IceNineBack to cool stuff @jackyan and @GruffHarding
Green is always a winner I say and again it keeps on winning
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/chevrolet/oldsmobile/listing/5760414342
Gruff HardingHow are you going to explain the purchase after hitting a fifth division win?
Anyhoo, a few beauts today, but first this - get it and you too can pick the car of your choice
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/other/other/listing/5761689924
Number two - is purple your lucky colour? Better hope so, because British reliability
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/austin/1100/listing/5761804800
Jack Yan (甄爵恩)@GruffHarding @IceNine Ah, but was yours twin-carb with the 1300?
I'd hope so!
Thing I like about older cars, you lift the bonnet and can immediately recognise an engine!
A nice honest car, with honest description
I think @BobLefridge left it sitting out the front for a few years
On the beach
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/fiat/124-spider/listing/5765339931
@IceNine @GruffHarding @BobLefridge I think this shows how restrictive Trade Me is with descriptions. The seller probably wanted to write Fiat 124 Sport Spider but couldnʼt.
@jackyan @IceNine @BobLefridge https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/ford/cortina/listing/5762087452 when I win lotto tonight I an gonna buy this, then get it repainted in Sherwood Green. In honour of the one I bought from mystic Granddad
Bob LeFridge 
Tidy vehicle, but $16k for a Cortina?
@BobLefridge @jackyan @IceNine https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/toyota/corolla/listing/5766979559 what's worse is we used to buy these for 500 bucks in the the early 90s
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan
That and 323s were just everywhere
Some times they'd pass a warrant, but oh the rust
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan
I knew I should have waited - 1.7L sewing machine
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/other/other/listing/5776548241
@IceNine @BobLefridge @jackyan is the singer a sport version of the hunter, i'e more gauges same rubbish performance.
@IceNine @BobLefridge @jackyan I'm still here fellas 😁, I've just been a bit distracted with let's say admin, but all is well 😁
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan
I found a cracker though 😆
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/toyota/hilux/listing/5788409900
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan
More serious, I 100% picture Jack in this beast
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/austin/other/listing/5790751772
@IceNine @GruffHarding @BobLefridge The van would be great, though I would need an anthropomorphic dog to help me run the business.
@GruffHarding @jackyan @BobLefridge
Everything useful's gone eh
@jackyan @GruffHarding @BobLefridge
Forget the Austin, we have a winner for you Jack!
And think, you can do a road trip via Ōtepoti and Ōtautahi to show it off!
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/renault/other/listing/5785593103
@jackyan @GruffHarding @BobLefridge
I haven't seen the Dauphine on Ōtautahi yet Mister Yan
Please explain
@IceNine @jackyan @BobLefridge https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/triumph/search?body_style=stationwagon&auto_category_jump=false I'll go you one better, look at the straight 6 under the hood
I've owned a pair of Triumph 2.5s cars and they were damn fine vehicles. The good one was a one-owner vehicle I bought from a cocky in Leeston for two grand (in 1992). It was pretty immaculate and even came with a factory-fitted metal sun visor.
The other was a battered soul but still drove beautifully. I made a $500 offer to Turners after it failed to sell at auction and they said yes.
While the TM wagon looks tidy, note that the seller has hidden the reg so it's hard to find the actual mileage. I'll bet it's a damn sight more than 11k.
I can't believe the prices being asked for Triumphs!
@BobLefridge @GruffHarding @IceNine Estates were imports, too, weren’t they? Added bonus. But that Lucas PI was a nightmare. Still remember Dad taking ours to bits—he fixed it though! So surprised a PI is still alive as I imagined most have had TC transplants by now …
@jackyan @BobLefridge @GruffHarding
This was my fave from that place, for all the wrong reasons! But only $15K
https://waimakclassiccars.co.nz/listings/austin-princess-hl-1981/
1981 Austin Princess HL - Waimak Classic Cars
This Nelson assembled wedge car has to be one of the BEST KEPT SECRETS in New Zealand. It was not owned – it was treasured. The Princess is a family car that was produced in the United Kingdom by British Leyland from 1975 until 1981. The car inherited a front wheel drive / transverse engine configuration from its predecessor, ... Read More
@IceNine @BobLefridge @GruffHarding I thought wedges were cool, even if the 1·8 engines were unreliable. Heard some horror stories from ex-NZMC staff. There was a Morris wedge in Wellington, and given the early number plate it could have been an NZMC evaluation car. Gone to the scrapyard in the sky now, I bet.
@GruffHarding @jackyan @BobLefridge
Over $10 per cc and import flagged for damage
Sure it's okay now the yard got their mechanic to warrant it though
What could go wrong?
@IceNine @jackyan @BobLefridge https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/toyota/crown/listing/5773525579 Old School luxury 😁 after I win lotto tonight I'll road trip it back. Prepare for a vist 😁
@GruffHarding @IceNine @BobLefridge The Blue Whale Crown! Awesome. I have so many toy models of this. Till October 2025, I even had a sticker of it!
https://jackyan.com/blog/2025/10/stuck-with-me-for-over-50-years/
Stuck with me for over 50 years
It’s hard not to get sentimental over these. These were the stickers on my cot, which I slept in in Hong Kong. For whatever reason, my parents decided to ship it over to New Zealand even though I had outgrown it. That reason would have likely been that in 1977, the potential of my
@jackyan @IceNine @BobLefridge all those stickers are awesome! One of my Uncle's had a Crown with the straight six as a tow car. Sold it and bought a later model Mazda 6. The Crown was the better car hands down.
@GruffHarding @jackyan @BobLefridge
I found a mint old 626 for Gruff, but after your comment Jack, thought I better stick with British brown
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/other/other/listing/5811404364
@IceNine @jackyan @BobLefridge https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/mazda/b1600/listing/5786547942 column change and practical 😁
@GruffHarding @jackyan @BobLefridge
Damn and if the backseat driver don't shut up, they be right back
@IceNine @jackyan @BobLefridge I've found something fuel efficent, https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/mg/other/listing/5791666964
@jackyan @IceNine @BobLefridge the only good thing thing about the Austin Princess was that they stopped making them
@GruffHarding @IceNine @BobLefridge For roominess and the balls to do something different, I like it. Mechanically, I’d stay the heck away from them!
@jackyan @GruffHarding @BobLefridge
School I went to decided in its infinite wisdom to have sports day on a Saturday
So to encourage people to go, there was to be a draw to win a car
It was a pale yellow Austin Princess
Automatic
The first person drawn did not come forward to claim
To this day it's not known if they were present or not
John Cortexiphan@yakmoose @GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan
They buffed the engine out!
@IceNine @yakmoose @BobLefridge @jackyan A mate thought the same thing when he rolled a car into an estuary many years ago, flooded the engine a bit though.
@IceNine @yakmoose @BobLefridge @jackyan https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/subaru/brumby/listing/5920872214 I found the perfect classic!
@GruffHarding @yakmoose @BobLefridge @jackyan
So did I!
Not as eyecatching this one, and you'll have to travel a bit further Gruff than Happy Valley, but it is half the price.
I'm sure Bob had at least two of them and also did some dodgy mission in one too, but there's not many vehicles which don't tick those boxes. Nissan Cube perhaps?
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/other/other/listing/5939871462
Nah. I never owned anything big and thirsty like the Sunbeam.
But I did desire a Brumby for a while. Fifteen years ago they were around $2,500 for a decent one. Suffice to say, I'm shocked at the current prices.
@BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding @yakmoose
Have I finally found a car you and your brother didn't get up to no good in?!
@IceNine @BobLefridge @jackyan @yakmoose the Corollas I used to buy for five hundy are now 20k, along with the Cortinas. My Dad used to say the same thing about all the Chevs he rolled down various banks/paddocks. I'm keeping my 2003 Xtrail. One day it's gonna be a classic 😁
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @jackyan @yakmoose
Only issue I have with any car that might become a classic is I actually use it
You have us wrong. My brother and I were actually pretty discerning in our choice of vehicles. Like Gruff says, there were quite a few five hundy cars.
Between us we owned a few Vanguards, a weird fibreglass thing called a Mistral, 20-30 Morris Eights, one Morris Minor, one Morris J4 van, one CF Bedford, one Citroen GS club, one 1949 Singer Sports, a matching pair of MG Midgets and that infamous Fiat 500 which was involved in a reported "high speed (!) chase" round north Dunedin.
I've also owned a VW Variant (yellow), an Alfa Romeo GTV2000, a Saab 900, a 72 MGBGT, a Ford SIerra wagon (bland), a pair of Triumph 2500s, a Telstar (bland), the sad little SJ410 living at the back of my drive, one Escudo (bland), two Suzuki Swifts and seven Subarus.
That's all. Perfectly normal.
@BobLefridge @IceNine @GruffHarding @yakmoose Was the Mistral one of these? https://classicsglemham.org.uk/1959-buckler-dd2-mistral-1
Good spotting! It was one of those, or at least it had been in an earlier life.
My brother bought it for $100. One day we were taking it to a panel beater in South Dunedin to price fibreglass repairs, my brother towing with his Vanguard ute with me in the Mistral. We almost made it when one of the back wheels fell off and rolled right past me. Broken axle. But the car kept rolling on three wheels with me waving wildly to stop the towing. It was like being in a silly cartoon.
Four of us lifted the car by hand, plugged the axle back in and finished the trip. Then the Mistral got sold to the next sucker.
@BobLefridge @IceNine @jackyan @yakmoose the Telstar was the favourite it the reps back in the day. The engine that was passed down from the Cortina to the Sierra to the Telstar was bullet proof. Also the Sierra styling was way ahead of its time, and the rally spec ones were seriously quick.
> "The engine that was passed down from the Cortina to the Sierra to the Telstar was bullet proof."
So they say, but my ex somehow managed to overheat our Telstar's engine and warp the head. The problem wasn't so much the burst hose as the fact that she decided to speed up so she'd get to a garage sooner to report all the steam pouring from the bonnet.
@GruffHarding @BobLefridge @IceNine @yakmoose The Telstar never had that engine. They were always Mazda OHC ones.
@BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding @yakmoose
An infamous chase in a Bambina?
I thought the only one even close to a chase was an ex-cop I knew who pulled one over on Moorhouse Ave here, doing 88.
He asked the driver how he managex such a speed - driver pointed at the Colombo Street overbridge behing him.
@BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding @yakmoose
Also completely normal
Abnormal would be owning a Bricklin SV-1 and loving it
@IceNine @BobLefridge @GruffHarding @yakmoose What you need are three Fiat 500s, and steal back some gold that Mr Bridger took off you in Torino.
The Fiat adventure was a bit like that. Strap in for a long story.
My brother had bought a faded but serviceable, red Fiat 500 for a couple of hundred bucks. Cars were cheap in the mid 70s.
We'd been told that there was an almost identical Fiat in a car sales in North Dunedin with a $600 price tag, so one night we went for a look. We parked our Fiat in the car sales' driveway and checked out the other vehicle. Very similar, three times the price. All good.
As we were pulling out of the car yard, some dooberry in a huge yank tank thought we were stealing the other Fiat, so he chased us, flashing his lights. We knew a few narrow streets around the gardens area and managed to give him the slip. A Fiat Bambina vs a massive v8... it was quite exciting.
We parked up with our lights off until we spotted him again, then we powered up and headed south. Naturally he chased us, so we led him past the Central Police Station and sure enough, he pulled over leaving his engine running, car door open and rushed inside. We went to the Octagon and grabbed a burger from Big Daddy's.
Later, we popped into the Police station to see what was up. After we explained the identical Fiats, the cop laughed and said, "When we received a report of a Fiat 500 driving around the north end at high speed with its lights off, we were skeptical."
We all had a good laugh. Afterwards, we referred to the incident as "The Night of the Fiat 500."
And I still have a place in my heart for Fiat Bambinas.
@BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding @yakmoose
That is Fiatastic!
Just imagine if there were also an overbridge to really get things going
Or a road-rail bridge like on the West Coast
@IceNine @BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding
Taieri Gorge Fiat Railway …
@yakmoose @BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding
Let's go crazy and strap a JATO propulsion unit to it like the urban myth from about 1998
@IceNine @BobLefridge @jackyan @GruffHarding
Roads? Where we're going, we don’t need roads ….
Supplementary Bambina story
Actually... I didn't mention this because my brother only owned it for a couple of weeks, but he stupidly bought a modified Fiat 500 with a two litre engine and fat tyres. It was an ugly little black thing and the rear tyres scraped on the guards. The two seats were in the back because the engine took up so much space. This car was the evil twin of the earlier Fiat.
He drove it from Wellington to Auckland and stayed with me out at Titirangi. I had a nice rental in Wood Bay with a little bridge over a stream leading to my driveway. And that's where the buggered engine finally shat its pants and died.
Damn thing blocked my driveway for a couple of days until I had it towed.
@BobLefridge @yakmoose @jackyan @GruffHarding
At least when my Sirion decided to spit a belt out for everything whilst on a bridge, it was doing 100 at the time. Just clutch in and coast to a safe spot
At the steaming metropolis of Red Jacks
@GruffHarding @IceNine @BobLefridge Iʼd say Sunbeam was the sport brand. Prewar, and before Rootes, Singer was pretty innovative, so it was the more engineering-oriented brand.