Warning!
We have 15 years of archives. Links older than a year may have been updated to point to similar cars available to bid on eBay.
This site contains Ebay partner affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.
You won’t get something if you don’t ask for it. The seller of this 1979 Porsche 928 must be a firm believer in that aphorism, as their asking price is certainly a record breaker for an American spec 928 of this vintage. We’ve seen 928’s follow an upward value trend that seems to have become characteristic of quondam Porsches. More specifically, we saw a 1995 GTS fetch a record breaking $132,000 at an Amelia Island auction in March, placing it $32,000 over its highest estimated sale price. It was one of the few cars that sold for above any of its estimates. Many people were surprised by this, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected to those of us “in the know.â€
This car appears to be pretty well presented, and wears a popular and very saleable black/tan color combination in the form of Schwartz paint and Cork interior. The paint is described by the seller to be totally original, but I’d like to see some paint thickness gauge readings as confirmation. With 29,000 miles, this is certainly one of the lower-mileage early cars out there, and the cosmetic condition appears to be commensurate with the low mileage.
When I consider the slew of new cars for 2016, my mind keeps circling around one question: just how long could you keep one of these machines on the road? My guess is not for long, with the plethora of electronic devices that are bound to go wrong as time marches on. In this era of leasing, it seems that new cars are becoming throwaway items, cast off for those wanting the newest and shiniest thing. This 1979 Mercedes-Benz 240D for sale in California is the exact opposite of the disposable vehicle. These cars were built to last and over three decades on still make for a sensible daily driver.
While cars from the 1980s are really starting to stretch their legs, most cars from the 1970s seem to lay in a no-man’s land of value, minus of course Porsche 911s. There’s been some recent appreciation for the R107 but generally the cars that are heavily valued are the last of the run 560SLs from the late 1980s, so while that was a late 1960s design it’s not really a 1970s car at that point. Go through the ranks though – with a few exceptions, the 1970s equivalents are undervalued compared to their successors. W116s are cheaper than W126s, E12s and E21s are budget BMWs relative to clean E28 and E30 pricing, early 924s and 928s are close to being given away judged against the last of the run cars and Audi? Go find one from the 1970s. The one area where 1970s products currently outshine their replacements is on a limited scale, but at Volkswagen clean 1970s models tend to be valued more highly than those from the 1980s. It’s easy to see why in most cases; swallowtail Rabbits are just plain prettier than the later Westmoreland cars, the Bus, Thing and Campervan models captured the last of the 1960s spirit and are so ugly they’re cute, and then there’s the Scirocco. Modest underpinnings it might have had, but in one of the most brilliant strokes of design from Giugiaro the lines are pure magic:
As the Porsche 911 has become an increasingly hot commodity on the second-hand market we’ve tended to see shifts in the way modified 911s are presented. We still see track-prepped cars fairly frequently; those cars do fit firmly within the 911s roots and as such we should expect they will always be available. We also frequently see backdated builds – builds that use a modern chassis and drivetrain but revert the appearance to the pre-impact bumper design of the long-hood. Prices for those backdates exist over a wide range with many builders hoping to stumble upon the success of Singer, whose bespoke creations command very large sums of money. What we see a lot less of are modified 911s that most wouldn’t be able to tell are modified. These sorts of subtle, but important modifications don’t attract as much attention, and thus as much money, but can actually be some of the best options for pure driving enjoyment as they preserve the basic foundation upon which the 911 has been so successful. The example here is just such a build: a Malaya Red 1979 Porsche 911SC Coupe with 191,659 miles on it whose engine has been replaced with a rebuilt 3.2 liter engine from an ’84 Carrera. There are a few other items added from the Porsche parts bin as well, such as seats sourced from a 964 RS America and air-conditioning from the 993, but for the most part it sounds as if the rest of the work was performed in order to revive a high-mileage 911 and return it to a high-quality state.
I’ve written up a lot of Mercedes Sprinters, and have been especially excited when I find cool survivors from the old O309/0319 era. This, however, is a new one, a Spanish-built N1300 that served as the smaller counterpart to the full-size 309 vans, and it’s covered just 20k miles in its 37 years. The quality is so spectacular – and flush with ’70s style for better or worse – that it looks like one of those over-the-top VW restomods we’ve seen. The big roof-mounted luggage rack and chrome visor make it look ready to do runs from the airport to the hills in Guatemala (these were primarily used in the South American market) while the interior looks basic but very nice. It even has a little wooden table between the train-style seats doing its best impression of a Westy’s fold out surface. It’s too nice (and barely big enough inside) to convert to a camper and the 85hp from the OM615 diesel four will make highway speeds achievable only on the flats, so this isn’t going to leap to the top of dream adventure vans. Whatever you decide to do with it, you’ll have one of the most interesting looking vans on the road.
