Timewarp to 1970 with $3700.

Um.....

(looks at avatar)

Obvious?

This thread needs more pics

I know you can't list every car in that price bracket, but if I had that budget then and could have known my future tastes......Sunbeam Tiger MkII.... and all the spares I could store for a lifetime of fun together...

I'm old enough to remember just how ground breaking the 240Z was when it came out. I wanted one a LOT, and couldn't afford one.

I had a 124 Spider and it was a great car. I like the 914 a lot too. But in 1970, the choice would have been no contest.

What kind of a "classic" would that buy in 1970?

Will $3700 get me into a ropey '50s Ferrari? Some old forgotten racecar in a barn...no...

Of that list I'd have the Datsun.

I can think of a whole bunch of cars I would buy before any of those on the list, but for purposes of the poll I picked the 240Z.

I was 7 at the time, but my Dad bought a 240Z when they came out. He had to get on a waiting list and it took six months I think. You had to make three color choices, and even then you pretty much had to take what you got if you wanted one.

And yes, there were some older Ferraris listed for sale near that price, a Porsche Speedster perhaps, maybe even an old Bugatti or '30's Alfa.

I also voted for the Datsun, as I remember salivating (literally only) over them at that time. I admit to being a Datsun fan since that era but it's an addiction I can live with...

I wouldn't have had a 240Z on a bet back in 1970, but then they were the enemy, and that was the first Japanese car that was other than an awkward inferior iteration of an MG.

Today, of your list, it is the only one that really interests me! Of course I would have had to store it in a dry hermetically sealed cocoon so it wouldn't rot down to a pile of red powder on 40 years (they had pretty darned thin sheet metal on them).

Too bad they never got around to offering the home market 5 speed here.

1970...

Never saw it ;)

But I'd voted for an Opel.

Maybe I would have found my GT6 and yelled at the owner. DON'T drive it in the winter you foul hehe

A.

Transported back in time, I would choose a Fiat Spider.

But, at the time there was a black MGB with roll bar parked on my street and sports cars had to be British and rather raw. I considered the Fiats to be too modern, flashy and refined somehow. I still think this but am more appreciative of modern, flashy and refined today. By 1972, I had a Fiat 850 sedan as a modern refined version of a small pre-owned British sedan. Cheers Ron

Of course we're forgetting that $3,700 wouldn't buy a 240 then either. I asked my dad that question and he just laughed. He basically said the first number needed to go up!

Let's see - in 1970 I DID buy a new 2002. I COULD'VE bought a 240Z if I acted within the first month, before the dealers discovered that they could easily add about $2000 to the sticker and still have a waiting list. I SHOULD'VE bought a good used 289 Cobra (yes, you could get 'em for that in 1970) and put it in mothballs (after a suitable period of terrorizing the Arizona backroads and driving events out at PIR).

Prices were reasonable in 1970, but started escalating crazily over the next decade - think we have "invisible inflation" now? You should've seen the '70s. In 1970 I bought a new 2002 for $4000. In 1975 I bought a new carbureted VW Rabbit for $4000. In 1984 I bought a new VW Rabbit GTi for $8000. Then I quit buying new cars.

But for the vote in question - no contest, 240Z FTW.

There's lots of classic stuff you could buy then as used cars for that price. If I could time warp back I'd use the money for those instead of a new anything. I remember seeing a DB5 Aston Martin for about that or less some years later than that.

Sometime in the early '80's I looked at a DB4, E-Type, and a '66 Corvette, all for under $5k. Of course I never would have been able to keep any of them running on a college budget. For the Jag and 'Vette, my insurance company wouldn't have even issued me insurance for them, and the Aston was very expensive. I ended up with a TR-4 instead and probably still spent the same amount of money!

April, 1970 ... I bought a '68 Volvo 1800S off the used car lot of Picard Motors in North Smithfield, RI for $3,000. The Picard brothers were a dealer for Triumphs as well. My alternate choice was a new GT6+ for a couple hundred bucks more than the used Volvo. I chose the Volvo that day without much deliberation. (Today it'd be a more difficult choice). But either way, with $3,700 I probably would have had enough left over for a set of Minilites.

Of the cars on the list - probably the MG or Triumph... but outside of that list, it gets a lot more difficult... a number of high-$ cars could be had for that amount back in 1970... the previously mentioned Cobra... used Hemi cars... half-forgotten Ferraris... Shelby Mustangs... I could go on...

All the cars on the list were available brand new for under $3700. I was going to stick with the roadsters, but stumbled across an Opel ad and got soft. Once the Opel was in, the 240 made way more sense.

What year should we go to next?

Tom Heath wrote: All the cars on the list were available brand new for under $3700. I was going to stick with the roadsters, but stumbled across an Opel ad and got soft. Once the Opel was in, the 240 made way more sense. What year should we go to next?

Theoretically, but dealers were marking up 240's to insane amounts, sort of like 944's were in the '80's.

I vote for something like 1963, '65, or '67, or maybe even 1985.

Well, I'd have to take the 240z. Nice looking fastback GT, 2300lbs and 150HP was pretty hot for that era with fairly reliable japanese engineering to boot although at the time I have to admit I was a bit of a skeptic on the Jap stuff.

Something about the fastback lines that appeal to me ;)

I owned a 1970 124 Spider. No question it was a better value than the Brit iron, which was pretty outdated by 1970. But, I chose the Datsun because it was the most modern and advanced of all of them. I considered briefly the MGB, because it really was a good car (still) in 1970 and because I've already owned a dozen of the Fiats but the Z really is the only car I'd be willing to live with on a daily basis knowing what I do today.

I picked the 914. I wasn't born yet, but if that really happened to me I probably would have made it to the Volvo dealership for a 140.

Tough survey though.