I was wondering whether people knew of pricing on what S1s have actually been selling for recently around the world. I know what their current asking prices are, and I also know that the days of good cars commanding £30,000 are long gone.
Thing is, my car was last valued for insurance a number of years ago (back when £30k was absolute top of the market). In New Zealand there has never been one of these cars bought and/or sold, so there’s no “local” market. Australia is the closest market to us, but Given there’s only a handful of cars there I’m picking their market doesn’t give me much info either.
I’m not looking to “talk up” the value of anything and I’m certainly not looking to sell my car (I don’t care if prices were £300k, I’m just not interested in selling it).
At the moment my insurance company valuers have put a value on it that would mean, if my car was written off, I’d be able to go shopping in the UK (the only significant market for the cars) with a budget of about £45k, absolute maximum. which would leave me with nothing left over to allow me to try to recreate the spec of my car or bring it up to the standard my current car is at.
I have to factor in the costs of importing a car, and paying 15% tax at the border, all of which comes off your “total to spend” on buying a car if shopping in the UK.
For insurance purposes you really need to look at the cost to replace; the actual recent ‘sold’ prices are largely irrelevant IMO. To buy one tomorrow the only ones advertised for sale in the UK are at £60kGBP or £50kGBP for a heavily modified one. I think there was one in Switzerland at €50kEUR (~£45kGBP) and there’s Sam’s in Hong Kong at £62kGBP. Maybe they’re not selling at that price, but that’s what’s on the market right now.
To answer you original question, I believe from other threads that cars have changed hands recently (earlier this year) for £32-35kGBP but at least one of those was a ‘motivated seller’, i.e. wanted a quick sale.
I did point out to them that the cheapest one for sale at the moment is significantly more expensive (to me in NZ) than they would pay me if mine was a total loss. Their argument was that “Our research shows that these cars sit on the market for several months, ergo we believe that they’re likely selling for tens of thousands of dollars less”. to which my reply is “But if my car was a total loss, I’m stuck paying whatever the market at the time is asking, I’m not going to wait 2 years to snag a longshot on a cheap one”.
It really seems that the bulk of S1s are now in the hands of owners like me (and many of the people on here), who have bought them to enjoy for many many years. Ten years ago, they were still a car people bought and used for a year or two then flicked on to buy something else. Doesn’t seem to be that way any more, meaning the market is shrinking, and that’ll inevitably mean prices will remain where they are unless demand completely dries up.
Absolutely. It’s hard to know what the ‘market value’ for something is when so few are bought or sold. It really needs one or two good ones to come up at auction, which is what’s happened recently with 340Rs, and is the best barometer of current value.
I agree most owners now will keep them as a second/third/fourth+ car and can afford to do so, with no desire to sell unless they are made a ‘silly’ offer.
Eliges is,not and never will be an Exige Unless the buyer does not know his subject.
Something about emptor and caviat comes to mind for future buyers.
Good to,hear from you George. And glad you are still an Exiger inspite of now having a ball and chain!
See you in January.
Have fun
Ps for interest. My car must have had over £100k spent on it over the years. But it is only worth what I can get for,it …when the time comes
Well my renewal just came through and after a bit of email traffic with REIS I was asked what I realistically could expect to achieve if I sold the car. I see the two for sale on PH haven’t sold yet and the last I heard of on this very forum went for £45k earlier this year. Based on that, I said I’d realistically expect to achieve £47500 if I sold the car, which is now what my insurance documents say the car is worth.
