#ThrowbackThursday - The Best Cars From Wheeler Dealers
This Throwback Thursday article looks at some of the best cars to feature on the motoring show, Wheeler Dealers!
Whether you love or hate it, Wheeler Dealers has been an essential bit of motoring television for almost 15 years. Fronted by Mike Brewer, the show aims to take a tired-looking vehicle and return it to almost-showroom condition, the key part being that almost all the work can be carried out at home. The major exceptions to that rule being full-body respraying and any specialised processes, such as chroming parts. From Series 1 to 13 the work was carried out by mechanic Edd China, a giant of a man who usually struggles to even fit in the car of choice! It's from the first 13 series that we've compiled our list, of the best cars to feature in Wheeler Dealers!
1970 Fiat Dino Coupe 2400 (Series 9)
Bought for - £12,500
Sold for - £15,500
Profit - £1,020
Purchased in Northern Italy at a bargain price of just £12,500, the Fiat Dino is one of the most beautiful cars ever made and so easily takes it's place on this list. The car itself was allegedly seized by Italian Police in 1970 and stored in a warehouse until 2004, and needed relatively minor mechanical work done. The major changes were the refurbished alloy wheels and specially-made black interior carpets and vinyl trim, giving the finished Dino a classy feel to match it's timeless looks.
1971 Fiat 500 Lusso (Series 5)
Bought for - £2,300
Sold for - £6,500
Profit - £800
Sticking with Fiat and buying in Italy, Mike travelled a long way in Series 5 to buy a little 500 L (or Lusso), only for it to breakdown halfway back to the UK. A replacement 650cc Abarth engine and gearbox was sourced, and the body was given a full respray from a tired-looking blue to a period off-white with green and red vinyl stripes. The car is an absolute classic and sold at the asking price, giving the boys an £800 profit.
1974 Porsche 914-4 (Series 9)
Bought for - £4,000
Sold for - £8,250
Profit - £2,940
With a budget of just £5,000 to play with, Mike sourced a Porsche 914 that was in dire need of a restoration. The car wasn't road worthy and a major issue on a quick test-drive was the dangerous brakes, so it was no surprise to see the majority of Edd's work being carried out on the engine and running gear. The restored car was taken to Silverstone for a test drive and was then re-sold to the previous owner, at a cool £2,940 profit.
1982 DeLorean DMC-12 (Series 8)
Bought for - £9,650
Sold for - £20,500
Profit - £5,785
The DeLorean DMC-12 deserves a place on any car list and it would have been tempting for Mike and Edd to go for a full-blown Back to the Future replica...but they kept faith with the DMC-12's factory look, instead focusing on fixing all the minor issues with the car, such as the window motors and air-con system. Bringing the car back from California meant over £3,000 was spent on shipping and travel costs, but the DeLorean sold at a Norfolk meet for £500 over the asking price. Reports that the car didn't need roads are unconfirmed!
1990 Peugeot 205 GTi 1.9 (Series 2)
Bought for - £1,000
Sold for £2,200
Profit - £547
Featuring early on in the show's history during Series 2, the Peugeot 205 GTi is 'Hot Hatch' royalty and the car Mike chose was a 1990 example. Bought for what would seem now to be an absolute steal at just £1,000, the GTi needed minimal work mechanically, whilst Edd chucked out the previous owner's tacky aftermarket steering wheel and fitted a more modern CD player too. A small profit of just £547 doesn't seem like much considering how sought after the GTi models are now!
1972 Lamborghini Urraco P250S (Series 10)
Bought for - £21,380
Sold for - £35,000
Profit - £7,764
Voted the best Wheeler Dealers restoration ever in a 2015 survey, the Lamborghini Urraco was also the most expensive purchase at the time of the episode showing during Series 10, costing Mike just over 21 grand! As it couldn't even be started at the time it was purchased in Poland, Edd carried out extensive work on the Italian supercar, including a new timing belt, new clutch, refurbished brakes and a custom made hydraulic pipe. The finished and beautiful Urraco was shown off during a parade in Italy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Lamborghini, before being sold for £35,000.
1957 Chevrolet Bel Air 210 (Series 8)
Bought for - £4,000
Sold for - £16,000
Profit - £2,496
Another car to be brought over from the States, the '57 Chevy was given a complete respray from light blue to Ferrari yellow, complete with white roof. The Bel Air was given the full chrome treatment, with new bumpers, grille and trim, along with new wheels and tyres. With a purchase price of £4,000 and a selling price of £16,000, at first glance it looks like a huge profit for the boys, but because of the expensive parts and costs of bringing the car overseas, the actual profit was a little bit under £2,500.
1967 Ford Mustang GT Fastback (Series 9)
Bought for - £13,000
Sold for - £25,000
Profit - £6,680
The '67 Mustang GT Fastback is a bucket list car. A vehicle that most petrol heads can only dream of getting near, let along owning. So it was great to see the car being given the Wheeler Dealers treatment in Series 9, as Mike purchased a sun-worn model in Southern California and brought it back to the UK. The car he chose was a desirable 'A-Code' model, but the bodywork had seen much better days and the mechanics needed quite a bit of work too. In the end, Mike and Edd chose to reduce the originality a bit by completing respraying the Mustang a dark Highland Green and giving it some new wheels. The finished car was stunning though and the new owner would have got a beautiful car for the £25k sale price.
1989 Land Rover Defender 90 (Series 7)
Bought for - £3,000
Sold for - £6,000
Profit - £323
Although it started life with low budgets and easy fixes, later Wheeler Dealers episodes frequently involved supercars and hugely expensive bills, so it was great to see one episode in Series 7 show what could be realistically achieved to turn an aging car into something a bit more special. The car chosen for this project was a farm-based Land Rover Defender 90. An ordinary looking workhorse that Mike and Edd transformed into a proper Chelsea tractor, thanks to a complete respray and careful selection of much-newer parts. The finished Defender was completely unrecognisable from it's previous guise and wouldn't look out of place amongst the SUV elite.
Those were our picks for the best of the cars from Wheeler Dealers (ignoring the latest, non-Edd series!). Did we miss any good ones? Let us know in the comments
Written by Rob W, originally posted on the DriveDen blog - www.driveden.com/blog
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