The next morning I was straight back to Autotrader and Pistonheads. Had there been a deluge of 1970’s Skyline Hakosukas posted during the last 6 hours of slumber? Of course not, the greeting from both reading “no results found” exactly as they had the evening before.
Time to get out of the comfort zone. Which medium would a discerning classic car buyer use to peruse the Internet for their next acquisition, I asked myself? I had no idea really, so back to the drawing board, and a quick Google later I was navigating around Car and Classic. A couple of dropdowns and I was into the Nissan Skyline results page. Hope soon faded as the top few results were much newer cars than I expected and as I quickly flicked through the list I almost scrolled past exactly what it was I delaying the trip into work for, I’d found one!
I had that same feeling of excitement that I felt every time I looked for a car. It’s going to be a pristine, low mileage, high-spec, well cared for example that’s been priced incorrectly at the low end of the market…and I’m going to buy it.
Unfortunately, that was as close as it got to a purchase.
Research shows that webpages are read in an “F” formation, across the top, down the side with a bit in the middle. That, I’m sure is true, however it is flawed if you’re browsing classifieds on an iPhone and there are pictures to expand. This is how the next minute went:
- Front three quarter picture – nice, love the shape. Silver car, black bonnet, hmmm – looks “ok”.
- Rear three quarter picture – shape, still looking good, the black bonnet morphs into a stripe that continues to the rear of the car and under the bumper, hmmm – “ok”, above, was generous.
- Engine bay – that can’t be an original 1971 engine – not that I had any qualifications to differentiate any given engine from another but it didn’t look right. This early in the search and having no understanding of engines in general, I didn’t want a non standard car.
- Images closed – back to the “F” pattern. Title long but included Hakosuka GT-R. Tick.
- Location – Czech Republic. The penultimate but search ending, body blow. I once bought a Lotus Elise from a helicopter pilot in a Guildford supermarket car park and that felt adventurous. There was no chance I was going to negotiate on a 40+ year old car, unseen, from anywhere in Europe. No way! Particularly when I continued down the “F” to the next section…
- Price Tag – £39,450…the liver shot, [insert many expletives here and given we’re in an “F” theme you wouldn’t be wrong sticking to F related expletives]. Uninformed? I sure was, I’d decided to buy a car I knew nothing about, the first example of which would cost me almost forty thousand golden nuggets. To say it another way, I could buy a very nice, nearly new BMW X5, have a decent family holiday and have a very happy fiancé for the same money.
Being an optimist, I was sure the price tag was wrong for the type of car I wanted! I was unaware at this stage but, guess what, I’d got something right, the pricing was indeed wrong! The search was about to get way more involved, I hadn’t found a car yet but was 100% still of the mindset, I’ll have one…
Nissan Skyline GT-R "Hakosuka" 