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Auctions Commentary from CCFS Market Analyst Richard Hudson-Evans

Including provisional bids that have been successfully converted into post-sales, the ACA sale total for a classic car sale has topped £2m with premium for the first time. With 224 of the 278 cars auctioned in last Saturday’s drive-through at King’s Lynn now sold, the sale rate, an all-important barometer for whether vendors’ reserves were realistic or unachievable, rose to a market confidence boosting 81 percent.

The amount spent per classic by a very large crowd - who had turned out in person or who bid by telephone (rather than by mouse) at the no internet bidding event in Norfolk - also increased, to an average spend of £9184 per car. The pictured 1985 Audi Quattro, for whom the punters parted, had reportedly done 103,000 miles and had a recent cambelt change before being hammered away for £15,100, costing £15,855 including ACA’s 5 percent buyer’s premium, the lowest rate charged in the UK.

Simultaneously at Techno Classica in Essen, the annual epicentre for the display and sale of classic-wagen in far from stable Eurozone, Coys auctioned 130 lots during a Saturday afternoon session. While full results will no doubt appear on their website over time, the following sales have been declared by the Richmond firm – 1987 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV 370,000 euros (£296,000), 1936 BMW 328 Roadster 260,000 euros (£208,000), 1959 Facel Vega Excellence from single ownership 182,015 (£145,612), 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 SS 107,000 euros (£85,600), 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL 103,685 euros (£82,948), 1966 Maserati Quattroporte ex-Karin Aga Khan 86,900 euros (£69,250), 1977 BMW 2002 Turbo 64,000 euros (£51,200) and 1939 Fiat 1100 508C Convertible 32,998 (£26,398).   

Coys are also holding the next sale off-shore in the UK, this Saturday 16 April, when 50 more classics including a couple of bikes and a tractor will go under the gavel from 12 noon at Royal Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire. The Top 10 runners on the card with their suggested starting prices are as follows - 2007 McLaren SLR 722 Edition £330,000-380,000, 1962 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II Drophead Adaptation by H J Mulliner 330,000-360,000, 1985 Lamborghini Countach 5000 QV £320,000-380,000, 1968 Aston Martin DB6 £300,000-350,000, 2009 Ferrari 16M 7500m £300,000-320,000, 1932 Bentley 4-Litre Saloon by Thrupp and Maberly £130,000-160,000, 1936 Bentley-Royce 8 Litre V12 Supercharged Special £130,000-160,000, 1959 Jaguar XK150 £100,000-120,000, 2000 Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible £90,000-105,000 and 1964 Gordon Keeble (one of 99) £90,000-105,000. Whilst one to watch, say Coys, is a 1973 Range Rover restored with genuine Land Rover old stock front wings and rear quarter panels, for which £20,000 or more is sought.

H&H have two auctions next week beside the M11 at Duxford in the now civilian and very civilised Imperial War Museum hangar, where classic bikes will be auctioned from 1pm Tuesday 19 April, when the 104 consigned cars may also be viewed, with registrations preceding those cars from 1pm Wednesday 20 April. 

In his ‘Forward’ message in the catalogue, I see the Non-Executive Director of H&H Classics and old car enthusiast, the Rt Hon Sir Greg Knight MP, reckons that those who have invested in classic cars have been seeing double digit returns in recent times. It was 17% last year, he says, which, overall, amounts to almost 500 percent over the past decade. In short, the Yorkshire MP points out that classic cars have outpaced the stock market as investments and continue to outperform not just luxury rivals, such as art and watches. In some cases, they have even trounced gold, he says.

The very latest statistical analysis by the number crunchers at Historic Automobile Group International indicates the classic car movement recovered some lost ground during March trading, although ended the first quarter of 2016 down 0.16 percent. The HAGI Top 50 benchmark index rose 2.73 points (2.73 percent) in March, while other HAGI sector indices also advanced, the exception being the HAGI F, which charts the fortunes of collector Ferraris, and which declined 2.21 percent compared with February and fell 3.18 percent for the year to date. Whereas the HAGI P monitoring Porsche prices shows 4.19% growth in March trading and only a 1.06 percent correction for the first quarter.

Classic car Trade Shows in Europe (as currently constituted) as well as transactions across the globe, HAGI report, confirmed a trend to more selective buying with a strong focus on quality. High expectations by sellers and unrealistic extrapolations of previous growth trends resulted in numerous unsold auction lots however.

Within any given segment, HAGI are noticing a normalisation of the market and a slowdown of transaction turnover. In their view, prices for high quality assets remain firm as collectors gain an upper hand in this market and some speculators leave the field of play in search of new opportunities for untaxed profit elsewhere.