Ford Capri

A good catalogue combined with low estimates pulls in the buyers

South West Vehicle Auctions played a blinder with its July 28 sale in Poole. All but three of the 78 offered cars sold, which translates to an incredible sale rate of just over 96 per cent. We’ve not seen that anywhere for a long time. The other headline figure was that 67.9% of cars went for over their top estimates, so did everyone go a bit bidding crazy on the day? Only in places, because SWVA had played it a bit crafty and had most cars estimated on the light side. Buyers were largely paying market-correct prices – markets always find their correct level. But that shouldn’t take away from SWVA’S success, which was commendably based on putting together a nicely varied catalogue of good-quality and affordable classics, and kicking the sale off with 13 ‘no reserve’ cars to get bids rolling. Standout result was £35,072 for the mint 28k-mile Capri 280 Brooklands pictured below – £7500 over estimate. The ‘above estimate’ figure is a little misleading because it was inflated by almost across-the-board low estimates, but this was still a stunning sale by any measure.