Every week, we’re tracking the values of the most popular classic cars on the UK market. Thanks to our friends at Classic Car Weekly, we can focus on one car and compare its values from 2005 to today – and then anticipate where they will be in 2025. This week, we take a detailed look at the zany Bond Bug 700ES – one of the most-loved and certainly easiest recognised three-wheelers ever made. Classic Car Weekly’s editor David Simister tells the market story of this enduring classic’s future growth.
Bond Bug 700ES – The current situation
There was a time when this delightfully eccentric Tom Karen-designed three-wheeler could be readily snapped up for less than £4000, but take a look at more recent UK auction results and you can see that Bond Bugs have been quietly creeping up in value.
These days, you’d be looking at nearer £5000-7000 for one in good condition, but we have seen some going for considerably more – Anglia Car Auctions hammered away a particularly good example for £12,075 back in 2016, for instance.
Bond Bug values – steady growth
We’re tracking Condition 2 examples here, and as you can see, they are rising in value, albeit not in a particularly rapid way. Examples found at classic car auctions,are rare, but can attract considerable interest when they do show up. We suspect that as time marches on, these non-conformist baby cars will become increasingly relevant as a way of sticking two fingers up to ‘the man’.
Bond Bug price tracker
Scarcity plays a big part – there are currently 148 registered on the UK’s roads, and most of those have now been restored, pushing up values. They come on to the open market so infrequently that there are plenty of takers for the best examples. We reckon that there’s still a little bit of room for Bugs to climb, too – closer to the £8000-10,000 that really good examples are fetching nowadays.
Below are the typical prices for a Condition 2 example between 2005-2025.
2005 £3000
2010 £4750
2015 £5250
2020 £6500
2025 £7500 (anticipated)
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