‘Rose-tinted glasses’

Is Brexit starting to affect the classic market, perhaps even just on some kind of subliminal level? Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all political on you. PC is somewhere we come to escape from all that. But something struck me while picking through the results of Brightwells’ recent Leominster sale. Let me explain.

It was a decent sale, with an interesting mix of affordable classics, and produced a decent result, too: just over three-quarters of the 170 cars offered were sold. To put that into context, currently any classic car auction house that tops the two-thirds mark will consider it has done OK.

So all was well and good, but something was niggling at the back of my mind. Was it a false impression, or had a lot of the German cars sold quite cheaply? So I crunched the numbers in detail, and it made quite interesting reading. At least it did if, like me, you have a thing for numbers. The percentage of German cars that sold was roughly in line with the overall sale. But of those, 84 per cent were sold with no reserve or let go for below their bottom estimate – which suggests they were either submitted with pretty pessimistic reserves, or the sellers were happily beaten down in post-sale negotiations. For comparison, the percentage for British cars sold below estimate or with no reserve was just 46 per cent; a bit lower than normal, but not especially.

We Brits have long had a love affair/grudging admiration for German cars, whether it’s the status that they convey or appreciation of their build quality. But in these odd times we live in, is that starting to slip a wee fraction? Are sales of rose-tinted glasses on the increase? I’ll view the next few sales with interest.

‘Had a lot of the German cars offered sold quite cheaply?’