Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans
While Ferrari Prancing Horses of all ages continue to kick well, 2012 Bentleys depreciate by £23,883 a year and £148 per mile!
With clear title by order of the High Court, the H&H Chateau Impney catalogue cover featured 2009 Ferrari F430 Spider in Middle Eastern White with just over 400 miles on the odo was hammered away for £127,500, costing the successful bidder £142,800 with premium.
On a Wednesday afternoon in December, there were buyers - more of them on-line via four platforms or on the dog and bone than in person in the Droitwich Spa hotel conference hall - for 67% of the 85 cars on offer during the Northern firm’s final fixture of the classic car buying season, when £2.1m was available for 57 collector grade cars.
Several car transporters full of mainly high end Belgravia underground car park residents from the same cache had been consigned for the Midland sale. Another one owner Ferrari, a 2012 California with two-piece folding roof in Red with Tan leather, had also only been cruised between Knightsbridge and Chelsea for all of 500 miles and sold for £126,500 with premium. Many new Ferraris, if made in limited numbers, do not depreciate over-much.
Most of the 14 rolling assets dispersed in the Midlands were over large, very thirsty and emissions-unfriendly for Mayor Khan’s increasingly Green Capital, consisting of a 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost with 2800 mileage sold in diesel guzzling Worcestershire for £121,475. On 13 October 2011, the 6.6 litre twin-turbocharged V12 had been purchased from R-R Motor Cars London for £212,000, only clocking up therefore £90,500 depreciation in five years! A 2012 Bentley Continental GTC driven 500 miles during the same ownership fetched £101,080. It had cost £175,000 when bought from Jack Barclay in 2012, £18,500 per annum or a paltry £148 per mile.
Whereas a 2003 vintage Rolls-Royce Phantom 5100m sold by H&H for £99,680 had cost £96,000 when invoiced by R-R Motors London five years ago. But a one owner Bentley Mulsanne with 2400 mileage sold for £95,760, but had cost a whopping £229,000 when purchased as an ex-demonstrator from Jack Barclay in March 2012, a £95,000 hit over four years or depreciation of £23,883 per annum! Dinosaur feed in the great scheme of things unsustainable.
Other old world galleons to find new harbours in which to moor included a one owner since 1982 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible with 10,600m mileage dispersed for £76,160, a 2011 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed with 11,000 miles displayed £52,828 (£134,000 in 2011), a 2006 Bentley Arnage RL with 4800 recorded mileage £52,192 (£75,000 in 2012), a 1939 R-R Wraith by H J Mulliner £52,640 (£55,000 in 2013) and a 1951 R-R Silver Dawn £34,465 (less than the £34,465 that had been lavished on rolling refurbishment during the last nine years).
During the rest of the sale, and according to a two-page invoice in the history file, a right-hand drive and highly specified Type 996 Porsche 911 GT2 Clubsport cost the one owner £131,710 in 2001. Fifteen years later, the 2001 911 cost the successful internet bidder £103,960, 911 996 GT2 Clubsport ownership having therefore cost the original owner £1850 per annum. Although running costs, of course, would also have to be taken into account, as would value-eating inflation as the buying power of a pound Sterling continues to be regularly eroded by mainly bad news events.
Successful buying of modern cars that are perceived to be future classics is all about getting the timing right, of course, and waiting patiently until after the big hits of the early years that depreciate most, though not all rolling assets have run their course, and the falls in their resale values have slowed at least or preferably plateaued. Buy only then, before too many others do, and any reactive appreciation begins to kick in and prices go up, has therefore to be best advice.