Why should anyone buy a classic car? Surely it is to have fun, experience adventure and add gloss to a social life by being able to take part in shows, events and tours? To me, it seems this element of bringing people together through the medium of a shared interest – our classics -  is of more value to us as human beings than in individualistically ‘investing’ in a market to harvest some additional cash.

We enjoy life more when we share more, and so looking to ‘earn’ from value rises without putting in the necessary effort to add value to the car that one owns would seem selfish. I’m not talking about the dealers here. Many of these guys stump up money on cars without much sense of whether the car is actually worth having.

Then they have to store, source spares and restore these vehicles before there’s even a chance of seeing a return on that investment. That’s the true sense of the word. Putting one’s capital into employment because the base meaning of the word invest means ‘to clothe’.

So that should be what buying a classic is about. Clothing one’s cash with the living, breathing motion of a classic car and its history and excitement. What do you ‘get back’? Straight away, the ownership of such a car opens doors into a fresh world of new people, fun adventure and the potential of the open road. If you can own a classic car, enrich your life in this way and get your money back on your investment, then you’ve already come out ahead.