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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn my childhood, my ol\u2019 man bought a series 1 E Type, 4.2 roadster in what should have been pristine condition for ten grand. He put it through the workshop, sorting through the mechanical, electrical and cosmetic imperfections. Sold it for about twenty five thousand pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And made a loss, of something like eight or nine thousand. The interim work took nearly a thousand hours, parts, trim, paint and materials. The car, like so many others, was hiding a good deal of rot and crash damage behind the suspiciously shiny coat of paint that could not possibly have been identified at purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An expensive roll of the dice then for him, but the next owner within about fifteen years had an immaculate example worth about a hundred grand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A profit of \u00a375k, and all with the fun of owning the most beautiful car ever made?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, he should have done a little better than my poor old man did, but all is not as it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Classic cars suffer the same accounting trick as horses. In the intoxicating auction room (literally in lots of cases, you\u2019ll be plied with all the champagne you can consume to loosen up your bidding arm), everybody forgets about the bit in between purchase and sale. And that looks something like this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- Storage. You wouldn\u2019t leave \u00a35k, \u00a350k or \u00a3100k in cash in a heap on your driveway open to theft, the weather and carelessness, so don\u2019t be thinking that\u2019s good enough for your car. The thing is, if you cover it, it deteriorates where you can see it. If you don\u2019t cover it, it deteriorates out of sight. You\u2019re going to need a garage, or professional storage that on average, is going to cost you \u00a350 a week.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Maintenance. Cars move, and wear up. Cars sit still, and seize up. Assuming all things being equal, you\u2019re going to have to budget \u00a32500 per car, annually, for servicing and maintenance. You might think you\u2019ll be lucky and get away with it, but with a fragile, underdeveloped classic made from perishable materials, I promise you, there will always be \u2018something\u2019. Fuel systems particularly suffer with the higher concentration of ethanol we have to cope with these days. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Repairs. The E Type hiding an inch of filler (bondo, for any American readers) manifested itself by microblisters forming in the paint, the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Classics have a nasty way of concealing suprises like this, and it\u2019s almost impossible to foresee. These things have, by definition, had a life of at least twenty five years – in the case of modern classics, that\u2019s about twenty years beyond design life. So expect the unexpected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Restoration costs. Spiralling costs of absolutely everything has a huge knock-on effect on the cost of restoration. Long gone are the days of a ten grand rebuild – think closer to a hundred thousand for a full nut and bolt rebuild of just about any car, with costs rising rapidly for anything unusual, specialist, weird and wonderful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
If my calculations are correct, assuming maintenance and storage costs, that\u2019s a cost of \u00a376,500 over the fifteen year period, and a net loss of \u00a31500. Store it in your own garage, you say? Insurance. Tax. Fuel. Pest control. \u2018Storage rash\u2019 (expensive paintwork damage caused by careless movements around the car). You aren\u2019t that much better off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nOccasionally, you might get lucky. It\u2019s only really the top end of the market – the playground where Arabian oil princes bid against each other with limitless budgets to secure exclusivity – that moves enough to compensate. A Ferrari F40 can be bought for around \u00a31.5\/2m now, and it will be a \u00a35m car in my lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Should you do it? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I do get it though. Cars to me, are moments in time. The sound of a Sierra power steering pump straining at full lock takes me back to happy times navigating a train station car park. The smell of exhaust fumes and the sound of an off-beat V8 still makes the hairs stand up on my arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If, like me, you have the \u2018car thing\u2019 in your blood and under your skin, here\u2019s some advice that might make the road to ruin less rocky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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- You can predict quite easily which cars at \u2018our level\u2019 will rise and fall. What did someone who is forty five now, want when they were twenty? That means, climbing now are hot hatches. I actually had a ropey old shed of a Mk1 Golf GTi that I bought for about \u00a3300, ran it out of test and sold on for spares. That very car would be a \u00a35k machine now, as saggy as it was. If you want to get ahead of the curve – get hold of the kind of cars I used to play with on the PlayStation. Colin McRae Rally, Need for Speed and all that will be good for Impreza and Evo\u2019s. I also believe in what I\u2019ve called the \u2018Top Gear\u2019 effect. Who would have thought an original Peel P50 would be worth \u00a3120,000 now? The Renault Avantime, Toyboata-era Hilux and even the Lexus LFA (which I guarantee you wouldn\u2019t have made any fuss about if Clarkson hadn\u2019t liked it) are all good tips I reckon. Even my beloved L322 is ticking up in value because he called it \u2018the best car ever made\u2019, and mine isn\u2019t even the desirable one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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- Play the market to your advantage. If you want to predict those that fall, it\u2019s cars that belong to the generation that are ageing beyond being able to cope with them. Iconic British cars for the generation above mine are all taking a hit now – Big Healeys, Astons and Jags, that E Type that was worth about \u00a3100k seven or eight years ago has probably halved now. Bad news for current owners, good news for aspiring owners. Really good news for strange younger folks like me, with my strange affection for Riley RME\u2019s. I\u2019m rather hoping you\u2019ll be able to get a good one for about \u00a35k in a few years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Always buy the best you can. I\u2019d never personally restore a car, or commission a restoration. You\u2019re going to lose it for over a year, and the cost will be approximately the GDP of the UK. Far better, to buy the very best you can, and if you want to tailor it, then by all means do. For example – one day, I will have a Triumph TR6. They\u2019ve softened a bit too, and they\u2019re all \u00a325k now – on the basis that a minter is \u00a325k, a \u00a320k car needs \u00a35k investing in it, a \u00a315k needs \u00a310k and so on. Whatever the car, spend another couple of thousand at purchase than another ten down the line.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Appreciate them for what they are. Don\u2019t expect your old car to behave like your daily, especially if your everyday car happens to be powered by electricity. With all the modifications in the world, you can\u2019t undo poor build quality, old school materials and designs – you\u2019ll only be disappointed by trying. Make sure you can cope with heavy steering, advisory brakes, the smell of unburnt fuel and more frequent maintenance required. By and large, the market respects originality too. So many owners invest huge sums of money to make \u2018RS Replica\u2019 or \u2018Evocation\u2019 cars from original examples, and slash their value as a result. I\u2019m not really a purist, I respect everyone\u2019s impression of what their car should be\u2026 But most don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAnd for gods sake, drive it. It\u2019ll thank you for it. Engines need oil circulation, brakes need using, fuel needs burning. Most of the cars I work on suffer from lack of use these days, rather than wearing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cars we love are also increasingly becoming like horses, as they became in the post-war era. Once commonplace, now owned by a few well-heeled individuals. We have the investment market to thank for incredible events that celebrate cars, like Goodwood – but it\u2019s sad, really, that thoroughbred cars that once charged past in dual carriageways making boys and men smile, now rarely see the light of day. My Dad used his Escort Cosworth every day, and it now sits beautifully restored, behind a velvet rope in a museum. Like a stuffed sabre toothed tiger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- You can predict quite easily which cars at \u2018our level\u2019 will rise and fall. What did someone who is forty five now, want when they were twenty? That means, climbing now are hot hatches. I actually had a ropey old shed of a Mk1 Golf GTi that I bought for about \u00a3300, ran it out of test and sold on for spares. That very car would be a \u00a35k machine now, as saggy as it was. If you want to get ahead of the curve – get hold of the kind of cars I used to play with on the PlayStation. Colin McRae Rally, Need for Speed and all that will be good for Impreza and Evo\u2019s. I also believe in what I\u2019ve called the \u2018Top Gear\u2019 effect. Who would have thought an original Peel P50 would be worth \u00a3120,000 now? The Renault Avantime, Toyboata-era Hilux and even the Lexus LFA (which I guarantee you wouldn\u2019t have made any fuss about if Clarkson hadn\u2019t liked it) are all good tips I reckon. Even my beloved L322 is ticking up in value because he called it \u2018the best car ever made\u2019, and mine isn\u2019t even the desirable one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n