On Sun, 30 Dec 2001 Jsut4fun@aol.com wrote:
> Hey don't call the increasing prices silly, our cars are beginning to get
> more valuable.
I suppose the critical factor is whether you own your car to gain value
(unlikely unless you spend a _lot_ of money on it)... I happen to be of
the school that some of the prices I have seen are in fact "silly". That
is, the car compared to the asking price are not justified.
Besides, how do you really define "more valuable?" The asking prices? The
selling prices?
I'll contend that really nice _unrestored_ cars are probably worth more
money right now owing to their general rarity, but lots of the
overrestored cars that I see are probably not worth the asking prices. I
state this because many of the cars that I have looked at for judging
purposes (VTR concours, for example) are way over-restored and important
details are just plain wrong. What's the value of that? Is the car nice?
Yes. Is it correct? No. So - how do you put a value on that?
But that's just my opinion.
> Austin Healy had a breakthrough year in 2001 when one of
> their cars sold for over $40,000 at auction.
Right - and we (TR6 owners) can _never_ compare the selling prices of
TR6's to AH3000's. They made roughly 90,000 TR6's over the run from '69
through '76. The total number of AH3000's is way less than that. Case in
point: the AH3000 demands more money because of scarcity.
TR6's are hardly "scarce" right now.
> I have a 1976 TR6 that is
> completely original top to bottom, with just over 18,000 miles on it. The
> current appraisal is $15,500 but I have had serious offers approaching
> $20,000.
My opinion? Sell your car for $20K and buy _four_ drivers. You'll be
happier in the end.
:-)
Besides, I never go by appraised value for _any car_. I've seen some
"appraisals" for TR6's and the folks doing the appraisal had no idea what
they were doing. I could site several cases of TR6's in worse shape than
my driver that were appraised on the other side of $10k...
Ooops. Hot button.
But if you have "stated value" insurance, you need to be careful about
your "exposure"... I'm not an insurance guy, but I have friends that have
been "burned" when the insurance company totalled thier cars when the
repair bill exceeded that stated value. See ya later TR6! Off to the
shredder!
> The prices for US model triumphs in the UK is even better.
Well, the operative here is "scarcity". There is also demand. Add the
two up and you get higher prices. When they (Triumph) exported the vast
majority of TR6's to the 'States, they left precious few behind in the UK.
So, I could see the prices being higher in England (for example) than in
the US anywhere. In fact when I have been to England (three times) I can
tell you that you don't see _any_ TR6's driving around. I've seen exactly
one driving and several at the British Heritage Museum. You see Spitfires
and Stags (and of course 2000's and 2500's and Heralds), but precious few
TR6's driving around. That defines "scarcity".
> CF55382
regards,
rml
CF14111U and CR1871UO (yes, it was a RHD PI TR6 - it's a race car now)
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