Immoral prices and the threat of a classic car sale being reversed
07/27/2017
I read about this new court practice in the current Oldtimer Markt 8/2017, page 8, which states that the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court ruled on March 8, 2017 (OLG Stuttgart, Ref. 3 U 30/16) that a classic car sold a few years ago had to be taken back because the price had been inflated. The purchase price at the time had been EUR 350,000, while an expert appointed by the court only came up with a value of EUR 100,000 to 150,000. It was a Veritas Coupé, which is certainly difficult to value as a one-off.
As one reader noted, the judgment has since been changed again and the contract has not (yet) been rescinded as a result. Nonetheless, the arguments put forward in the court ruling create a great deal of uncertainty .
The original ruling called into question the conventional wisdom that a car is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. According to the court, "immoral" prices are those that differ by a factor of two or more from the actual value.
This consideration raises a whole host of different questions:
For example, how do you value famous previous owners? Was Steve McQueen's Porsche 911, which was valued at over a million when it was sold, also immoral?
And how do you deal with an interesting racing story?
And, since the ruling actually leaves both directions open, could sellers who gave their car away far too cheaply now also sue for rescission?
And how do you deal with the time aspect, after all, anyone who sold a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso or an Aston Martin DB4 for EUR 50,000 or 100,000 ten years ago (and that was not uncommon) could today insist on a significantly higher value?
And the expert, how do you ensure that he really considers all aspects in a meaningful way? Will market quotations such as those published by Classic Data (also on Zwischengas) suddenly become legal fodder?
Is there now a threat of a flood of lawsuits and reversal requests on a broad front? This is probably not to be feared, as most classic car buyers pay what they consider to be a reasonable price for their car. But you should be on your guard.
P.S. If you want to find out for yourself, you can find the 19-page court ruling here.
