On Purchasing a new vehicle, a letter to John Cole. EE lad, you don't know how lucky you were. I went to buy a new (to me) vehicle in 1962.
I could not afford a real new one but asked anyway out of curiosity. "No Sir, you cannot buy a new vehicle unless you have overseas funds or a good trade in." I did not have overseas funds, so I asked about a trade-in. "You would need to buy a good, second-hand one for, say 3000 pounds, and trade it in for 500 pounds, then we might be able to find a new one for you."
So, I bought a 1947 Ford 10 for about 300 pounds from Manthel Motors. The log papers arrived, and I saw the figure 1941 had been manually changed to 1947. When I raised this with him the salesman said, "Sorry mate, a mistake - there it is." I went back with an older friend with a journalist's notebook and asked to see the manager. They took the car back and returned my money....
Incidentally, I wonder if JC confused Holden with Ford - he often got things wrong in those days....hehe!