Holden Maloo Ute Million Dollar Price Tag Appears to be a SCAM!

It was the biggest story in Australia for a while; and for a while, it was the highest price ever paid for a Holden. In fact, the HSV GTSR Maloo W1 running on an online auction by Lloyds, had reached the highest price paid for any Australian made car – ever!

Three days away from the closure of the auction, the HSV was sitting pretty at a figure of $1.055M in AUD! It was interesting that the figure did not go up within those three days, which is a little suspicious, however given that the price was so high, it could be concluded that it had reached it’s peek in Australia.

The figure of $1.055M, was actually higher than the confirmed price of $1.03M which was actually paid for a Ford GTHO Phase III in June of 2018 .

It would have been good if the HSV price were real though!

It started to sound like a scam when within a week of that sale, a headline appeared that the HSV Maloo would be given away by the raffle company that had bought it. In the news item, they went on to disclose that the price was $AUD804k!

Hang on!

I smell a rat ?

Going back to the point made earlier, three days away from closure of the auction, the price seemed to be stuck at $1.055M. Why is that?

It’s interesting that at that exact time, Lloyds had changed their rules so that anyone willing to make a valid bid, had to register fully and be screened as being a real bidder and actually having the funds to conclude the purchase!

It would be a fair and accurate guess, that what had happened with the Maloo prior to the Lloyds auction was a group of bidders had attempted to push the `apparent’ price of the Maloo so that it was above the Ford GTHO Phase III and therefore so that it would claim the record of highest paid for an Australian made car. It would also be a fair guess, that once the auction required actual bidder registration, that the offers between $804k and $1.055M were found to be in fact fraudulent!

The final price of $804k is still the highest ever paid for a Holden and that’s a great result, however it would appear that there was a push by some, to raise the apparent price to list it as the most expensive Australian made car, which it isn’t.