‘Soft-top, hard sell’

‘It seems that soft-top buyers have simply wised up’

The received wisdom, handed down from generation to generation, is that spring is the time to sell sports cars and convertibles. As obviously once they catch the first whiff of a daffodil, that’s when people are going to want to buy them.

Or is it? This year that sage advice has looked like so much bunkum. For sale after sale it’s been a case of soft-top, hard sell. Or if they have sold it’s been for a notably below estimate sum – those occasions where ‘just get it shifted’ seller meets opportunist buyer. Only cars that were extra special have done the business, but that’s not news, there are always buyers for such gems.

So those of us with time on our hands and tea to drink turn to wondering what’s going on, and why the market isn’t performing to stereotype in 2019. Have we missed some doommongering headlines from the Daily Express or Beeb proclaiming that we’re due to experience the wettest summer since Noah parked his matching pair of ‘Bullnose’ Morris Oxfords in the floating garage?

It could just be that the weather has been so all over the place in the last year that we are never sure what season it is anyway, so why still behave seasonally. But my preferred reasoning is that buyers have simply wised up. They’re buying drop-tops in autumn and winter, for two good reasons. For a start, most people selling at that time will have pre-programmed lower expectations, so you can probably get a better price. Then the smart buyer can spend the winter fettling their new toy in readiness for action, so they don’t spend valuable sun tan time back in the garage sorting out those inevitable ‘snagging’ issues that come with every classic car purchase.

Russ Smith has been following the classic car market for more than two decades and contributes to Practical Classics, Classic Car Weekly and Classic Cars.