Marketplace

Latest market news from Russ.

It’s not a new phenomenon – we call it ‘shaking the tree’. A couple of remarkably high auction results for exceptional examples of a particular model occur and suddenly everyone thinks that it’s time to cash in theirs. Whether it’s exceptional or not, all are hoping for that enormous pay day, and for a while it can pay off as at the other end of the equation are a bunch of buyers who have just seen a new bandwagon to jump on. It’s happened numerous times over the years.

What usually happens next is that the initial feeding frenzy subsides, a few who reacted quickest have done well, and the market is flooded for the next year or so with so many other examples that oversupply means values start to slip back again. And that’s what has been happening of late with Peugeot 205 GTIS. Hardly a real-world classic auction goes by without a bunch of these French pocket rockets on offer – anything that can hold a shine and pass an MOT test, quite frankly. But we’re in quite a smart, mature market these days, and these needy cars stand out as such and aren’t reeling in the pennies. Yes, you can still get good money for really special 205 GTIS, but for the rest there are plenty going unsold as reality fails to meet sellers’ inflated expectations.

It will all settle down again soon, without doubt – that’s the next predictable phase – and decent 205s will once again start to gain traction. Because the real truth is that there aren’t enough properly good ones left anymore. Meaning now is a very good time to buy one of those, before the smoke clears.

‘Now is the time to snap up a 205 GTI, before the smoke clears’