Javelin for sale on Car & Classic web site.

[Nick Webster]

There is a Javelin for sale on the Car & Classic web site. It is advertised at £8500. Although the identity is not clear in the advert, I went to view this car and it is NPO 69, E2 PD 20935 D. This is a car that for one reason or another has been un-recorded in the club's registers, at least as far as I can find, back to the early 1980s. I gather that a previous long term owner was never a member of the club. It is a very pretty looking car and the non standard colour that I can only describe as "metallic champagne beige" suits it very well. However it is an older restoration that has been off the road for a while and despite some work for re-commissioning, is still still not without work to do. Notably on first inspection it is easily apparent that the paint work has suffered in storage and probably a complete respray would be required. The interior has been more recently refurbished and is clean and smart. Interestingly it is fitted with the first version of the wooden dashboard, which is one of the things that attracted me to the car. I once owned KBY 840 and to my surprise when I looked at my records I found that this was the next Javelin made after NPO 69. If I remember right, KBY 840 had a late type dash, as one might expect at this point in production, so probably the early one is a "retro fit" to replace the inevitably water damaged original. As a fan of the early wood dash I think it looks very nice. Unfortunately the most serious failing of the car is inderneath. While apparently mostly sound and needing only a few rear suspension bushes, there is serious rust around the front frame extentions that support the engine. Determining how far back this extends would probably require raising the front of the car.

I have noted that a couple of cars have recently gone through the East Anglia Classic Auctions, both with great potential for improvement but neither exceeding £5000 in value. This and other examples to be found would seem to suggest that this is where the value of complete and non-basket case cars seems to be settling. Indeed the subject of my post, NPO 69 had previously changed hands less than a year ago. It was then advertised at £4800. In case you wonder, I missed that ad when it was current so did not look at it at the time, though I have since spoken to the then owner. As a long standing member of the JCC it appears to me that more and more Jowetts are finding their way to the kind of market which references prices against the highest seen. The gap between high and low may not represent the best value and certainly does not anticipate the hours of labour and parts further required to raise a car to a standard where it will not immediately start to deteriorate again. Caveat emptor.

Nick