Alpine A110

TIPPED BY: PIERRE NOVIKOFF

A new car in a classic car magazine? Well, you don’t have to buy one brand new, but Pierre Novikoff is very tempted to do just that.

‘I’ve never bought a new car, but this is the only one I’d consider because I’d like to keep it and one day, give it to my son. You can use it every day, or keep it just as a toy, and for once in my life I’d get to have everything just as I choose!’

It’s more than an amusing daydream because there’s a serious point here – or rather two of them. First, these cars seem to be almost depreciation-proof in the UK, with the first examples sold in 2018 still only just scraping into our price bracket at £45k-£50k, while a new one or low-miles ex-demo car will be £55k-£60k. So are they going to make the stride from new car to acknowledged modern classic without languishing as cheap second-hand buys?

‘In France, there are plenty of them around so their values won’t fly,’ says Pierre, but in the UK the situation is a little different, with only 359 of them licensed by the end of 2020. Restricted supply combined with a strong fanbase generated from universally positive reviews could stop them ever becoming particularly cheap here. Pierre’s second point is an interesting one.

‘So often when I meet older collectors with amazingly valuable classics like Bugattis, they say, “I only bought one car new,” and it’s an old Alpine 110 or a Porsche 911 3.2, something like that. I think the new A110 is that kind of car. Some of these neo-retro models are just silly marketing exercises but this is the contrary; there’s a GT4 version for the Alpine Europa Cup and there’s also a rally version too – Francois Delacour is competing in it.’

‘These cars seem to be almost depreciation-proof in the UK’