Experts tip 1980s and '90s car to soar in value
The head of insurer Hagerty’s online valuation guide has declared that the best cars from the 1980s and ’90s are the ones that will rise in values the most in 2015.
John Mayhead was speaking at Club Expo, the annual gathering of classic car club representatives, at the Heritage Motor Centre on 28 February. ‘The trends of last autumn have continued,’ he said. ‘The big movers are the 1980s cars – the Ford Capri MkIII, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari 308 and BMW E30 M3.’
Other experts at Club Expo predicted that the rise of 1980s classics will have a knock-on effect in terms of what is defined as classic. They said that the 1990s BMW M-series cars of E36, E39 and E46 vintage will start to be collected, and that the Type 916 Alfa Romeo GTV Cups have already started to increase in value. However, they also warned that values for unexceptional pre- and just post-war cars will remain flat, moving at roughly the rate of inflation. For example, the Ford Zodiac MkI, Standard 10 and Austin A40 have all increased by 2% or less, year on year.
Mayhead reported that the top end of the market was settling down after some high figures were achieved in 2014. He said: ‘So far, indications from the USA show that the astronomical figures paid are beginning to correct. One example, a Mercedes-Benz 500 SL that would have sold at Monterey last August, failed to make its reserve at Scottsdale. At that auction, we saw 70% of sales in the lower half of the estimate or under.’ He added that the Rétromobile auctions were skewed by the Artcurial results. ‘They weren’t a true reflection of the market,’ he said. ‘Even here, the Silverstone Race Retro results were not really indicative, as the big-ticket cars were exceptional and the whole field was particularly strong.’
Classic Car Weekly auctions columnist Richard Hudson-Evans cautioned about the use of 1980s cars as investments. He said: ‘Many are just old cars that aren’t necessarily collectable or rare.
‘Earlier cars will always have a collectible status attached to them because they’re rarer. As for the ones from the 1980s, people shouldn’t get carried away investing in these cars.’
Murray Scullion