Quote Originally Posted by hj308 View Post
Seavan not sure if I would say they are undesirable they just seem to run last in the pecking order, HQ's are the rarest and probably worth the most, HJ's also seem to be highly sought after , then that leaves the x's and z's , the HZ had the more appealing twin headlight front end and I believe the radial tuned suspension (maybe wrong on that one?) but in the end it comes down to personal taste some pple think the HZ are the best looking and others will argue about the first two models and just seems the poor old HX runs last. Personally I would be happy to have any but I have a HZ and also lean toward the HQ if I could get one but I just love the look of them. As they same its in the eye of the beholder.
RTS on HZ is highly over rated. A good set of aftermarket coils, shocks and anti sway bars on a HQ and it will out handle a HZ with standard RTS.

The average person will recognize the HX and HZ more readily as a Sandman because the bold side stripes are iconic and more widely known. HZ in my opinion is only more popular due to the twin headlight front.

HQ are just rare...... HJ don't have the pollution crap on the engine so more powerful but HJ aren't exactly rare.

It all comes down to personal preference and how many buyers there are that prefer a particular model that will dictate the sale price.

I like them all but think the prices unrestored Sandman's are listed at is ridiculous. They were a base model commercial vehicle that Holden tricked up with some GTS parts and bold stripes just like the HQ SS. A well restored Sandman will pull 30 to 40 grand and I haven't seen one sell higher than 40K yet. A properly restored Sandman will cost more than 30K to restore and a hell of a lot of man hours..... Personally I think anything over about 7K for an unrestored Sandman is too much.

That van is in reasonable condition and can be driven as is so I would think 15 big ones is a reasonable price. I thought the blue HJ ute on EBay was 3 grand too much but see he's now upped the price to 15,000 and it needs a full restoration..... Crazy. Whoever thinks they could buy that ute and just clean it up and give it a paint job then get out driving it are kidding themselves. It's a 36 year old work car FFS...... Everything is worn out and needs to be rebuilt.... Everything.... If you don't fully rebuild it you will forever be stuck on the side of the road because something worn out broke, seized or worse still caused you to crash.

Believe me, it is no fun when you are going around a corner on a busy road in peak hour and your upper or lower balljoint lets go.... Happened to me in my HX ute back in 98 and that was my work ute.

A lot of these cars on EBay end up back on EBay within 12 months when their new owners realize just how much it will cost to restore it. I recall an Aquarius HX van in original unrestored condition sold for around 10K, within a year it was back on EBay but had been pulled apart.