Squint wrote:Some good pics, Finn. I still find it kind of funny that many of the old American cars make it to your shows that you go to. Even some that most of us wouldn't call collector's vehicles.
I don't disagree or even doubt that. As I do know that we have many cars tought as rare or somewhat rare cars and therefore cared much, what on many other countrys are concidered as junkheaps.
But just to tell bit more about older cars in Finland.
Before 70's and erly 70's there wasn't too many dealerships for american cars, even today they are bit rare for GM and US ford, Mopar products are guite well found their way in here.
For last 20-30 years if one har wanted to buy a Chevrolet, from any dealership in Finland, note only regulation it that the car has Chevrolet badges on it, He has had choise of either Pickup, Van, or Corvette, nothing else under Chevrolet badge has been imported to the country by any dealership (well camaros might have been, but I havn't seen any camaros on any dealerships before this latest model)
For any other Chevrolet car you have had to important 1 by yor self.
For other GM models the story is even worse, no dealerships at all imported any.
For example. If BMW wouldn't been imported to states, would you go to buy one abroad, ship it in, pay the customs, and other stuff involved to get it on streets. I don't think so.
On the bright side, back in 80's when we had economy in good state, and those who had bit of extra money decided to take a risks, buy new, or fairly new US cars from states, import them by them selfs. and cause there was so many US cars coming this way during 80's there some guys who loved them and lerned how to fix them, set up garages to fix them.
It was late 70's when the US Fords and Chevrolets finally found their way up here,
without dealerships for MoPar products there was some dealerships regulary importing them, but at late 70's Mopar had a seputation as somewhat bad car. so there wasn't too many peoples actually buying them.
Today, we have some cars imported on late 80's and some imported on 2000 and after that, the 80's caprices and other GM STW's arte most common, and most of them are rotting behind barns or allready scrapped. So to find some wich are actualy been taken care of, and still roadworthy, are somewhat rare, and if you actually find one in good condition, thats rare.
For comparison, we have only 7 cars with original hemi engine, 4 Shelby mustangs from 60's and 70's, 1 Superbee (440 Cid), and all of the cars mentioned have been imported during 1980-2011
For me seeing anything other than GM STW, pickup or van, or camaro / F-bird, from 80's is something that's guite rare.
