[ROVERNET - UK] P5 again- buy the best you can afford

[Peter Mitchell]

I agree wholeheartedly with Kent on the subject of purchasing a good P5- buy
the best you can afford; it will already have had the hard work done, and
for less than the cost of doing it yourself.

I have just passed up a quite nice P5B coupe here in Perth Western
Australia. The owner wants $7,000 or near offer, and that comes with a
restorable spares car. Both bodies are relatively rust free. Of course you
would have the cost of sea freight on top of that, but without the worry of
being defrauded by shysters. I'm sure that the local club would arrange a
video of these or other cars if Rovernet members were seriously considering
a purchase.

I am still on the lookout for a good P5B but will wait until something comes
up that is just too good to miss.  Even as a local Rover club member, I find
that top class cars go very quickly.

Kind regards

Peter Mitchell
Perth WA
P6B




-----Original Message-----
From: rovernet-bounces at lyris.ccdata.com
[mailto:rovernet-bounces at lyris.ccdata.com]On Behalf Of Kent Kinard
Sent: Monday, 5 September 2005 11:51 AM
To: dirk at vy-tek.com; rovernet at lyris.ccdata.com
Subject: Re: [ROVERNET - UK] P5 again


Hi Dirk,
Like Eric, I almost missed this message.  When did you post it?
To answer your question about where to start, I would have to say that
that depends on how much money you have to spend and whether you have
the skills to do some or all of the restoration yourself.  Most of us
who have P5B Coupes are not the least bit interested in selling (or have
way too much money invested to sell reasonably.)  The best cars to start
with are the New Zealand and Australian cars as they generally don't
have rust problems.  They are also reasonably priced, but going up
rapidly.  You can even find NZ cars with good upholstery. Most all the
UK cars have, at one time or another, had rust issues and its hard to
determine if they were well restored unless you are personally
acquainted with the shop that did the work. UK cars do tend to have
better interiors than the Aussie cars.

Where do you live? If you import a car, total transportation costs may
be a factor.  If you live closer to one coat or another there can be as
much as $2,000 difference in transportation costs. Restoration of a P5B
is very expensive because of the level of trim (leather, carpet, rubber)
and the method of manufacure (EVERYTHING is screwed together and there
are a million different screw sizes and lengths.  The unit body is
difficult to work on with many double and triple panels.)  Glass is
unavailable in the US for the coupe and it's VERY easy to break a front
or rear screen because of the manner in which they are retained.

More so than most cars, you are FAR better off buying an excellent
restored or well maintained original.  There are some LHD P5B Coupes for
sale in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. They are not cheap at
$13,000 to $15,000 and up, but when you look at restoration costs of
$20,000 plus, they are bargains.

No one has any idea what these cars are worth in the US because they are
so rare here and they seldom change hands. There are at least three in
North America that I would give $15,000 for in a heartbeat...but they
aren't for sale and the owners are reluctant to even talk to people.

Roverly,
Kent K.



Dirk Burrowes wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> So I have decided that to complete my Rover collection I have to start
> looking for a P5b coupe. I had always thought for years that the P6 was
> the coolest Rover. But after looking at a number of beautiful P5s on the
web
> it is clear the P5 is very cool. And certainly the most refined.
>
> So my search begins anyone have any ideas where to start??
>
> Cheers
> Dirk Burrowes
>


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