‘It’s almost impossible to be 100% accurate’

Afair chunk of my life revolves around valuing cars, be it producing various magazines’ price guides, being part of Hagerty Insurance’s ‘Live Valuations’ team, or betting the next round of tea with fellow pundits on what the next car will sell for.

It’s quite an engaging task, but one that’s not without its stresses, as people rely on your accuracy to some extent. But given the nature of buying and selling cars, it’s almost impossible to be 100 per cent accurate. And if you are today, the shifting sands of the market mean that the price you give may not be right next week. With details of the exact car and sales left out in deference to those involved, I recently came across a perfect illustration of that. At a recent auction I recognised one of the cars on offer. Not least because I had photographed it at another sale earlier in the year, and shortlisted it to highlight in the review in PC. But it was pretty distinctive anyway. At that earlier sale it had gone for what looked like a very good price of about £7500. That was a little above where guide values were, and almost enough to prompt adjustment, though without other data I didn’t.

Nine months later I’m looking at the same car, with a similar estimate. It has gained just a handful of extra miles and an advisory-free MOT. The same score, or even more? In fact it sold this time for less than £6500.

The market for them hasn’t dropped this year, but this was the same car in the same year. Which value was correct? Both of them, obviously, as buyers and sellers agreed to them on both days. It does make for an interesting job.

‘The price you give today may not be right next week’