Everyone has a view on why the British lorry makers went to the wall but even when Volvo, scania et al were in full swing the Brits didnt disappear overnight so there must be a reason why hauliers kept on buying British while they could.
So my question is does anyone know the prices for the say 1976 year aec mandator, Volvo f88, and scania 110, and any other British tractor units for that matter.
Surely the aec would be half the price of the other two?
Cheers Steve.
The first brand new truck I bought a Volvo in 1986 was a LHD globetrotter 4x2 and IIRC it was £33365.00 plus VAT Cheers Buzzer.
When buying these did you not compare the price to any brit truck that was comparable?
pollystag:
When buying these did you not compare the price to any brit truck that was comparable?
No British truck is comparable to those esp on European work
In around Febuary '76 I took advantage of what was supposed to be a “one off” “seed” deal for a new F88 290 @ £11,250 + VAT so I said OK but I want two ! At the same time I bought a couple of Guy Big J’s for £9,000 plus VAT each. Less than 12 months later in January '77 and owing to raging inflation at that time I bought one new F88 for £15,000 plus vat and one new 8LXB Sed Atk sleeper cab for the same price £15,000 plus VAT. At the same time I bought a new Scania 111 10 speed Day cab for £14,000 plus VAT and also a 5speed 111 day cab for £13,500 plus VAT. I bought a number of other units in late 1975 and in mid '76 but the ones I have mentioned have always stuck in my mind for some reason Doh! Cheers Bewick.
In the 10 years from 1972 to 1981 as Bewick comments we had very high inflation, so prices were continually rising. A standard spec AEC Mandator in 1973 was in the region of £4, 500 to £5,500. By 1977 the price had risen by 50%. Why the variation? Simply it depended on who you were and how many you ordered, and it’s still the same today. A dealership usually has three profit margin selling bands. Joe Bloggs ordering one unit will pay top price and someone ordering 100 units will pay a lot less per unit than Joe Bloggs paid for his. The term “pay” being something of a red herring nowadays because the vast majority of purchases are subject to finance deals of various types and add-ons such as R&M which didn’t exist 40 years ago. So depending on how you finance your purchase affects what you pay monthly. Forty years ago there were only really three ways to buy a truck, outright purchase, hire-purchase, (specialist financers such as UDT), and bank loan.
I can’t relate to tractor units but big buyers of Foden eight wheeler chassis such as Tilcon etc, who ordered perhaps one hundred at any one time, reckoned with the discounts to get at least one chassis free. Off topic I realise, but a former Foden line manager told me they liked orders like that as when a single purchaser wanted a standard eight wheeler tipper chassis they supplied him with one already on the line destined for Tilcon etc and the buyer was happy that he got his new truck very quickly! 
It was around the mid to late 70’s that Tilcon purchased a few Sed Ak 400’s but I don’t know if it was because they perhaps cost less than a Foden or because Sandbach were having problems supplying at that time? It was a strange period of time for the UK in general as prices rose rapidly for many products.
Pete.
robthedog:
pollystag:
When buying these did you not compare the price to any brit truck that was comparable?No British truck is comparable to those esp on European work
To be honest mate I didnt post so people could slate the British lorries again,just interested in a price comparison really and if that was also a factor or not.
Steve.
Bewick:
In around Febuary '76 I took advantage of what was supposed to be a “one off” “seed” deal for a new F88 290 @ £11,250 + VAT so I said OK but I want two ! At the same time I bought a couple of Guy Big J’s for £9,000 plus VAT each. Less than 12 months later in January '77 and owing to raging inflation at that time I bought one new F88 for £15,000 plus vat and one new 8LXB Sed Atk sleeper cab for the same price £15,000 plus VAT. At the same time I bought a new Scania 111 10 speed Day cab for £14,000 plus VAT and also a 5speed 111 day cab for £13,000 plus VAT. I bought a number of other units in late 1975 and in mid '76 but the ones I have mentioned have always stuck in my mind for some reason Doh! Cheers Bewick.
So two bigJ’s for 4k more than one scania day cab, so the Guy must have had some appeal?
Steve.
Heres some prices Steve. Obviously they are top dollar as they are from roadtests and without any discounts. Amazing how much they went
up in price in a year like Dennis and Graham said the inflation was huge. I imagine you could have bought a truck in 1977 run it for a year
and sold it without making a loss !
Click on pages twice to read.
Bit earlier than you wanted but 1968 Volvo F88 price £ 5088.00
Volvo F88 - 1975 Commercial Motor test price £ 12489.00
Volvo F88 - 1975 Truck magazine £ 12606.00 and the Ford Transcon was £ 13600.00.
1974 Leyland Marathon £ 9860.00 and the Dodge was £ 8900.00.
1977 Leyland Marathon £ 15345.00 and the Transcon £ 16555.00
1978 Leyland Marathon £ 22192.00 thats a £ 6847.00 increase in a year !!! 
1978 Ford Transcon approx £21500.00 thats a £ 4945.00 increase in a year.
1975 Scania 111 cost £ 11640.00 Foden was very expensive compared to the others at £ 13883.00 and Seddon Atkinson £ 11480.00.
pollystag:
Everyone has a view on why the British lorry makers went to the wall but even when Volvo, scania et al were in full swing the Brits didnt disappear overnight so there must be a reason why hauliers kept on buying British while they could.
So my question is does anyone know the prices for the say 1976 year aec mandator, Volvo f88, and scania 110, and any other British tractor units for that matter.
Surely the aec would be half the price of the other two?
Cheers Steve.
If I can recall the Transco was under £10000 about the same price as a Guy Big J.
Tony
Thanks Deanb,
This is is great, have you any more,
would be interesting to see how standard leyland beaver, aec mandator, erf b series etc compare to the sleeper cabs.
Steve.
pollystag:
Thanks Deanb,
This is is great, have you any more,
would be interesting to see how standard leyland beaver, aec mandator, erf b series etc compare to the sleeper cabs.
Steve.
Heres a B series day cab test from 1975. £ 13900.00.
I remember my dad getting a new Marathon with a E290 ■■■■■■■ on a W registration (JCP 49W ) I think it was `81 and it cost £16000 , the Roadtrain was launched so there was obviously a big discount for old stock Marathons
Until I read the Foden details again I’d forgotten how much more expensive they were than other British makes.
How much would a W reg 141 4x2 cost 