Glass’s Guide was first published in 1933 while Austin Sevens were being built and sold. It’s role is to provide a guide to the value of cars in the used market. Here is the August 1947 edition.
Inside the front cover and the rear cover gives a guide to the guide. Consider condition, what does good condition mean and explaining why there might be variations. They also say that they can’t do forecasting as it is “asking too much”!
What does it say about my Austin Seven Ruby?
Maybe this guide was used back in the day to value this car as there are some markings near the appropriate valuation! According to the guide a trade buying price was £160 and selling price £215. Not bad when the original cost new was £120, however there was the war and the consequential inflation in-between. Current advertisements average £235 – always room to haggle. Interestingly, the expected mileage was 78,000.
The guide also gives useful advise on dating a car by its specification. For instance the use of synchromesh on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears was introduced in July 1934. There is another page that gives details on the chassis number format.
