Tony Whitney
Contributing Writer
THE smail square in
front of the famed casi-
no in Monte Carlo is
one of the great car-
watching locations on
the planet.

Any time after mid-after-
noon the square is packed
with automotive exotica.
Bentleys are almest wall-to-
wall, Ferraris are ten 2 penny
and serious car-spotters will
even identify rare birds like
Jate-model Maseratis, Bugatti
EBI10s and Lamborghini
VTs.

Of course, there are peo-
ple living in Monaco who
think nothing of dropping a
couple of hundred gund ona
Car to impress visitors like me,
sipping their $5 cappuccino at

the square’s Cafe de Paris.

Although many of the
automotive icons I spotted
during a recent visit certainly
set their owners back some
scrious coin, it got me think-
ing how inexpensive it can be
to acquire a used prestige
automobile back home in
Canada.

A quick scan of the classi-
fied pages reveals all kinds of
bargains among older upscale
automobiles that still have
lots of life left in them — and
plenty of prestige too.

the price of a new
id-size sedan, anyone pre-
pared to risk the spectre of

ined repair costs can get
the wheel ofa car that

certainly wouldn’t look out of
place in Monte Carlo.

How about, for example, a
1983 Porsche 9285S, with the
only production V-8 the

is the 3-Series con-
vertible a couple of
models behind the
current one. | found a
one for sale, a 3251,
tor $17,800 complete
with leather wie. and
what the dea’. ‘La
“full load.”
Even more appeat-
ing to me is the BMW
1987 635Csi coupe I
spotted for just
$13,555. These BM
coupes not only look
wonderful, they have
great collectable
famed German sports car
builder ever produced for just
$12,000? Detail 2 928 nicely
and it would look just fine
parked outside the casino in
Monaco and you'd get the
last laugh on people who paid
over a hundred grand for
something fairly similar.

This, and other cars men-
toned in this column, can be
found in the “classifieds”
almost any day of the week.

Another used thorough-
bred casily procured for
under $20,000 is the sleek
Jaguar XJS, which ceased pro-
duction three or four years
back. The XJS had a very
long model run and got bet-
ter as the years went by as far
as reliability went. Many of
Pie came yuh a wonderful-

~ werplant, but
I'd search for a rare manual
transmission version of the
six-cylinder model — the only
one that could be thus
ordered. You might not be a
millionaire, but at the wheel
of a leather and wood-
trimmed XJS, you’d certainly
feel like one.

Older BMWs are good
buys and one of my favourites

See Buy page 39

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s the safety of a Mercedes-Benz.
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THE powerful Jaguar XJS was manufactured as beth a coupe and a@ convertible. Find

ane for under $20,900 and feel like a millionaire.

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