The Aesthete's carefully curated selection

The Aesthete's Fleet

I drove over the hill to Waikouaiti on Sunday to look at the Fiat 850 Coupe and met its charming vendor. She really does deserve better than the cheap huckster's offer I made so I have reversed my position from last week and now encourage you all to bid right up to your limits. It is a solid little car with a few missing items and would make a rewarding restoration. The vendor is selling some other fine vehicles as well, information that I will drip feed in tantalising instalments over the coming weeks.

1960 DeSoto Diplomat. A Dodge Dart prepared for distribution in the colonies, the Diplomat was an occasional sighting on local roads, usually in the hands of wealthy dairy farmers and other beneficiaries of the booming export economy. My wicked uncle Eddie let me drive one through the Highbury shops while sitting in his lap so I can confirm that they are remarkably easy to control and quite suitable for a nine year old.

For: With that milage, it is virtually unused.
Against: Would you buy a car just to go to the Beach Hop?
Investment potential: 3/10 using the Aesthete's behemoth calculator of value per metric tonne.

1956 MG Magnette ZA. Come on man. Make an effort! You are asking for money for it after all so get the damned bumper off the front seat and give the outside a wipe. I hope it is not as bad as it looks because these Magnette's are fine cars bearing all the hallmark's of Gerald Palmer's particular design genius. Channeling Pininfarina's work for Lancia did the profile of the traditional MG no harm at all and I can see it in grey on wire wheels. Grwwwlll.

For: Best looking small car of its era.
Against: That does not save them from a grisly fate like this.
Investment potential: 6/10

1978 Fiat 128. Like a Tic Tacs dispenser scaled up into a car, you do not love Fiat 128s for their shapely form. However, much like the eponymous Italian mint, there is a fizzing treat of an engine inside the box that will cause you to overindulge and become childlike in both mood and action.  You may not ever see a better example so I advise you to pay up and start enjoying small cars again.

For: Forget an Alfa Mito. What? Everyone has already?
Against: Nulla!
Investment potential: 8/10

1988 Maserati Biturbo. The idea of Maserati Biturbos rotting under trees always strikes me as a criminal waste of a fine car and makes me wonder how this situation arises.  They have plummeted in value like a 5 Series BMW although they were faster, better equipped and more chic than their Bavarian competition. I suggest you would get an eyebrow flick and a smile in Queenstown if you pulled up in one of these whereas a 5 series suggests little more than a backpacker who could not afford a Subaru.

For:A sort of long legged Remuera trophy bride kind of car.
Against: Something wrong with that?
Investment potential: Zip, sadly

1993 BMW Z3 Breyton. Normally the Aesthete averts his gaze when a Z3 is offered on Trademe, slow, awful looking suburban sports cars not being his normal gruel. They are not worth a look unless in six cylinder form and even then, the power plant was forcing the whip like structure into odd shapes. A tuned 2.8 should see you attempting to enter your own tail pipe then.

For: Fast and bulbous.
Against: I would rather ride into town on a Diplodocus but it is up to you.
Investment potential: 1/10 but less if you need to look at it.


On some faraway beach...

1952 IFA F9. This snake hipped Autobahn streamliner was the communist version of the bulkier DKWs that we are more familiar with in these distant parts. More the scale of a Renault 4CV and powered by a three cylinder two stroke, the IFA has a gorgeous interior and some were bodied in plastic enabling them to scurry along at quite a speed.

For: East German austerity chic.
Against: That does not sound like a good reason to buy a car.
Investment potential: 6/10. Its only 6K and look at it!