Of bargains and pearls
04/04/2022
This magazine is actually an anachronism, but Oldtimer Markt "Preise" has enjoyed great popularity for years and has just been reissued with around 380 pages. If you are looking for a vehicle valuation for a specific model, you can also find it online today (e.g. here on zwischengas ) , but somehow browsing through the Prices booklet has its own charm.
At first glance, you can see that Saab prices seem to be going up, while Lancia prices are generally falling (with the exception of the Delta). The price booklet compares the current prices with the prices of 2015 and this is certainly a considerable attraction of the comprehensive valuation booklet in addition to the information on former new prices.
If you comb through the booklet from front to back, you will first notice that pre-war classics still do not have it easy. They are grouped together on the front pages and the "Price development" column is often red and often negative in double digits. According to Classic Data, which provides the values for the magazine, the price of an Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Coupé from 1929-1932 fell by 63 percent! But a BMW 315/1 Sport two-seater from 1934/1936 apparently also became 42 percent cheaper. Interestingly, the Ford Model A defied this negative trend, as its value rose by 12 percent if it was a coupé. An Invicta has also become more expensive, while early MGs have tended to drop significantly in price, unless it is an SA 2 Litre as a convertible, which has become more expensive. With pre-war cars in particular, you quickly realize that it is probably not easy to determine prices when vehicles exist in a wide variety of versions and are rarely traded. So we move on to the post-war cars from larger manufacturers, which together with the youngtimers now make up the main part of the booklet, which is rounded off at the end by niche manufacturers.
It quickly becomes apparent that younger cars in particular have gained ground since 2015, while 1960s classics, for example, have often lost value in the last five years. The early 911s are just as affected by this as super classics from Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. Exceptions prove the rule in each case.
At Alfa Romeo, for example, the Alfasud and especially the Alfasud Sprint models have seen impressive price increases, while early Giulia and Giulietta models have lost some of their value. The Alfa Romeo 164 TD Super from 1994-1997 appears to be a high-flyer, as its rating rose by 178%. However, as the Note 2 valuation is given as EUR 4900, this is of course not really about big money.
Aston Martin tends to be red (i.e. with a negative value trend), while Audi models from the 1980s onwards are almost all black and have grown in price by double-digit percentages. An Audi RS4 Avant (B5) from 1999-2001, for example, has increased in value by 57% since 2015.
Austin-Healey is interesting, with prices for the large Healey falling, while the Sprite has increased by an average of over 20%.
The BMW models 1600-2 to 2002 turbo have performed well, and the early three-wheelers are also trending positively. However, according to Classic Data, a BMW M1 is now traded 20 percent cheaper than five years ago and even the popular M3 E30 has fallen slightly in value. It is also interesting to note the growing interest in the BMW 323 ti Compact (1997 to 1998, pictured above), which is worth around half as much as five years ago.
Almost all variants of the Citroën 2 CV are also enjoying healthy demand, and the Goddess (ID/DS) is also black across the board, which also seems to apply to almost all other Citroën models.
All in all, a really exciting read, even if you realize at the end of the magazine that printed matter always lags a little behind the present. This is because page 368 features the Bugatti EB110 GT, which according to information in the magazine is currently valued at EUR 800,000 in condition 2 and is said to have increased in value by 18% since 2015. Well, this year's auctions have shown that some adjustments are definitely needed here, because it seems that no good EB110 can be bought for six figures at the moment. But you should look at the trends rather than individual valuations and nineties supercars are definitely on the rise.
Anyone who has now acquired a taste for the new Oldtimer Markt price booklet can easily order it from the publisher; at EUR 8.90, this wealth of information is itself a real bargain.
