Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans
A genuine factory-born Mustang GT A-Code Coupe with 289ci V8 under hood and C4 auto-shift - in Metallic Silver Blue with the rarer ‘Drive In’ movies bench front seat in once cool Blue Crinkle and Blue Rosette vinyl - fetched £33,000 including Barons premium. The all-important shut-lines were commendable and great attention to detail had clearly been taken during a 12 months UK revival to correct tag code that had taken in excess of 500 man-hours and absorbed £29k’s worth of parts alone, virtually the hammer price.
The going for over-large Americans was decidedly soft at the Surrey course however with only 32% of the Yanky metal crossing the block heading for new garages, few of which are big enough to accommodate their vast acreage in little old Brexitland. Disappointingly, too, at the all-American Buster Lang Classic Car Show, a dedicated event for fans of US collector vehicles, only 22 of them had been consigned and the majority of the cars for sale displayed around the parade ring in front of a Transatlantic-enthused audience were classics built far from the Land of Donald.
For even though this was an American car event, it was Classical Brits that topped a 36% sold sale, which grossed £261k including immediate post-sales. For from the final year of production, a 1978 vintage Aston Martin V8 with 77,000 mileage was bid to a below estimate £56,000 under the hammer, but had soon sold for £61,600 to be the best seller. While a close to the £35,000 lower estimate was achieved by a future collector’s item, a Land Rover Defender from the FCX Autobiography Edition class of 2014, provisionally bid to £30,500 and costing an investor £33,550. Whereas the £170,000-190,000 being sought for a 2005 Ford Mustang Eleanor Rep was for another day on some other planet.
Although, statistically and according to Historic Automobile Group International trading analysis for the month of July, classics car transactions were much the same as they were in June, their HAGI Top Index actually advanced 0.4% in July with year to date growth of 2.21% for the first 7 months and prices paid in the real world actually paid going up by 9.31% over the last 12 months. Although they do report that market volumes have thinned.
The Classic Porsche sector, which had seen prices soften during recent months, has improved, they reckon, their HAGI P showing a 1.35% improvement in achieved prices for July, though still indicating negative growth for the year so far, at minus 2.61%.
By contrast, when they sell, Ferraris are fetching stronger money it seems, the HAGI F recording a 3.95% increase in July transacted prices paid over those in June and a 4.79% hike for the year to date. In terms of Mercedes-Benz price monitoring, too, the HAGI MBCI rose 3.5% in July trades and, so far, is up 5.88% year to date. Traditionally, August can be a holiday-depressing time for most markets however and those away or going away shortly are unlikely to play.
Brightwells again cater for Modern Classicists at the Herefordshire firm’s Leominster HQ Thursday 18 August and Historics have a full day’s worth of more traditional classics to auction in their Brooklands Museum marquee Saturday 20 August. By then, market watchers will have a better idea of how the six mega-auctions in four days and nights in California will have played out. Watch this space.