Kit car depreciation. (any experiences?)
Discussion
Right,
I was wondering what experiences other listers had had with depreciation when disposing of their own kits.
I have just paid £7000 for a mint "Supersix" (after a lot of hard haggling), with 2,000 genuine miles, and expect after two or three years of fun with this, providing I look after it I will get MOST of this back, where as if I bought a Ford Fiesta for similar money, it would have lost half of it's value.
However, how about something more exotic like a GD Cobra with V8 Chevvy or Ultima, which may have cost around £35/40k?
Are these likely to drop in value like a cast iron parachute?
I was wondering what experiences other listers had had with depreciation when disposing of their own kits.
I have just paid £7000 for a mint "Supersix" (after a lot of hard haggling), with 2,000 genuine miles, and expect after two or three years of fun with this, providing I look after it I will get MOST of this back, where as if I bought a Ford Fiesta for similar money, it would have lost half of it's value.
However, how about something more exotic like a GD Cobra with V8 Chevvy or Ultima, which may have cost around £35/40k?
Are these likely to drop in value like a cast iron parachute?
When I sold my Robin Hood after 2 years I actually made £200 over the cost of building it (counting my labour as free). I doubt I will repeat that feat with my Dutton!
Having looked through the cars for sale section in the magazines it would appear that some of the Cobras have depreciated quite a bit, but mainly only those from the cheaper end of the market.
Having looked through the cars for sale section in the magazines it would appear that some of the Cobras have depreciated quite a bit, but mainly only those from the cheaper end of the market.
Sold a GD 427 (Ford small block, no weather gear) about 4 years ago to dealer - Hallmark Cars. Spent in excess of £20k on bits, got £11,750 as I remember. Car was quite nice, only on road for 2 years and less than 10k miles. Appeared shortly after on Hallmark's website for about £19k, of course they may not have sold it for that.
Very specialist market, not easy to sell upmarket kitcars like this - you either have to take a serious hit or wait for a long time for a keen buyer to come along. I now have an Ultima but don't intend to sell in short term, market seems to be saturated at the moment, just see this website.
Hallmark were excellent, incidentally. They were delivering a car to Edinburgh and made detour to Aberdeen to see my car. Deal made on spot, I got a cheque and they trailered the thing back to Englandshire. You will get more selling privately, but selling to dealer saves lots of hassle from tyre kickers.
Very specialist market, not easy to sell upmarket kitcars like this - you either have to take a serious hit or wait for a long time for a keen buyer to come along. I now have an Ultima but don't intend to sell in short term, market seems to be saturated at the moment, just see this website.
Hallmark were excellent, incidentally. They were delivering a car to Edinburgh and made detour to Aberdeen to see my car. Deal made on spot, I got a cheque and they trailered the thing back to Englandshire. You will get more selling privately, but selling to dealer saves lots of hassle from tyre kickers.
Speaking to the guys at Dax the other day, they said a good cobra replica (tuned v8, leather, all the extras) will hold close to its build value for a few years.
Cheap cobras (pinto, v6, basic v8, cheap/ poor interior, gel coat) will not hold value and will lose money quicker.
They were talking only about Daxes but I am guessing the same applies to other marks. People are looking to buy top quality with all the twiddly bits for a fathing because it is a kit car, so the ones with out lose out. In my not so humble opinion
Cheap cobras (pinto, v6, basic v8, cheap/ poor interior, gel coat) will not hold value and will lose money quicker.
They were talking only about Daxes but I am guessing the same applies to other marks. People are looking to buy top quality with all the twiddly bits for a fathing because it is a kit car, so the ones with out lose out. In my not so humble opinion
Depends how and importantly what u buy. Even with tin tops u can buy/drive and make a profit. Current R reg bought for 1900, had just over year but expect to sell for 2,300 to 2500 (already have offer of 2250). Kit cars? Had several Ginettas (Walklett ones which ALWAYS retained or increased in value) all sold at healthy profit. Best was one G15, bought in 1976 for £850, drove for ten years daily, sold in 86 with 100,000 on clock to Norwegion for £1500. Mind u if I still had it now prob worth min of 3 grand, some reach over twice that or more - not bad for an Imp engined sports car!
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