The Aesthete scratches around Trademe

The Aesthete's Fleet

Our favourite trading site is undergoing one of its periodic contractions although I imagine if you are a fan of grey four door Nissan Enemas you would have no trouble filling the quota of five interesting local cars per week. That's your fault for being a snob, I hear you say as you compare the fourteen different Daihatsu Fistulas on offer in tempting shades of burgundy metallic. This is what I am confronted with every time I shift the search criteria to 2000 instead of 1990. The sheer bulk of awful and unsalable cars is rather demotivating but as the blog passes its fifth year I will have to go there, as young folk are known to say.

Song this week? The blinding genius of Roy Wood as he says goodbye and leaves the show to his old sidemen. Rediscovered in the movie American Hustle.

1969 Buick Riviera. Buick's big coupe was still gorgeous in 1969, a flaw that was gradually corrected through the following decades until they were as hideous as anything else available on the American market. The final model in 1999 looked like a bloated Mazda, showing how far the industry had lost sight of what made it wonderful. With the possible exception of the boat tail version that came after this, the last Riviera that will not make you laugh out loud.

For: Recapture the Playboy Club ambience but not the medallions and open to the waist shirts, thanks.
Against: People will think you are a Trump supporter. No liberal credentials here.
Investment potential: 0/10. Sorry.

1959 Tiki. The uncertain provenance and modest price suggest that we should be cautious in approaching this little fire cracker but what the hell? It is by far the most interesting thing to appear on Trademe's blighted shores for a while. One imagines that the 1928 Morris Cowley chassis has long been superseded by something else otherwise you will be hurled off the road to an instant fiery death.

 For: Better than conking out mowing the lawns.
Against: Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
Investment potential: 6/10. If you get it roadworthy invite me out for a drive. I have nothing left to live for.

1990 Citroen XM. One hundred dollars for a Bertone styled autoroute rocket ship? Yes, indeed and it is not even one of the lame four cylinder versions but a 3.0 V6. XMs were a difficult proposition from the  start with typical French problems such as erratic electrical and suspension systems coupled with confrontational styling. Inevitably, the 1990s will be cool again and indeed already are for my current cohort of designs students who play Billy Joel on the studio sound system...

For: Show them you are not afraid.
Against: Well, perhaps you should be a little afraid.
Investment potential. 10/10 at 100 smackers. Anyone should be able to make a profit in that.

1954 Riley Pathfinder. In extremis, a Riley will always fill an otherwise blank spot on the list. I investigated this one through a chain link fence on my recent visit to Christchurch and it looks great as only a Pathfinder can. Gerald Palmer's combination of patrician Riley grill and pontoon body was daring and modern as far as the UK market was concerned. It was the sort of thing you could have driven across to the Amalfi coast in 1954, staying at charming cheap pensiones along the way.

For: A British classic from before it all went terribly wrong.
Against: Compared to anything from modern times, heavy and slow.
Investment potential: It has been for sale forever so modest.

1991 Marcos Mantula Spider. Dennis and Peter Adams' striking shell for Marcos looked like nothing else on the road in 1964 and the same was true almost thirty years later when the shape was nearing the end of production. The convertible Mantula Spider managed to integrate a soft roof enabling drivers of average height to fit the cabin without causing themselves injury, so neatly outselling the coupe in the final years. The big Rover engine finds TVR like speeds from the lighter frame so performance will not be an issue.

For: Comes from the 1990s, looks like the 1960s.
Against: All a bit Nigel Essex really.
Investment potential: Not a fanatical following here I suspect.

On some faraway beach

Nope. Nothing there either. Bring A Trailer has turned into a horrible auction site with nothing interesting on it.