50 years ago in America - cars for sale
Of course, people were already selling their cars in 1962 and the small advertisement had long been invented. There was also a "Market Place" in Road & Track, where you could offer your vehicle for sale if you paid USD 5 for 25 words. A picture ad cost USD 25 including 25 words, additional words were charged at 25 cents. In each magazine, potential buyers could find 80 to 120 mostly exclusive vehicles, which were often sold far below cost price, such as a beautiful special body on an Alfa Romeo chassis.
To get a feel for the prices, a new VW Karmann Ghia cost USD 2,295, a Volvo 122 S USD 2,695, a Buick Skylark USD 2,548, a Hillman Super Minx USD 1,999 and a Triumph TR 4 USD 2,849. A Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta (as pictured above) with an aluminum body was thus traded for 2.5 times the new price of a TR 4. If both vehicles had developed at the same price, you would have to buy the Ferrari today for less than USD 100,000. Ouch!
There are many exciting cars to be discovered in the advertisements of the time, such as a Bugatti Type 57 with a Graber body(where is it today?) or a fast-looking Auto Union sports car that is even said to have won Grand Prix races, but was sold in 1962 for just half the price of a VW Karmann Ghia.
