina curves are just sumptuous and everywhere you look there’s a pleasant little detail waiting to delight you. Nobody does this stuff quite like the Italians.

And by the way….

I learned today that you can tell a genuine Veloce by the little air channel in the right-side grille (body coloured). It funnels air directly up to the carbies. Many try to fabricate this on their ‘Normale’ models but few get the finish of the genuine article.

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Special BMW’s

There were a pair of very, very nice BMW’s there today.

The first was a black JPS edition E21 323i. A genuine article, with all the right badging on the wheels, interior and C-pillar. The second was a beautiful orange BMW 2002 ’roundie’, which I’ve photographed before.

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Fiat X1/9

I have a real crush on the Fiat X1/9 at the moment. People keep telling me that they’re somewhat underpowered but I refuse to believe it because they look absolutely flawless. How could you not love this?

X1/9’s are still quite affordable, but where they ranged from around $2,000 to $8,000 a year or so ago, the price has crept up a little lately and they’re starting around $5,000 and going up to double that amount. You’ll probably pay even more for a Bertone-built model.

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VW Flat Tray

Do you ever get the feeling that old Volkswagens have transcended themselves? Think about it. This company made millions and millions of funny-looking cars that were little more than simple, robust transportation machines bought by millions of people. But they were so robust that they formed the centrepiece of a billion road-trip memories and they were so simple that they were easy to customise. These simple, some might say inelegant machines, are now incredibly cool and can be worth much more than a car built in such massive numbers could reasonably expect to be.

Which leads me to this VW, which I have to assume is a customised Type II Flatbed. It rates an 11 on the funky scale. Just check out the flappy windshields 🙂

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Austin-Healey Sprite

We see a few AH’s at Classics but very few Sprites. They’re a delight to photograph and from why my friend Ken tells me, even more fun to drive.

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The rest

Alfas, Rolls Royce, MG.. even a Buick 8 with the interior-of-the-day – they’re all here.

There were SO MANY cars here today. I got to Sandy Bay in my 968 around 9:30am and cars were still rolling up at around 11am. I think a lot of people made late decisions to come down when they saw how good the conditions were.

Another outstanding Classics made great by the cars and the people who brought them along.

What’s Your Ideal 4-Car Garage?

We’ve been house-hunting recently. Not for an ideal 4-car garage. Just for a house, but hey…..

We thought we’d found a good one, too. If we’d gone ahead and bought it, this would have been my garage/workshop 🙂

That would have been nice. Sadly, for various reasons, it just didn’t turn out to be the place for us.

All that leads me to today’s question – what real-world vehicles would you put in your ideal 4-car garage?

I include “real-world” there deliberately. I think I’ll eventually be able to fill up the space with four cars that are genuinely interesting for me, but that will involve a restricted budget. This is not an exercise in “what would I buy if I won the lottery?” I’m trying to be more realistic than that.

My current thinking – which is always subject to change – is that it’d be great to have a car from each the following countries:

Germany
Italy
France
Sweden

I’ve already got my German car, even though I may have to sell it to help finance the build. Hopefully not. If that has to happen, though, I’d try to pick another P-car up one day.

Italian? I’ve been yearning to add a Lancia Fulvia to my life and hopefully one day that will happen. A variety of Alfa’s (with most of them being very affordable) could more than fit the bill until then.

French? This is the most marginal of the possibilities, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a DS? And there’s always the RenaultSport offering.

Swedish? There are many, many possibilities and I’m not limiting my interest to things made in Trollhattan. My goal remains to get a Sonett at home one day, but a Volvo P1800 or even an Amazon would be great, too.

——

Writing this down makes me realise that four car spaces is nice, but six would be better 🙂 . I sold my Mazda MX-5 a few years ago knowing that I’d underdone my MX-5 experience. And it’d be nice to have a sporty convertible and do a real custom job.

And where to put the Jag? And does all this mean I have to sell the Brumby??!!

Darn it. We always need room for more, don’t we?

So…….

If you have 4 spaces (and you haven’t had 4 spaces before), how would you fill those spaces? Realistic options, please, though if your realistic options mirror the “what would I buy if I won the lottery?” scenario, then more power to ya!

That Shannons Auction Would Have Cost Me $324,450

A few weeks ago I wrote about the best lineup of cars I’ve seen at a Shannons classic car auction here in Australia in a long, long time. I’ve never been so motivated to blow my life savings in one place at one time.

The cars and the expected selling prices before the auction were as follows:

Porsche 924 ‘Turbo’ – est $5,500
Volvo P1800 Coupe – est $12,000
Citroen ID 19 – est $17,500
Alfa Romeo Spider – est $12,000
Fiat 500 Garidiniera Wagon – est $17,500
Citroen Light 15 Sedan – est $20,000
Rover Mini Cooper ’40′ – est $17,500
Jaguar Mk II – est $29,000
Porsche 928S – est $12,500
Porsche 911SC Cabriolet – est $37,500 (I think, didn’t write it down)
Renault-Alpine A110 – est $105,000

That’s an estimated total of $286,000 plus the same again to buy some land a shed to house them.

—

The auction was held earlier this week. So how much did the fleet sell for in the real world? And how accurate were Shannons’ estimates?

Note: the estimate I originally quoted was the mid-point, or median, of the estimated range they provided. I’ve put in this median figure, along with the top level of the range, in order to compare the final price achieved.

So let’s take a look.

Shannons Winter Classic Car Auction 2014

CAR	MEDIAN ESTIMATE	UPPER RANGE ESTIMATE	SALE PRICE
Porsche 924	$5,500	$7,000	$4,750
Volvo P1800 Coupe	$12,000	$12,000	$10,500
Citroen ID 19	$17,500	$20,000	$17,000
Alfa Romeo Spider	$12,000	$14,000	$20,000
Fiat 500 Garidiniera Wagon	$17,500	$20,000	$22,000
Citroen Light 15 Sedan	$20,000	$25,000	$25,700
Rover Mini Cooper ’40′	$17,500	$20,000	$20,500
Jaguar Mk II	$29,000	$32,000	$34,000
Porsche 928S	$12,500	$15,000	$17,500
Porsche 911SC Cabriolet	$37,500	$40,000	$42,500
Alpine A110	$105,000	$120,000	$110,000
Total			$324,450

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It turns out Shannons are pretty good with their range estimates, from a seller’s point of view, at least. All cars reached the bottom figure in the estimated range and most of these cars exceeded the top level of the range.

The biggest outlier is the Alfa Spider, a whole $6,000 over the top estimated price. It must have been in better condition than they thought (either that, or you had a couple of bidders that really wanted this car).

It’s a nice little study in confidence levels for future auctions.

Now, to start saving those dollars for the next time there’s a huge collection of cars that I actually want to buy!

One day there’ll be a Fulvia at one of these auctions…..