As you know, I’m very old. Old enough to remember when they shut the doors at the MG plant. We all knew it was coming and so did MG.
Indeed, they built the B LE – it stood for Limited Edition – which had badges but still those horrible big bumpers. It was anything but limited: they built thousands of them. More than 6000, I believe. Lots of people bought them believing that they were a sure-fire investment. They stuck them in garages and waited for the appreciation to happen.
It did, but not to an absurd degree. The ones that were used sell today for £4000-£5000, much like any other MG B, and lightly used ones are £12,000. This is a long way round of talking ‘one careful owner’. I was on the radio, chatting about a 1980 MG B that a widowed wife was selling. There were few details about the car as she didn’t want to go on air, but the good news was that it had been used and was their pride and joy. So would I buy it? No, but would I buy a car in that situation? Absolutely.
Find used MGs for sale on PistonHeads
There are one-owners, and one-owners, of course, as the old gags make clear. The principle is that the motor has been properly cared for and cherished like that MG B. But we can do better than some clunky old MG.
Following the roof-off theme, a one-owner 2000 Alfa Romeo Spider in Turismo spec is how you want to pick up an Alfa. One that has reliability engineered into it. This one had covered 90,000 miles, so it must be doing something right, and was just £2990.
Safer ground is going to be an old BMW. An E36-generation 328i automatic from 2000 again, with a measly 58k miles, about the same as that MG B. The asking price was £5995, which sounds steep, but the ‘one careful owner’ premium definitely applies.
Everyone wants a Porsche 911 and a one-owner example is always going to be very welcome, so it was great to stumble across a Carrera 2 with an impressively comprehensive history. At £20k, it seemed like very reasonable money indeed. One to buy and keep, then keep up the servicing record and you won’t regret it.
I’d argue that nervous buyers of older cars should always start looking for a vehicle with just one previous owner. It seems to throw up some great cars. Oh, and a Nissan Micra 1.0 Profile for £395. It might be worn out, but just maybe it will continue into a higher six-figure mileage due to the OAP owner’s care and attention. One owner is where it is at.
