[sideways]

Just out of interest I flicked through a whole bunch of old mags and stuff to see what older Suzukis are worth in todays (or 2016s) money. I've thrown in some others just out of interest.

1977 LJ50v $4550 plus onroads back then. $24442.24 in todays money.

1978 LJ80v-I with "offroad pack" (bull bar, tartan seats, aftermarket radio and stripes) $5400. 26,858.38
1978
LJ50 3525 17,532.55
LJ50v 3875 19,273.38 LJ50s would have been on runout then.
LJ80 4525 22,506.33
LJ80v 4875 24,247.15
Daihatsu F10 soft top 4961 24,674.89
Daihatsu F20v deluxe 6445 32,055.97
Patrol SWB soft top 5929 29,489.51
Patrol LWB harod top (top of the range) 6898 34,309.09
Landrover SWB 2.25 petrol soft top 7775 38,671.09
Landrover game (SWB petrol RV pack) 9695 48,220.74
Landrover 6 cyl 5 door wagon (top of the range) 11995 59,660.42
Landcruiser FJ40 soft top 6713 33,388.95
Landcruiser HJ45 diesel trayback (top model of 40 series) 8737 43,455.87
Landcruiser FJ55 wagon deluxe 9845 48,966.81
Range Rover 15475 76,969.16
F100 lwb styleside 11076 55,089.52
1978 Holden Overlander (ute or panel van) 13250 65,902.51
Volvo c303 18000 89,527.94

1979 LJ81k base price 6648 30,301.54

1981 Sierra hard top swb. 7100 drive away 26,837.26

1981 FJ60 (base 12750 48,193.67
1981 HJ60 G (top model) 15350 58,021.40

1987
(all 1.3l)
Sierra hard top JA 12790 30,043.07
Sierra soft top JX 12990 30,512.86
Sierra High roof 13940 32,744.36
LWB soft top JX 14240 33,449.05
LWB hard top JX 14990 35,210.76
Cab chassis JA 12945 30,407.16
Factory tray JA 13245 31,111.84
Diahatsu rocky SWB base model 17953 42,170.70
Rocky EX LWB 2.8td 28639 67,271.58
Cab chassis petrol Hilux 19702 46,279.01
Hilux SR5 2.4D dual cab 25802 60,607.61
LandRover 110 3.9D wagon 42150 99,008.24
Patrol SWB 2.8p(base model) 27950 65,653.15
Patrol 3.3td wagon deluxe 44200 103,823.59
Landcruiser HJ75 cab chassis 28112 66,033.68
Landcruiser BJ74 MWB auto 42290 99,337.09
Landcruiser 60 Sahara TD auto, 57367 134,752.21

Observations? It's a wonder LandRover ever sold anything. All those people who bought high roof Sierras could have bought LWBs for almost the same price and Cab chassis sierras cost less than a SWB soft top!

Jimnys look like bloody good value at $20490

[Marko_SJ]

Bloody interesting thread. Jimnys are excellent value, they tick a lot of boxes for people who want to get out on a budget and dont need 3 million cubic meters of room.

I cant believe a SD33T MK deluxe would have cost as much as it did when they are/were flogging STs for 50K these days. Also, looks like Saharas have gotten more expensive.

[alien]

That's pretty amazing!!! $30k for a sierra... hahahahahaha

[watermouse]

There will come a time where LJs and Sierras will again equal their present-day value.

[tanshi]

watermouse wrote:

There will come a time where LJs and Sierras will again equal their present-day value.

i doubt it. its a much smaller niche market.

[Gwagensteve]

Agreed- there are only a few cars (like a AC cobra, some Porsches, some Ferraris, a couple of Australian muscle cars) ever meet new replacement cost as a long term investment.

Take the example of a Porsche 930. They were fetching <$100k three years ago. They're now fetching circa $200k, which looks really good until you realise a new turbo is >$400k.

We won't see lj's reach new replacement value. They are reasonably plentiful and there is very little demand, unlike classic
Muscle cars or air cooled porsches.

[vet 180]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Agreed- there are only a few cars (like a AC cobra, some Porsches, some Ferraris, a couple of Australian muscle cars) ever meet new replacement cost as a long term investment.

Take the example of a Porsche 930. They were fetching <$100k three years ago. They're now fetching circa $200k, which looks really good until you realise a new turbo is >$400k.

We won't see lj's reach new replacement value. They are reasonably plentiful and there is very little demand, unlike classic
Muscle cars or air cooled porsches.

LJ 's here are already more than New jimnys

[Gwagensteve]

I don't think that's representative of the rest of the world.

[Marko_SJ]

Tell the Y62 douchers that.

[sideways]

Marko_SJ wrote:

Bloody interesting thread. Jimnys are excellent value, they tick a lot of boxes for people who want to get out on a budget and dont need 3 million cubic meters of room.

I cant believe a SD33T MK deluxe would have cost as much as it did when they are/were flogging STs for 50K these days. Also, looks like Saharas have gotten more expensive.

On the other hand, a top of the range G60 seems like a bargain at $35k! Even though though it was uncompetitive at that price. I think it's interesting the top model 60 series lc doubled in price over a few years, to be fair the sahara was pretty much twice the car the early HJ60 was.

Aftermarket parts prices. To me, more interesting than car prices.

1978
BFG A/Ts 31" $130each 646.59
BFG A/Ts 33 $139 691.35
15x7 sunraiser style wheels, $39.30 for white or $59 chrome 195.47 or 293.45
Set of fibreglass flares for an LJ50 $68 338.22
HIghmount warn winch. $598 2,974.32
Thomas electric winch with fitting kit for Landcruiser $565 (ptos were around the same price) 2,810.18
Tirfor 1500kg hand winch $298 1,482.18
Warn free wheeling hubs 82.50 410.34
Cibie super Oscar 55w 49 each 243.71 The price is almost the same today!
Hella driving lights 59.80 each 297.43
Snatch strap $42.50 211.39
Tree trunk protector $29.60 147.22
Hi-Lift jack with winch kit $89 442.67
Electronic ignition kit $49 243.71
Stainless steel exhaust for LJ50 $89.50 445.15

1981
McNamara Landrover Rover diff lock. This is the bolt locker where you undo a bolt on the axle hub to lock it. Includes 24 spline axles and 4 pin centre. $475 1,795.45
McNamara locker for salisbury. $280 1,058.37

1982
All tyres prices each
Goodyear Wranglers 235/75r15 132.40 449.44
Bridgestone desert duelers 31" 238.10 (they still sell these tyres and they're less than that today!) 808.24
BFG A/T 31 155 526.16
Olypic Bushranger 32" 176 597.44
Dick cepek X-T 32" 170.90 580.13
Torsen LSD for Landcruiser or Hilux $439 1,490.21

Holy fuck tyres were shitballs expensive. Lots of stuff is actually cheaper today than it was back then, in those dollars. It's hard to imagine someone paying $200+ for a snatch strap or $1500 for a hand winch.

It's surprising the McNamara bolt lockers aren't at all common, seems like a bargain compared to a tyres upgrade plus it eliminates the 2 largest weak spots in a rover diff.

[Gwagensteve]

You need to take into account that between 1982 and 1987 the Australian dollar was deregulated. The price of all imported cars skyrocketed - pretty much doubled in that period.

A Gwagen was circa $35K in 1983. in 1988 They were $90K and special order only. Same things happened to Porsches - the operations manager at my work at the time bought a 911 pre floating the dollar and it was high $30K. By the time he sold it in 86 or something a new one was near $70K - he made a killing. Imagine a VE commodore being $35K and a VF2 being $70K that's the reality of what happened.

This will also apply to all imported stuff over the same period.

Another observation is that all those parts are name brand, original parts and at that point were still made in their country of origin - Nothing was coming out of China. Globalisation was yet to exist.

[frak]

There was also the more minor devaluation of changing to GST

[Gwagensteve]

It's also important to note that the same price jump occurred with house prices over the same period, which created a bubble of crazy high interest rates on the back of property speculation.

A mate's parents bought a 420SEL benz in 1991 at $184K and were paying 18.5% interest on it.

[ZUZUKI]

Interesting stuff - cars have stayed relatively the same price in $$ terms for over 15 years.
24/12/1999 (gave ourselves a Christmas present) - paid $33,868 for a brand new SQ625 "Limited" from long defunct Eastland Suzuki - all the fruit Suzuki Australia had at the time, to test the market for ABS Brakes & Dual SRS airbags, bundled with grey leather trim, unique alloy wheels & gold (instead of silver) badges.
Only options were white or black (no cost difference), manual or auto - the price above is for the manual.
We still own the car, 250,000km on, been a great thing.

Suzuki Aust. site lists a new Grand Vitara 'Sport' manual in Pearl white for $32,990 - misses on leather trim, but gets rear discs, bigger alloys, decently more power & torque from the J24 than the H25, much more in safety aids, navigation, blah, blah.
That's very comparable $$ car for car, when the price of a comparable house is a x4-5 increase!.

Rgs, Michael