The plight of the Ferrari Testarossa illustrates a common market phenomenon. Unfashionable classic finds favour when the schoolboys who lusted after them grow up into a serious buying force, prices surge, long-term owners see an unexpected opportunity to cash in and suddenly there’s a flood of cars on the market. The result – a seller’s market becomes a buyer’s market with only the best cars making strong money, or selling at all. Cars with average mileage and condition, and patchy service history, fall back from the peak.

The Testarossa languished around £30k for years, a common price point for supercars in the hinterland between modern and widely accepted classic status. The gold rush pushed them beyond £100k, and at Techno Classica Essen a couple of years ago every other dealer seemed to have one at €170k. Now they have to be placed with much less ambitious auction reserves if vendors want to avoid the cost and humiliation of having to trailer them back home afterwards.

Sometimes, in a rising market, you just have to accept the new price for your dream car and either dig deep or risk missing out on ever owning one. But you also need to be wary of transient microclimates that create flash floods. I’m sure Testarossas will rise again in the long term, but now’s not the time to pay whatever the vendor fancies asking for his newly ‘investment grade’ Ferrari.

Buying advice and market analysis is part of 18 pages of buying information in every issue of Classic Cars magazine, including Quentin Willson’s Smart Buys, Russ Smith’s Market Watch, in-depth buying guides and Ads on Test.

Phil Bell

Editor, Classic Cars magazine

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