How much were they new?

How much were they new?

Author
Discussion

Lotusevoraboy

Original Poster:

937 posts

154 months

Sunday 25th November 2012
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Just been looking at all Lotus cars for sale on trader. It struck me how much some examples still cost and it got me thinking about residuals. How much were they new and how did that compare to the cost of things eg houses, average salaries back then? Against which other marques were they pitched? When did values start to pick back up?

I'm hoping if I keep the Evora long enough.....!

J2LOT

70 posts

218 months

Monday 26th November 2012
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When Elises first came out they were mooted as £20k - realistically I think most were £1k-£1.5k more. But if you put that into an inflation calculator as £20k in 1996 that equates to £30,200 now or £21,500 = £32,465 now, so as far as new cars go they havent changed that much, in fact the base new price has actually dropped

Depreciation wise the earliest cars are around 30-40% of their original value,even the cheapest cars are still 25% - not bad for 15/16 years.

Lotusevoraboy

Original Poster:

937 posts

154 months

Wednesday 28th November 2012
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Should have clarified really. It was the Espirit I was talking about, hence the OP being posted there before being rudely moved to make me sound like a halfwit. Just strikes me that £20-30k now seems a lot to pay for a twenty year old car I.e an Espirit, when you could have a nearly new Evora for that.

anonymous-user

61 months

Thursday 29th November 2012
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You don't appear to understand the concept of a classic car.

james280779

1,931 posts

236 months

Monday 10th December 2012
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how much will the evora be worth in 20 years??? considerably less than the now 40 year old esprit!

I think the Esprits have gone as low as they will go- I have noticed the values creeping back up lately - even in the middle of winter

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

253 months

Wednesday 12th December 2012
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Back in the day an Esprit cost about half as much as a decent house. Cars are much cheaper now. But check out the cost of fuel!

When you look at old cars it's vital to remember the effects of inflation. Very few cars, if any, actually increase in value once you adjust for inflation.

There is also a plateau effect where any sportscar in good condition is automatically worth around £10k these days (very roughly). If you compare saloon cars from the same year and original price they're often struggling to make £1,000.