Buys of the week- Which classic for $40-45,000?
Like most of you, we enjoy passing the time glancing through the car classifieds. Sometimes it’s pure dreaming, other times more serious- if we are in the market to buy, or are researching the current market for example. It was upon perusing E39 M5 prices that I stumbled across a fun, interactive idea. Let’s have a weekly event whereby we select a 10 year span and a $5000 price bracket to have a look at what is available for a given amount of moola. We will throw 10 cars out there, then throw it open to the readers to add their opinions, rankings. This week, it’s 1990-99 cars and the budget is $40,000 to $45,000. Stats courtesy of www.carpoint.com.au.
1. 117,000km 1999 Porsche Boxter 2.7 Manual in Blue. $40,000
2. 211,000km 1990 Porsche 964 Carrera 2 Tiptronic in Red. $40,000
3. 89,000km 1998 Jaguar XJR Auto in BRG. $41,000
4. 95,000km 1999 Mercedes Benz E55 AMG Auto in Green. $41,000
5. 150,000km 1990 Mercedes Benz 500SL Auto in Silver. $42,000
6. 70,000km 1999 BMW M Coupe Manual in Silver. $42,500
7. 26,000km 1999 Subaru Impreza WRX Sti 6 Manual in Grey. $42,500
8. 80,000km 1998 Maserati Ghibli GT Manual in Black. $44,950
9. 49,000km 1997 Ford Falcon EL GT Manual in Burgundy. $45,000
10. 200,000km 1999 BMW E39 M5 Manual in Black. $45,000
There is some very tasty kit in that lot. For mine, the most intriguing is the low kilometre M Coupe, but it’s hard to ignore a manual Ghibli at that price (forgetting about running costs!). Even the Boxster looks great value. Not so impressed with the early Tiptronic 964, particularly at those kilometres and the 500SL, a technological marvel in its time, looks poor value next to the mega E55, roofless or not.
What do you think? Any other suggestions within the criteria? Let us know!
Tags: Discussion
8 comments for “Buys of the week- Which classic for $40-45,000?”
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Nice one!
I’m a big fan of Italian cars, and I’ve driven a Maserati Ghibli. It was achingly beautiful and desirable. BUT, I still reckon you’d have to be a moron to buy one over an E39 M5. Unless of course, you had another $45,000 stashed away for maintenance.
Personally, of that lot I’d be looking at a 964 carrera 2 with a manual, quite a seminal car for me, and to me the best looking 911 after a 72 RS.
For that price you could probably also look at a Porsche 928 GTS. A lot of car for the money, and would (possibly) out-perform anything on the list. Did the GTS come to Australia?
Maybe an Audi S8 or a Mercedes Benz S430 if you felt like taking it slow?
Or for the truly crazy, for whom the Ghibli is the safe option, a BMW Z1. http://carpoint.com.au/used-car/BMW/Z1/Queensland/csn5533960.aspx
Great idea.
Looking though the list we have very similar tastes, though, like Sheldon, I might have to give the Maserati Ghibli a miss. This was a difficult task as the price range is very tight and many great options fell on either side of the limit.
There is a lot of Euro content on there so I have three Japanese offerings which will add some spice to the mix:
-1999 Honda S2000. Perfect weight disribution, a gem of a Honda 4 cylinder engine and (personally speaking) excellent looks. Soft top only in Australia, but that means it can be enjoyed iona a gentle cruise during summer or put the roof up for more enjoyment.
-1999 Nissan Stagea Autech 260RS, The R34 GT-R you have when its not an official R34 GT-R. Wagon makes it practical, it isn’t the nicest looking car around, but again, its a lot of car for the money.
-1999 Nissan R34 GT-R, mega car for the money, loads of technology and very tunable…Perhaps keep this one for the track days and use the Stagea for the road..
I thought the inclusion of the Ghibli would bring up some debate! Supercar running costs for sure- but I hope its depreciation curve has smoothed off enough for a brave soul to give it a shot! If only we got the Ghibli Cup here…
M5 versus E55 is always an interesting comparison, though in these iterations the M5 would be streets ahead in overall performance. Wonder how much an early supercharged E55 is these days…
We did get the 928 GTS, I enjoyed the way Porsche developed that car, by all accounts it was very, very good in the end. Not so sure why they don’t try and bring a big engined GT car back to be honest (please don’t say Panamera).
As for 964’s, personally I like the 993, but was lucky as a youngster that we knew someone with a 964 Turbo 3.6 (quite a rare car, I think only produced for 9 months or so) in Canary Yellow. At the time I thought it was the only car that could back up that colour!
At the price, as well as the XJR Jag, there were several of the XJ8’s around if you wanted a sensible option, I couldn’t find an S8 at that price but would also be a good choice, if not my scene personally.
And Greg, I should have put that I steered away deliberately from imports as the options became too much! I know you love the j-spec available list, we could do a top 5 imports of the week as well.
Lastly, one I nearly put in…a VR Commodore SS (Series 2, mind) with a stroked 355 engine and other drag biased mods. $45k. Never in a million years!
Yes, the imports are difficult to put a consistaent price on and there are a myriad of models available. J-spec was tempting but the research came curtosy of http://www.carsales.com.au so I tried to keep it within the bounds of roadcars available within Australia.
However, those three suggestions were the only differences to our respective lists; the ones I did not choose from yor list were the Ford Falcon EL GT, Porsche 964 Carrera 2 Tiptronic (only due to the high kms) and the Maserati Ghibli.
Understood, I did think of putting the proviso in that the car had to be available new in Aus also. Anyways, that ‘99 S2000 must be mint for $40k! You still got to find yourself one to take out for a spin, I think the MR2 will be gone after you do…
OK, the S2000 was approx $35K (onlt 49,000kms) but I figured it was close enough considering the same model was being made till 2002 and 2001 models can fetch about 40K
I know, must find the time to take one for a spin…its been a few years I’ve been saying it now..
993 is third best looking 911 model Adam!! Wow, a 964 Turbo – stunning and very rare. Speaking of pulling off a colour, remember the 964 RS in that “Raspberry” shade? No other car could have done that.
OK, an R34 could probably take a 928GTS, but it’d be close!
I’ve heard the S2000 is not much fun to drive. I was very excited when they came out, seemed like the perfect recipe for a very fun car, and looked fantastic. But I’ve only heard bad things about the driving experience, unfortunately. They seemed like the logical step up from an MX5, and what can you say about that engine? Brilliant!
For mine, the 993 turbo is the best combination of iron fist in velvet glove, especially in traditional Silver. I do remember seeing some pics of the Raspberry 964 RS, which now I think of it was a lovely looking thing, subtly menacing in its stance.
On the S2000, I had a short drive in a Silver ‘99 about a year ago. Lovely gearchange, and it took a while to adjust to that epic reach of 9000rpm! Even 7000rpm was weird at first (remember my first 2 cars were an XY Fairmont with a 3 speed column auto then an EB XR8 that was breathless past 4000rpm) but then the kick came in and it became addictive. Driving impressions could not be formed definitively (we were looking at it for my gf Sarah) but I remember being surprised at the lack of feedback coming up that sweeping left on Park Rd in Park Orchards. It felt quite edgy with the short wheelbase. Overall the MX-5 covered in the recent feature felt far more organic and characterful.