Wow! That's a lot of money for an Oval (£20k!).
Having said that, £850 in 1981 for an Oval was probably equally as expensive!!
Rich Oakley wrote:
Rich, I've been thinking about 'how expensive' the oval might have been in 1981 and I've decided that it wasn't the equivalent of £20k. I don't think I would ever have contemplated spending the equivalent of that much money on a beetle at the time.
Shortly after I bought the oval for £850 I sold my first house (a two bedroomed semi detached bungalow actually) for £17k. These bungalows currently sell for about £170k, so ten times its value in 1981. Using the same multiplier the equivalent value of the oval now would be £8500. However, because the housing market is depressed and the market for vintage Volkswagens seems to be on the up, then the £8.5k could probably be pushed up to more like £10k.
I feel that £10k is more like the present day equivalent of the £850.