You can get a brand new shell for around £5k and build a new classic Mini with new parts.
My first Mini cost £250, needed a new subframe (£60) and some fettling of the brakes to get through the MoT and then got me from Blackpool to Paris with 22 other Minis on a charity rally.
As for prices going up, there's currently this one on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vie...1413592592 which I'm trying - unsuccessfully - to persuade my wife to get me for my birthday.
My first Mini cost £250, needed a new subframe (£60) and some fettling of the brakes to get through the MoT and then got me from Blackpool to Paris with 22 other Minis on a charity rally.
As for prices going up, there's currently this one on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vie...1413592592 which I'm trying - unsuccessfully - to persuade my wife to get me for my birthday.