ADO16

Anyone who pays attention to this thread, or a similar thread on 'the other site' will know that the 1300 GT in Austin or Morris flavour is a rare beast. Even rarer in good condition. In the UK this was a very popular car in its day and a lot were sold yet with a population of 67 million we might only see 2 or 3 decent or half decent GT's coming up for sale during the course of a year. It would be very unusual to see a couple of good ones listed simultaneously. 

Paul's mission to get his hands on a good GT has played out over years and with all the near misses it got me wondering how many GTs are about in other rhd countries and how do prices compare to UK?

One of the biggest ad sites in New Zealand 'Trade Me' amazed me by having 2 decent looking cars on at the same time, both on South Island, (population of less than 1 million). 

I followed an auction which started off with a reserve of NZ$12K, in the closing hours of the auction, (with no bids), the vendor dropped the reserve to NZ$11K (£5½K). It was unsold and re-listed.


www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/austin/1300/listing/3095364573

www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/austin/1300/listing/3114163150

Another on with a reserve of circa £6K.
www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/austin/1300/listing/3099379443

£5K or £6K in the UK would buy a rough GT needing a lot of work. These cars would be worth double on the UK market what they're worth in NZ.

How much would shipping and re-registering the cars cost? I'm guessing it might add up to another £2½K per car. That's still cheap and it's a model that doesn't come up on the market often here in good condition.

Japan's not giving them away so cheaply but they're available occasionally;


Just under £10K.

www.goo-net-exchange.com/usedcars/AUSTIN/AUSTIN_1300/700115702930180529001/index.html

It's a gamble and a big leap of faith, (unless you have a contact in the relevant country). Time to start bringing these little fellah's back home to Blighty?