Chris de Jong 1969 MGB
It was an unusually bright sunny day on November 3rd, 1969 when Mrs. Dorothy Warring drove her white 1959 MGA to Leavens Motors in London Ontario to trade-in on the purchase of her brand new 1969 MGB. Dorothy received a fair trade-in value of $600.00 for the 10-year old MGA and “only” owed an additional $2,695 - $21,751 in 2024 dollars - on the MGB which included the coveted $100 radio option.
Dorothy pampered her little yellow (the color is actually called “primrose”) ray of sunshine and proudly drove it around London Ontario on sunny days for 23 years before transferring title to her daughter, also named Dorothy and her husband (Reginald Webb).
The Webb’s owned the car for 5 years before they decided to sell it to a close friend, Pam Burke, also of London Ontario. Pam owned the car for 6 years before she sold it to her friend Ingrid Boulter, also of London Ontario. Ingrid’s husband (Richard) was a “Car Guy” and he decided the MGB needed a refresh so he arranged for a paint job (original colour), brand new 72 spoke chrome wire wheels, and a new convertible top. Sunshine once again was sparkling.
On September 5th, 2012 the Boulter’s sold the car to a young man (the first male owner of the car) by the name of Todd from Mississauga, Ontario for $7,500. Todd enjoyed showing the car at British Car events and taking it for the occasional spin on the weekends. But after owning the car for 11 years, Todd was compelled to sell the car to make room in his garage for his growing family.
Ted de Jong retired in 2023 and was considering buying a vintage British Car to tinker with and drive on sunny weekends. His son Chris de Jong thought this was a great idea and offered to partner in the purchase of a car. After careful consideration they set a budget and decided to purchase an MGB in good-to-excellent condition with low mileage and a documented history.
Fortunately, Todd had just listed his MGB on Autotrader where it caught Ted and Chris’s eye. After carefully reviewing the listing posted by Todd, chatting on the phone, and having a colleague of Chris’s checkout the vehicle in-person, it was purchased on July 12th, 2023 and then transported to Saskatoon by truck.
Since then, Chris and Ted have enjoyed many hours “tinkering” with the car and driving it around Saskatoon and Prince Albert on sunny days. They look forward to taking it on road trips to Banff, Jasper and maybe even as far as Victoria.
