Is it just me or has the price of classic cars gone a bit crazy lately?
I'm not just talking about exotica but everyday classics. I spend way too much time playing dream garage looking on the net but with always a view on cars that I thought I could possibly buy. To my mind the landscape has changed a lot over the last few years. I've always hankered for a MK3 spitfire, I can't seem to find a decent one for less than 7 to 10k.
Or am I being tight?
If I'm right, who's buying the cars? My pay hasn't increased in line with inflation let alone the inflation of classic car prices.
When base rate has sat at 0.25% for so long and investors are getting little more than 1% return on savings, those with cash to invest will always look at other better performing commodities and classic cars are no exception. As demand for top quality models increases, to be spirited away into climate controlled environments where they are unlikely to be driven much, the values at the lower end of the market increase proportionally.
This is why we are seeing dealers buying up cars and then immediately readvertising them with significant mark up.
Fortunately for 'us', as demonstrated in the early 90's, it is a bubble that eventually bursts
Asking prices have certainly gotten silly, whether people are actually paying them I'm not so sure. To be fair only certain cars are increasing dramatically. I don't see prices rising for Allegros or Marinas for example.
I work a lot with Austin healey's and they've risen to stupid levels with people asking £80k+ for a road car now. Oddly the not entirely dissimilar Triumph TR6 has hardly gone up at all, still expensive but not seen the rises of the Healeys. Perhaps when people have all been priced out of these then the TR6, MGA etc will start to go up.
70's saloons remain pretty unpopular unfortunately, certainly the less cooking models. Makes Dolomite's look great value, though Sprints are rising pretty rapidly for the very best.
Mark
1961 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier Sportswagon
1980 Dolomite Sprint project using brand new shell
2009 Mazda MX5 2.0 Sport
2018 Infiniti Q30
I have been looking at 1300 fwds and noticed that the prices seem to have gone up in the last couple of years. I have also seen a number of Dolomites and Toledos with high asking prices.
It is a combination of things. For a start people are chancing their arm, I have seen Dollys in a worse state than mine with silly asking prices. Doesn't mean they ever sell for that much.
There is also the nostalgia factor. The generation that grew up in the 70's can now afford a toy, so have started to bid up cars from that era. Apparently the price of pre-war cars has gone down, as the generation who remember them are no longer with us.
The cheap cars are now from the 90's and early 2000's. You can get an MGF/TF or MX5 for banger money. If I wanted a fun car I would buy from that era. You can get an XK8 for under 4 grand and lets be honest that would blow a TR6 into the weeds and costs much less.
Aleco wrote:My pay hasn't increased in line with inflation let alone the inflation of classic car prices.
Nobody's pay increases with inflation does it? - unles you are a train or tube driver, I wish my pay increased in line with my local housing market but hey it doesn't. Car prices increase and follow trends of the moment, there was a similar hike during the late eighties and early nineties. Some of us are lucky to be there when its a sellers market and others have to wait for the buyers market. Looks like I am in the waiting queue too.
Thanks Photobucket 