Any car is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. So it was good to hear from Damien, who told us of his affection for sports cars from a few decades ago. “I’m a child of the 1980s and my second car was a 1992 Toyota Celica ST with the fabulous 21R engine,” he said. Like most of us, he has had a recent attack of nostalgia and has been rather taken by a dealer-owned ’84 one.  Apparently it’s pretty much as new, so there is a stiff £23,500 asking price, reduced from an even more preposterous £25k. Hardly surprising that it has been hanging around for a year, is it? Realistically, Damien sees it at £15,000 maximum, and he’s probably right, although even that was more than he was prepared to pay.  Classic car prices, and indeed all used car prices, are hard to predict at the best of times because there are such variable factors. However, this Celica had an automatic gearbox, which is not a major selling point when it comes to a sports car. What we have here is a premium price because of the mileage, which is just under 4000. Otherwise £12,000 would seem to be fair, but it all depends on what the dealer paid and their stand-in value is (including what has been spent on any refurbishment). That explains why the dealer is holding out.  Classic cars will always be a special case and, nominally with most used cars a decade or so old, a little book could help you. Sure, there are classic price guides, but there is so much more to it than that: the seller is hoping that the buyer will be so drunk on nostalgia that the actual price becomes academic. Do you want the classic or don’t you?  I know about Minis and I saw a Morris-badged van at £12,495 – and, actually, that’s not half bad at all. I could make a commercial case for that, once sign-written. The working Minis were mostly run into the ground, so the survivors are few and this isn’t a silly price. The dealer with that one also had a Ford Escort RS 2000 Custom up for £47,995. To me that seemed like an absurd amount of money. Old Fords don’t do it for me, so that perfectly demonstrates how we all look at classic cars: individually. What is a fortune to some is making a dream come true for others.  Damien has nothing to lose by making an offer for his dream Celica. You just never know, they might want to move it on, but that mileage is so marginal, why not duke it out? Someone somewhere will want to buy it. After all, a car is only worth what someone is prepared to pay.  What we almost bought this week A great name and a great solution for those summer festivals and race meets when all you want to do is ogle motors, enjoy a barbie and settle down for the night in the car park. Anyway, that was our thinking when we saw this 2005-reg four-wheel-drive eight-seater with powered pop-up roof, electric blinds and automatically folding rear seats.  Tales from Ruppert’s garage Here’s a thing. The Flying Pig looked like it had a problem because it leaked coolant. Indeed, a reader sent me a terrifying picture of their Audi Q7, which needed a 20p plastic pipe whose replacement involved the removal of most of the front of the vehicle. I’ll show that when I can find it. So I’m pleased to report that the leak seems to have fixed itself. No Radweld or anything, plus we’ve done a good few 300-mile round trips and the fluid levels stayed normal. Praise be. My daughter, though, can still detect the aroma of wet dog. Reader’s ride David Robertshaw is back, with a rather marvellous 2002 Vauxhall Astra 1.6 estate.  He says: “This one came to me in January on 87k miles and looking ready for the scrap yard, with faded paint, running issues and two weeks’ MOT. But it was free! I got it home, gave it a machine polish and saw it was solid and original. The interior looks unused. It failed its MOT on brake lines and a headlight, then I got it through the re-test, gave it a service and traced the poor running to a faulty ECU. A used one was £38 and fitted in a couple of hours. It now runs nicely and has just completed a 250-mile round trip without issue. I quite like the low-down torque of the eight-valve engine – it’s faster than I thought it would be.” Readers’ questions Question: The automatic ’box in my ageing BMW 750iL is playing up. I love the car (it was a company vehicle I bought on retirement) and want it fixed by a competent specialist. Can you recommend one? George Walker, Bristol Answer: It’s risky for us to recommend a business without direct experience, but fortunately there’s an organisation dedicated to encouraging high standards in the automatic transmission industry, and they should be able to help: the Federation of Automatic Transmission Engineers. Visit fedauto.co.uk for details of your nearest qualified repairer. John Evans Question: I’ve seen a 2016/16 Renault Kadjar 1.5 dCi Dynamique Nav with 60k miles for £8995 and a same-age Nissan Qashqai 1.5 dCi Acenta with Tech Pack and 43k miles for £1000 more.
Origin: James Ruppert: Rose-tinted specs make it hard to spot a banger