Author: John Mayhead
Images: Iconic Auctioneers
If you’ve read my recent three ‘state of the market’ pieces for HDC sent out over the past few weeks, you’ll know that the UK classic car market is in a position of flux. Just seven percent of models in the UK Hagerty Price Guide rose in value over the course of 2024, and there was just one segment – early 2000s cars – that showed consistent growth. Unlike ten years ago, when Hagerty could pretty confidently forecast that x model or y type of car would likely continue to rise in value, today there are very few safe bets.
That said, almost any car that is truly exceptional will tend to sell well, and that goes for a Peugeot 205 GTI as much as it does a Ferrari 250 California or a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing. Ultra-original cars that have had careful ownership, are packed with all the right options, have few miles on the odometer and come with box files full of history are the cars it seems attract the money, whatever the model. Restorations overseen by meticulous owners using the best experts in the field and focusing on exceptional attention to detail are similarly prized. As a result, the gulf between the Hagerty Price Guide’s top ‘concours’ price and the bottom ‘fair’ value has never been bigger, the latter representing only, on average, 56 percent of the former. Five years ago, it was 65 percent.
Early last month, Iconic Auctioneers sold a great example of this phenomenon for a top price. A 1973 Ford Escort RS2000, registration OKB44M was offered at their Warwickshire Event Centre Classic Sale and achieved £78,750 including costs, at the top end of their expected £70,000 to £80,000 pre-sale estimate. It is not a record for the model, that accolade having been secured by another Mk 1 RS2000 sold at the Iconic NEC sale in 2023 for £108,000, but the final price of OKB44M was still a full 38 percent over Hagerty’s top, ‘concours’ value for the model, currently published at £57,000, and so by all objective measures it was a very strong sale. There’s a ‘but’ though: the car had been offered at Iconic’s sale the previous month at the NEC when it failed to sell with a much higher estimate of £90,000 to £112,500. According to the catalogue description, a reported £130,000 had been spent on the car’s restoration, and added to the assumed cost of purchasing the car in the first place, that means the vendor didn’t recoup anywhere near the financial outlay they put into the car.
The comparison between two very similar cars in close comparable condition sold by the same auction company within 12 months could just show the fickleness of auction results: a person willing to spend over £100,000 on a Ford Escort was in the room in November 2023 but wasn’t a year later. It may also point to the correction in the market over that time and show just how sale prices have softened despite this still being an exceptional sale. But I think that £130,000 investment in the car is really notable: it suggests that, even during a time of economic uncertainty and widespread belt-tightening, some enthusiasts are still willing to put more money into a car’s restoration that they’re likely to recoup should they sell it in the future. This may be an emotional act, where an owner gets carried away over a years-long process but when I talk to enthusiasts, I know there’s a widespread feeling that a lot of them want to do it properly, not just for their own sense of pride, but also for the good of the car in the long run. This sense of custodianship over historic cars is a very positive thing for our hobby’s values, in both senses of the word.
What are your thoughts on the Ford Escort RS2000 John was writing about? We would love to hear at hdc@hagerty.co.uk.