Hi
Just looking at an article from the Autocar, 1 June 1951, where they are assessing a 1938 Austin Ruby on offer for sale for £290 - over double its original price of £131.

The mileage is not known - they say the speedometer cannot necessarily be taken as the total miles on a 'car of this age', and note that it has a new fuel pump and carburetor fitted. The speedo is given as being accurate to 1 mph at 45mph and it has (an enviable) 7.5psi oil pressure at 30 when hot.

Second gear synchro is already worn and transmission noisy - so it must have done plenty of miles? Everything worked, though, and the car started okay from cold.

Interesting that (only) a decade later they were changing hands for a tenth of this?

Regards
Colin

can you scan and upload it? - copyright only 25 years for such non-literary stuff...

Even the older contributors to the Forum may not appreciate the car market situation post war. In addition to the general inflation brought by WW2, shortages caused huge premiums, which continued but reduced into the early 50s. In UK and here there were laws about onselling new cars.
I have a set of late 1951 Autocar and the second hand reviews include the following with new/1951 prices. 1937 Morris 8 50,000 miles, L142/395, 1939 small Fiat L135/445, 1946 Rover 10 L690/940, 1947 Standard 12 L633/785, 1948 Riley 1.5 L1335/2350, 1940 Snipe L425/725. A new A40 was L685 gross if you could get one.

The relative pricing of the Morris 8 and the late Ruby interesting.... The three bearing engines did not have a good reputation.

As mentioned previously my RP bought for NZ L70 in 1940 before serious rationing, would have easily fetched L200 just post war.

Location: Auckland, NZ

Hi
This is a copy of the original article:




Apologies for the poor quality - it was already an old photocopy.
Regards
Colin