Wheeler Dealers Cars, Where Are They Now? 1968 Austin Mini Mk1 Mercedes 230E Ford Capri Laser Pt 2

Saturday 7th October 2023 marked exactly 20 years since the very first episode of Wheeler Dealers was aired presented by Mike Brewer and Edd China, and we thought it was an opportune time to see if we could find out what happened to those early cars after they were sold.
The first series was very much a low budget affair, with Mike & Edd only had £1000 to buy and restore a classic car - remember cars and parts were a lot cheaper in 2003!
Initially WD was serialised in 30 minute episodes, with 2 per car, and the first six episodes featured:
Ep 7&8 - 1968 Austin Mini Mk1
Ep 9&10 - 1984 Mercedes 230E
EP 11&12 - 1986 Ford Capri 1.6 Laser
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[@philtowle4683]

Mikes face when Edd showed him the wings on the capri, you would have thought he had taken a leak in his tea.

[@sonofdat]

I always wondered why in recent years WD havent made some special edition shows featuring cars they had previously done, so this is brilliant! Love it...

[@graham104e]

Sadly it would seem this is because the majority have been scrapped not long afterwards.

[@danielball7595]

I have also heard on the grape vine over the years within our Capri Club that the lady buyer of the Capri was part of the tv crew. She pretended to be the buyer after they couldn't find a genuine buyer for the car within their filming schedule. I heard the car was sadly scrapped not long after the programme, which corroborates with your findings.

[@thedeadstig123]

That was very common in the early 5 or 6 series of wheeler dealers, also it was all made up when Mike bought the cars "Little Paul" bought all the cars for the series and usually put them on eBay after to flog them

[@kevinwoolnough4380]

The Capri comes up with a certificate of destruction date of 18/02/2004. Weird that the dvla site shows a change of keeper after this date 🤷

[@kevp6345]

Fantastic. Please do more.

[@swanvictor887]

I always enjoyed WD show but as a former cameraman and now, independent Producer, the 'Budgets' always made me chuckle somewhat. Wheeler-Dealers was a TV show - the purchase and cost of repair was totally immaterial lol. While those early shows were very low-budget, they would still cost around 15- 20,000 a show! As the show took off, the budget would increase exponentially and the last series, probably had a budget of at least $150k per show. They can justify these budgets simply because the show was sold to networks around the word, each episode making literally millions of dollars in profit. So as you can see, worrying about a couple of hundred quid was just a laugh really!

[@HooverLux]

Looking forward to these, very interesting!

[@artfulbodger..2143]

Apparently the female buyer of the capri was part of the crew.. They couldn't find a buyer for it for the show, so the young girl from the crew was used.. it didn't last much longer after the show.. i often checked after seeing repeats if any of the cars were still going?.. Surprise surprise, the majority of them didn't last long.. a year or 2 at most.. Which sends an alarming message to any potential buyers of a brewer banger.. DON'T DO IT!..

[@Snarl616]

Probably the number plates were fake, or changed. Brewer reunited with the 928 on wheeler dealers, but it had another number plate.

[@legioner9]

@artfulbodger: I suppose you know that the buyers are also to blame in some situations. Buying a running car does not mean you should not take care of it. The Mini and Mercedes W123 were fine cars, in both cases I blame to owners for them being scrapped/parted out. As for the Capri, I couldn't care less, that car was bad from factory. Anyway, I would not attack Mike for the fact that some of the cars went out in 1-2 years. Some did, some are around til today.

[@markeastwood74]

Okay, I'll go on camera. But I'm only pretending to give you £700 for it! 😂

[@speakfreeley4473]

I've owned a Mrec W123 230e, along with a Capri Laser, though the one I had had a 2-litre engine.

[@alanthomson1227]

Saw a. Idea a few years back and it followed up previous cars , several had very soon failed MOTs due to rust . Impression given by show was that the cars were near perfect and had many years life felt , glad I didn’t buy any .

[@inrtime]

Subscribed👍. Should be an interesting popular series. Did a bit of research into some of the cars whilst watching a few years ago and found in most cases, the same as you, they appear to be no longer running. Also found that in most cases when they initially purchased the car they'd MOT it and complete the minimum work necessary to obtain a new MOT, then add some kerb appeal by changing the seats/wheels adding Bluetooth and the like. According to Mike it was often like standing in a 1980s showroom and looked like new once Ed had finished 😂 but in truth I think they did the bare minimum with selective camera angles for TV. Of course financially the figures would never stack up in real life but a very entertaining enjoyable TV show nonetheless. They did do a "revisit" TV series themselves but I don't think there were many episodes 😂. Anyway look forward to more videos from you and good luck 👍.

[@ba55bar]

nice, I did a similar thing for myself a few years ago up until the end of series 10. Even back then a lot of the cars were MIA. I won't post because it's spoilers for your videos

[@oscarsgarage447]

appreciate you not spoiling, hope you are enjoying it!

[@karlpantling-james]

Great series so far, ive subscribed 😊 Often wondered where some of the cars are now....hopefully you will find some of them 😀

[@oscarsgarage447]

Thanks! 😀

[@nunocspinto]

Loved Wheeler Dealers from the first seasons. Sad to see almost all of them scraped... Subscribed, waiting for more!

[@oscarsgarage447]

Thanks for the sub!

[@ianmeredith7969]

Great idea to do this. Makes one wonder a bit about how cosmetic some of these renovations were. Presentation tip. Don't start every other sentence "Now,..."! Eventually the listener is just counting and wincing at the "Now"s!

[@oscarsgarage447]

I did have a 'now' problem but getting over it now... Ultimately its TV rather than real life. Somewhere in the comments someone suggested the early shows had a production budget of £10k per episode, so it doesn't really matter if you make or loose money with those costs. It was more about showing what you could do rather than what they did.

[@lesklower7281]

I do remember all these cars its a pity some if them are no longer around that Mecedes Benz W123 had the cheapest fix on Wheeler Dealers the sun roof didn't work there was no fuse Edd put a fuse in and it worked

[@weaton25]

About fore years ago I sold my 2007 Jeep Cherokee diesel it was in good condition no rust not low miles I just wanted it to go so I sold it for £1800 the problem with the car was road tax for that year it was over £500 but what I cannot understand is when the MOT ran out it just disappeared it probably was worth more in parts engine gearbox transfer case the list goes on its a sham really it was a nice car and being rust free would have lasted for many years looking on the bright side it may have gone out of the UK .

[@graham104e]

Sadly I have learnt over the years that selling a car is more than likely the kiss of death for it sooner than later.

[@ianmeredith7969]

Love the "7" behind. A Robin Hood? Given the daft prices of Caterham now, what is it and do you recommend it?

[@oscarsgarage447]

Correct - it is a Robin Hood 2B which I built 20 years ago. For the money its great value, cost me about £3k to build. There is a video on 7Spot channel all about it.

[@mohammedmoolla3728]

Great content. Used to enjoy WD and seing some of the modern classics being worked on and the end product on the show. I know this is the end of cars from Season 1 but I'd love to know what happened to the blue mx5 from season 1 and the silver WRX from one of the latter seasons

[@oscarsgarage447]

Think the blue MX5 is season 3 so we get to it soon.

[@BillOdyssey]

Satin black rattle cans at the ready!

[@virgin26]

Most of these cars were bangers, and ready for the knackers yard . I wonder what happened to the white Stag they did

[@danielball7595]

The Stag featured on the 'Arry The Stag' KZbin channel not too long ago. 👍

[@loretta9824]

I bought it 9 years ago and still love it !

[@electoplater]

i can tell you that some of the buyers were stooges a friend of mine was asked to came to the filming and pretend to buy a car

[@oscarsgarage447]

I had heard this rumour before, do you know which car he was supposed to be buying?

[@electoplater]

tell u the whole story i was watching the show and someone i knew came to buy a small BMW well it was a fella i knew who ran a tool shop in aldershot which i used a lot any way next time i saw him i said saw u on wheelers dealers buying the BMW he replied no didnt buy it i had a call to act as a buyer he also told me that all the cars are sold or dispose of at the end of the completed filming of the whole run of programs which makes sense

[@pb5x5]

Didn't they also not sell the 205 GTI and more recently the MK1 Transit ended up in Mikes own garage on Late Brake Show with Johnny Smith@@electoplater

[@diydave3034]

The lady who bought the Capri was a stooge. Apparently Mike went into an office and asked if anyone wanted to be on the telly because no buyer wanted it and they had a filming deadline.

[@Rossbott1964]

I’m glad I stumbled across this video…makes very interesting reading 👍 I’ve instantly subscribed 😁

[@philtowle4683]

The car scrappage scheme 2009 ish took out a large number of usable or repairable classics along with less valuable bangers.

[@kennethdrewary1094]

You are talking about cars from 20 years ago, my car from then isnt on the road either, lol.

[@tcl80]

The mini is showing to me as SORN and it’s mot exempt so it might be stashed somewhere and only used in the summer

[@ianmeredith7969]

Be interesting to do another on Pimp my ride, but we can be pretty much sure they were still scrape-worthy even after all the nonsense... Or because of it!

[@oscarsgarage447]

You are probably right!

[@steveh6373]

I understand that the show was really about repairing cars yourself how ever for legal reasons eg not being road worthy and accidents etc they made it about professional repairs and selling on. This may be considered by not including the hours spent on the repairs it would be not worthwhile.

[@viking56379]

What has happened to the 1983. Bentley

[@oscarsgarage447]

Stick with us and hopefully we will find out...

[@clanmac66]

You haven't included inflation to current VAL.

[@Chriswales]

I'd guess 20 years of maintenance and MOT work would be more of a concern than inflation.

[@oscarsgarage447]

I think both are valid points, and also the exponential rise in some parts prices due to rarity compared to 2003. We've also been asked to convert to dollars! However I think its better giving just a brief overview otherwise it could turn it into a half hour power point presentation!

[@kenjohnson6338]

Volume low dude

[@kevp6345]

Ed bought the lambourgini. He told us via his KZbin channel. The vw that was turned into the buggy was owned by Ed. Why do they gave to lie. I met a firmer cameraman on holiday last year and he let the secrets out of the bag. I was also told a few of Mike's mates and the crew have bought cars. It's the lies that do me in. Just be honest.