Surely the Ph1 C70 Coupe will have its moment in the sun?

[Mark1Stu]

I know I'm being sentimental, but it saddens me that the Ph1 C70 coupe is all but worthless - still.

I bought this T5 on a whim (its only done 87,000 miles) and while I could make money breaking it, I've got satisfaction from turning it around.

Pictures added to inspire others to save the good'uns before they become all but extinct.

[ITSv40]

Every car model will have its day in the sun.

A nice shiny car comes off the production line and gets snapped up in the showroom along with thousands of others. Original owners sell after a couple of years and they get sold on secondhand. The secondhand market is strong as a lot of folks cannot afford a new car/ will not take the depreciation hit. Then it gets to the point where the car is worth peanuts, folks will buy and run into the ground and scrap when it needs a little money spent. This will happen to most examples, but there will be a few examples that buck the trend and the owners cherish them and spend what needs to be spent to keep them good.

Then the next thing happens - three blokes are chatting in the pub and start reminiscing about car models that you rarely see these days. Do you remember those straight eight banana's that used to be everywhere, never seen one for ages. Wouldn't mind one of those for a fun car and start trawling the classified's for a good example. It just so happens other folks have woken up as well so there are more people looking for good examples than there are on the market and before you know it, what was a couple of grand is now £15000 + and rising.

Look at Escort RS Turbo's even humble Hillman Avengers and Austin Allegro's fetch far, far, more than ever imagined a few years ago. Everything will have its day, even Trabant's have a strong following. The C70 will have its day - only difficulty is predicting when.

[DSK]

Excellent work, pains me to see good reliable cars neglected and broken. Credit for turning it around, now enjoy it!

[BigMon]

I think the Mk 1 C70 is a lovely looking car. In fact I prefer the blocky Volvos to the newer rounded ones to be honest.

I'm under no illusions that mine will ever be worth anything but it gives me a great deal of pleasure so is worth every penny to me.

[Joseph Martin]

The C70 will become a classic one day, and I believe that values will rise. Look at the prices of 240s and even 340s, which used to be literally peanuts, now going up gradually for good ones.
I still want a C70, really want one, but I’m 8 cars up at the moment with potentially two more coming soon. So until I sort out storage then a C70 may be still a few cars down the line for me 😔

[ITSv40]

Are convertible values already rising.

I was mooching through Autotrader this afternoon and whilst there are plenty of £500 old bangers listed there were three low mileage, full service history examples at £3000 - £3500 listed. Cars that on the face of it were similar to my own that I paid £2500 two years ago. In fact there were quite a few Mk2 cars that are cheaper than Mk1. Is there a trend developing there?

[dgmacc]

Yep - nice, unmolested C70 convertibles getting scarce.