…and some to avoid
Persuading our panel to name a few classics they would be less keen to buy right now wasn’t easy. But with some gentle persuasion, we extracted some interesting views.
Justin Banks revealed some puzzlement with a whole tranche of one of our most famous marques. ‘I would personally avoid any Feltham
Aston Martin – DB2/4, MKIII and so on. They were not great cars and are greatly overvalued in my book.’
Would anyone else be that direct? Neil Fender expressed doubts about the prices asked for many classic Porsches.
‘I don’t understand Porsche values versus their widespread availability. Yes, some are rare and deservedly valuable like the Carrera 2.7RS, but too many seem over-inflated. They’re often either unrestored or over-restored, both of which seem an excuse to ask too much, like the rash of limitededition modern Porsches. Is everything limited?’
Simon Hope keeps it more general, though with one market area in mind.
‘Anything that’s bought purely as an investment rather than with passion leaves me cold. All these ultimate
limited-editions with no miles on them, sitting in storage? You’re asking something to appreciate pretty fast just to cover upkeep, because you’re not getting any other joy from it.’
Pierre Novikoff also has doubts about certain BMWS.
‘Alpina specials are interesting but very expensive for what they are. I love fast BMWS and something like a standard M3 is a great car, but I could see the craze for some of these other variants dropping away a little.’
Dave Kinney admits he’d rather take a bicycle to work than certain Lotuses, but he accepts their appeal to the rest of the market. Instead, his warning is against larger cars. ‘Unless you have a specific need,’ he says, ‘Stay away from
four-door cars as investments. There’s usually a glut on the market, unless we’re talking about a very special edition. You could extend that to any large, mass-produced car where large numbers remain.’ Dave’s advice applies to most eras, but particularly the Seventies to the Nineties.
But the most pertinent piece of advice all our specialists agree on is to only buy a car you’ll still love if it loses value.