Manta Hatch £16,000 Ono

[Irmscher Man]

I can't remember where the shell actually came from - perhaps Mick (maher the hermit) may be able to enlighted us?

I seem to remember that Mick bought it off ebay a few years back for a project, stored it for a while and sold it on to John - and the rest is history. I did see the shell when it arrived at Micks place and it was exactly that - a factory shell - no doors, front wings, boot lid etc and it had not been used for anything previously, so it was one of those very rare finds.....god knows who had kept it for 20 years and why!

Mick ??

[Mantaray80]

Well, I'm more a coupe person myself, but if I had the money, I'd have it for definate!!

Where else can you get a nearly new, RWD sports hatch for so little money?

Especially one as rare and unusual as tha Manta is getting!

Edited September 30, 2010 by Mantaray80

[maher the hermit]

I bought the shell off a chap near surrey it had been dry stored in a barn. the chap had ordered a COUPE shell to build a rally car and was sent a hatch shell by mistake i think after one thing or another it just ended up in the barn along side an aeroplane gathering dust then the land was being sold to make way for a new industrial site so it had to go. i bid on it and lost but the winning bidder never made contact so had a call from seller would i still be interested..do bears crap in the woods??.. trailer hired and off i went. due to family issues i never had the time to start the project and resold the shell to john. beleave me it was like brand new it must of been the only hatch shell unused left?? what a find....

[opel2000]

Sorry but got to stick my two penneys worth in on this.

"yeah but if it was an escort it would be fetching £x,000"

Reality check eh people this is a Manta not an Escort, sick to the back teeth of "if this was a Whatever" I mean you could say "What if it was a Ferrari Dino" or what if it was a "Skoda Estelle"

Sheer fact is that it is not.

Manta Prices.......

These have been pissing me off for many years now. Good cars worth GOOD MONEY crap cars not worth a great deal really. Crap cars with a 2.0 XE should be worth the time and removal and hassle of selling the XE parts and then dealing with all the timewasters and muppets plus the original collateral tied up in a "Crap" vehicle that you will eventually see some cash back.

Irish prices..... Not going to go into depth over the stupidly over inflate dprices in Ireland, but further to what I'm going to say later on I'll say for now that ..... if they want to pay these prices then let them, it does not mean that every Manta of said resto/originality/jolly splendid all round, is the going rate for a Manta.

Personally Having restored many Manta's over the years and sold them on for "realistic" prices, and having spent a long time on one particular vehicle which went on to win car of the show, at Billing one year which too much Bud currently stops me from recalling, and was sold on at a REALISTIC price, and was then told I could have sold it for 3 times that much ............. Yeahpossibly could have but it was sold for what it was "ACTUALLY WORTH"

So I will now go on to say this..........

Car for sale is a Manta HatchBack, Built from a brand new unused original dry stored Manta shell.

I know the shell, I saw this when Mick Maher had it in his Garage, and I also know John Rowbotham, who was a very good customer of mine, so will now go on to say..........

This is a damn fine Manta, and knowing John through my old business dealings with him this car will be a no holds barred (can't really say resto) er, production?

Is it worth 16K, in my mind No, due to the fact that ......

1. You never get the money paid into something like this back.

2. Time and Labour can never be realistically priced into the value of a vehicle as many of us know, simply take a look at the acting membership secretary's post about the 'B' he is going to break due to it not being worth his time (Mantaray)

3. At the end of the day it is a very nice but totally unoriginal "Manta Hatchback"

No disrespect intended in any form here John but having owned and been driving many of these cars for many many years now, and as much as a very very nice car yours is, I believe it is just a tad overpriced, ok possibly never gonna find better/newer, but very very good can still be find for much much less.

Edited October 26, 2010 by opel2000

[manta400john]

Here's my take on it

Nice car, nice TASTEFULL modifications

Better than new!

As for the price, that's between the buyer and the seller.

John.

PS If this were a coupe would there be as much surprise as to the asking price? I like coupe's as well as the hatchback but I get the feeling there is bit of coupe snobbery out there. Will there come a time when the hatch is more sought after 'cause there'll be less of them as most folk will have spent there money on a coupe??

The mind boggles.........well mine does

Edited October 26, 2010 by manta400john