I get many prospective clients coming to enquire as to whether I can supply them with an Aston Martin DB5 or DB6, an E- type Jaguar, an Austin Healey 3000, Jaguar mk 2, or a ‘ pagoda' Mercedes. My friends, they are all gone, all exported in a greedy frenzy. I believe that we were very spoilt here on the highveld for many years, but unscrupulous dealers and private owners, as well as chicken- runners, took every opportunity to remove them and convert them to foreign currency. Even when they were still here, say 3 years ago, there was still great resistance to buying them locally. I had the finest, most original 280SL pagoda 18 months ago that locals would'nt pay R155000 for. You could'nt buy it for R250000 today. When I purchased Executive Cars 4 years ago, I had to sacrifice my Aston Martin DB6 to finance the venture. All I could get for it was R130,000, and it was in superb condition. R350,000 couldn't buy it today.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that the cars that you see on the showroom floor are almost certainly investments, with the obvious exclusion of the occasional modern trade-in I get . Many of the models I find are never to be seen again and you only have one opportunity to purchase them, the 220SEB being a good example, or the Bentley.

On another note, I want to thank the out of town dealers for supporting my request to keep an eye out for anything unusual, any trade-in that doesn't suit their profile, and particularly clients who have purchased vehicles based entirely on trust built up over the space of a couple of phone calls. I am proud to say that I have never had to take a car back because of inaccurate description or questionable condition. Keep buying Capetonians !!!