Year in Review: 2018’s winners and losers
Richard Hudson-Evans looks at the stories behind the statistics to reveal which classics were in favour in 2018 – and which ones actually lost value
From the declared prices of those auctioneers who publish their results, 14 per cent fewer classics sold at auction in the UK during 2018 and 17 per cent fewer cars were offered. However, bidders still spent £161.22m on classics in transparent auctions in 2018, some £8m – or just over five per cent – more than in 2017. The average spent per auction car during 2018 amounted to £33,213, however – £5553 or 20 per cent more than in 2017. The overall sale rate at the 71 sales personally reviewed last year remained constant at 67 per cent, compared to 66 per cent the year before.
With European sales grossing £112.72m, Bonhams headed RM Sotheby’s £50.56m and Artcurial’s £42.41 totals, although the French house led its UK and US rivals with 47 per cent by value and 35 per cent by volume stats.
In the UK, meanwhile, Bonhams sold 637 cars for £76.87m, 71 per cent of 899 offered, 13 per cent of the total auctioned by volume and 48 per cent of all cars sold by value. Even without its Classic Car Auctions subsidiary’s £7m contribution, Silverstone Auctions is now firmly in second place with 785 car sales of £21.31m (£28.28m including CCA) and a 69 per cent combined sale rate. Its market share was 16.2 per cent by volume and 17.5 per cent by value.
After selling 501 cars (64 per cent of the 780 consigned) for £13.58m, Historics was third, achieving a 10.3 per cent share of the market by volume and 8.4 per cent by value, and H&H was fourth with 468 sales (62 per cent of 750 entered) for £9.68m, a six per cent share by value and 9.6 per cent by volume. RM Sotheby’s one UK sale in 2018 saw 48 (or 52 per cent of 93) cars at Battersea sell for £9.33m, making its UK market share 5.8 per cent by value and one per cent by volume.
The most classics were consigned by sixth-placed Anglia Car Auctions in King’s Lynn, where 79 per cent of 1203 entries sold for £8.53m to notch up a UK market share of 19.6 per cent by volume and 5.3 per cent by value.
The highest sale rate of all was achieved by SWVA in Poole, where 257 cars were started up and driven past the rostrum and 95 per cent of them were re-homed.