They are only rare because no-one can be bothered to keep them on the road.

I've personally never understood the rarity equals value thing.

I would love to know how many 'preserved' cars are SORN with little intention of ever going 'on the road' except possibly to rallies - and then maybe on a low loader. I think there are quite a lot. I have visited a collection of 20 to 30 Pugs which cannot have turned a wheel for years.

I no longer own a 205, but when I did I used to check the How Many Left website, which showed that about 80-90% remaining of some models were on SORN. There are allegedly about 15 examples of my current 306, only 2 or 3 on the road. One of those must be mine ....

As for rarity equalling value, it only depends on finding a person who wants one enough to buy it.

You probably wouldn't get anything modern with a mileage as low for that price, other than perhaps a base model Dacia Sandero.

It's also a lot more logical to pay £5k for something like this than the silly amounts of money being paid for completely rotten old Minis and Mk1 Escorts.

What I do find curious though is that it's an import from Japan, and particularly why it ended up there in the first place. Why would you go to the bother of shipping what is essentially a Honda, but made in the UK all the way over to Japan? There must have been locally built vehicles which were better and cheaper. I can see why someone in Japan would buy a BMW, Mercedes, Volvo etc., but the only real thing going for those Rovers was that they were a Honda, they're weren't exactly prestigious or some rare sports car.

They are only rare because no-one can be bothered to keep them on the road.

I've personally never understood the rarity equals value thing. Sure if you want one and there aren't many left you might have to pay more, but that presupposes you wanted one in the first place.

For £5k you could get a fairly decent fairly modern car, that will be safer, more reliable, better rust protected.

Do you know why vintage toys are so valuable?, because nobody could be bothered to look after them when they were current. And why would they, they are toys, they are supposed to be played with.

Cars are designed to be used. Why would anyone be bothered to keep any 'bread and butter' car on the road?. Nobody buys a new Golf and thinks, "well I better really look after this just because it may be worth a bit of money in twenty years".

I'm with Metropolis here, I don't think it is too expensive. It certainly isn't a bargain, but just look through the back pages of any classic car magazine to get an idea of what sort of prices are being asked for cars which were humdrum everyday cars from the 80's and 90's.

All it needs is someone with a bit of spare cash, and who'd Dad had one when he was younger.