Not content with breaking the internet with his weekly Shednesday feature, Ben Carter introduces Spendsday. It's Shednedsay, but more costly.
Merry Shednesday Spendsday. This week I’m flipping the usual Shednesday format on its head and binning my shed budget (and word limit!).
The reason for this change is that I come across all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff on my Facebook Marketplace (and beyond) travels that are usually well above my £1200 or so budget. These are opportunities that I wouldn’t want you to miss out on gawking at or even purchasing. So without further ado, let’s get our freak on.
Not a Celica
Our first oddball is this £12,500 1994 Toyota Curran Turbo. It’s essentially a re-bodied sixth-generation Celica (the one with four round headlights). The car has undergone a full restoration and sounds points-gathering fast.
Look at that tape deck!
Seriously, look at the tape deck on this 1988 Nissan Maxima estate – how cool is that?! You can keep your massive touchscreens, Mr Musk. Okay, it’s £5800 and left-hand drive, but it’s a very cool car. It even has power windows – they’re labelled as such. I’ll stop gushing and move on...
Daihatsu in abundance
I could have done a piece focused solely on Daihatsus, especially as some of the cars are in Shednesday budget, but that wouldn’t have been as fun. So have you seen a Daihatsu Opti (£1600) or a Grand Move (£890) before? How about an Applause (£950)? Surely you know of the Mira Gino (£2500)? I bet you will definitely recognise the YRV Turbo (£1500)? Finally, keep your clothes on – it’s only a Naked (£3000)!
Ooh, that’s racy!
Beyond traditional daily drivers, Facebook Marketplace is also littered with much faster and more niche offerings. Like this £30k Talbot Sunbeam rally car. Or for less money – but maybe more thrills – you can have a single-seater 2005 Leastone F5, up for £5995. Much less racy, but still a single-seater is this £5550, electric and fab looking 1999 City EL. Blimey, that City El is superb – Ed.
More seats and doors, but still fast, please
Okay, I hear you. How about an all-wheel drive 200bhp Seat Altea Freetrack for £1750? Or you could have your very own pocket rocket with this Smart Forfour Brabus (a car that’s on my dream garage list) for £2600. Another dream car of mine is also available for sale at £19,500: the Subaru Impreza RB320.
Finally, if you have a very long surname and a love of the Renault Vel Satis, there is always this 3.5-litre V6 for £1500 (Sorry, Gav, no Proton Coupés were available). Or for full wafting, you could indulge in this £5500 low mileage 2009 Hyundai Grandeur, a more interesting and much rarer alternative to the Skoda Superb.
Don't worry, next week it's back to cheap thrills, although I might do a Spendsday piece once a month. Over to the new resident at Classic.Retro.Modern..
What does PetrolBlog think?
If you're wondering why I haven't featured the delightful 1984 Nissan Sunny B122 pick-up at the top of the page, it's because it's no longer available. I'll have to WhatsApp Ben to see if he dropped £12k on the truck.
If I had to pick a car from this week's bountiful selection of motors, I'd opt for the Daihatsu Applause. I mean, why wouldn't you?
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Ben for keeping the home fires burning while I've been concentrating on Classic.Retro.Modern. magazine. Work is continuing on the fleet (videos to follow) and there are plans afoot for the PetrolBlog website and Club PetrolBlog. In the meantime, enjoy Ben's waffle.
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