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I'm new to dolly ownership and the club but reading these comments on values makes me wonder if members do under value their cars.
I have just purchased a 1300 unrestored 42000 miles in nice condition and it came with history trophies etc. I paid £1900 for it needing now a little work to a few scabs and servicing. After reading these posts I thought I must have paid far too much it must only be worth £900.
This week I took it to a very well respected vehicle restorer in West Yorkshire and asked him for a quote to do the bits on the body. After he and two of his collegues had finished crawling all over it he said don't touch it leave it till it really needs doing, its totally original nothing majors ever been done and its just what they want (whoever they are). After hearing this I asked if it was worth the £3000 the last owner had it valued for insurance in 2008. His reply was suprising. He said retail values have rocketed since then and if any one came into his workshop with this car and said they had paid £4000 to £5000 he would not be suprised, £4000 would be a good price. My reply to him was, so if I told you I paid £3000 for it he said you have done well. I then told him what I had actually paid and he said that it was worth more than double that in his opinion.
I am sure he was talking retail prices and having looked at and visited a lot of classic car retailers in the last few months have seen prices that to me looked to much and that keep rising. But the cars that I thought expensive all sold and quickly showing that there are people out there paying what they think is a fair price.
So the question is are we under valueing our Dolomites?
It will be interesting to get a club valuation an mine.
Hit it right there RETAIL! Generally dealers ask a lot for cars, they have big overheads. There are people who prefer to buy from a dealer and hence a small number of people will pay the higher prices for that degree of security. On the other hand private buyers don't ask anywhere near the same amount, usually because they are more desperate to sell but also becuase they are not trying to make a profit, pay their VAT bill, pay their staff and expenses.
Generally Dolomite models are comparitively 'under valued' vs other cars but prices for the very best cars are rising. Supply and demand though does keep the prices fairly low though. Don't forget though that the top Escort prices are only achieved for the go faster models, a boggo 4 door 1.3 will still be cheap.
I also think that on the whole people who own Dolomites are looking for good value, they understand they are good classics but they are also affordable. This helps keep prices down to a degree. When my Sprint is finished it will no doubt have some absurd agreed value on it but really I would struggle to get anywhere near that if I tried to sell it.