One of 77 Rover 3500 VIP models from 1976 as P6 production came to an end was driven through the latest SWVA Friday morning crowd to sell for £24,840, triple the guide price, during a 91% sold £503k session. Indeed, only 6 of the 70 classics for sale just outside Poole in Dorset failed to do so.
Latest classic car auction commentary: 06/05/2016
Another milestone result in the West Country was the £11,232 paid for a Riley Kestrel badged 1100 from the BMC era with 728 warranted mileage, driven therefore an average of 14.5 miles per year since new in 1966.
Although both 1965 Austin-Healey 3000s, the headline writing model at previous SWVA sales, failed to hook buyers, an ex-Beverley Hills and cosmetically sharp MGA Twin Cam with right-hand drive conversion led the summer-ready sportscar prices at £37,800. There were buyers, too, for both home market Triumph TRs with £27,000 for a 1957 TR3 and £21,870 for a 1965 TR4A, both on wires and both previously restored.
An aerodynamic Bristol 401 entered by only the second owner from new in 1953 topped the results with a £39,420 valuation. A New Zealand sourced 1959 Jaguar 3.8 Mk2 with the 3.8 out of the car, but included in a crate, and replaced with a 2.8 Nissan Turbo Diesel, more than doubled its top estimate to sell for £38,880 – and £23,592 was available for a 1959 Jaguar MkIX 3.8 auto with power steering from the Irish Republic.
The next day, during the Ford Show at Sandown Park, Barons held what is generally reckoned to have been the first stand-alone auction for Classic Fords. On a Saturday afternoon in Surrey, with the Ford Show in full swing upstairs, only 16 or 31% of the 51 Fords on the trading floor sold though, albeit for £245,862 with premium. The top selling Fords were a John Young raced 1965 Mustang 7.1-litre racer sold for £68,200, followed by a 1971 Mustang 302ci auto Convertible with factory-fitted RHD for £30,800 and a 1963 Cortina 1500 GT De Tomaso badged 4-Door for £23,375. No record auction prices were paid for Capris, Sierra or Escort Cosworths, or Escort RS 1600s as we have in recent months at Goodwood, Silverstone, Birmingham and King’s Lynn in general sales catering for all-classics.
Bonhams do have dedicated marque sales, of course, for Aston Martins at AM Works Newport Pagnell, the next one Saturday 20 May, and for Mercedes-Benz recently at the factory Museum in Stuttgart factory. Then, Silverstone Auctions have their Porsche-only sale at Silverstone later in the season.
However, RM no longer hold an all-Ferrari sale at the Maranello factory in Italy and the all Rolls-Royce sale during RREC weekend opened its tent flap to admit other marques a few seasons ago. While various MG-only sales came and went during the annual marque bash.
The problem with the mono-marque sale is that consumers for all makes are just too well served with multi-options on an increasingly over-crowded auctions calendar – and neither the auction houses or many of their clients are prepared to hang on to a model of a specific marque for an annual sales opportunity.
Besides, at today’s much higher price levels, few vendors can afford to wait up to a year until the next marque sale comes round and they ‘might’ sell their car for some much needed money. Maybe, and thanks to the convenient click of an obedient mouse, the market and consumer gratification for most things will soon become instant, and patiently waiting for an annual auction could well gather unsustainable dust like ye olde hard copy auction catalogues on my groaning book shelves.
The very latest overview of the state of classic car play in the field has pinged onto my screen from the number-monitors at Historic Automobile Group International, who opine that the market for rare collector cars has recovered some lost ground in April trading and moved, therefore, back into positive territory for the year. For their HAGI Top 50 benchmark advanced 3.87 points (1.22% in our language) month on month, reaching a current index price of 320.73. This Index is up 1.06% since the beginning of the year.
Both Porsche and Ferrari contributed to the gain, they say, the HAGI P rising 4.83% and the HAGI F 4.51% compared to March. Classic Mercedes-Benz meanwhile declined to marginally with the HAGI MBCI down 0.63%, managing to stay above its December 2015 closing price of 0.11% though.
HAGI reckon buyers are focusing on low mileage, perfect, complete and original motor cars, that are technically and historically fully documented. I also agree with them that the market for lower quality stock has seen significant declines, they say by 20% or more over the past 9 months.
At auction, most market-depressing sale rates are down to unsuccessful vendors’ reserves being hopelessly out of step with the reality of the desirability and condition of their entries. The object of an auction is for vendors to actually sell their cars, and for buyers to bid for and buy them, and not travel a very long way to spend the afternoon kicking over-priced tyres.