Classic Price Trends 2017

One of my regular duties at our sister weekly Classic Car Buyer is updating the price guide – and providing the ‘pick of the guide’ snippets at the bottom. As far as I know, it's the only guide that’s updated every week; we keep a very close eye on what’s happening through auction prices, ‘for sale’ advertisements (at least the asking prices) and gather information from talking to enthusiasts, dealers and clubs.

- Peter Simpson

Specific prices, though, are only part of the story – it’s just as important to identify trends, and where appropriate to make judgements on the notional ‘value’ of cars which have sold in small numbers – if at all – on the strength of changes elsewhere in the market. For example this year we’ve seen a sufficient increase in sale prices of 1622cc Farina Austin Cambridges and Morris Oxfords to identify that Condition 1 prices have risen around 15 per cent overall. Although far fewer (if any) Riley 4/72s and MG Magnettes have sold, it’s reasonable to assume that values these have also increased by a similar percentage.

Often, increased values of the most desirable models in a range causes a slightly less sought-after model to go up as well. Prices for top-flight Dolomite Sprints are now close to £10k, and we’ve noticed more people looking at the outwardly-similar (and still sporting) 1850 version as a result.