Paul Jolly: How much is your old car really worth?

I have long espoused the theory that classic car values rise and fall in a direct correlation to their age, peaking at about 40 years and then falling away gradually.

This is because as a classic car gets older, fewer folk are around who remember and cherish them. The pin-up poster car in one’s youth is likely to be the car one aspires to collect when affordable, in middle age. So, the teenager in the mid-1980s who dreamt of a Cosworth Sierra can perhaps afford the £50,000 price tag now, aged around 55-60. Following directly on from that is the Lotus Cortina from the mid-1960s, with values falling well below their peak and now, just in the mid-£20,000s from an earlier mid-£40,000s range.

Taking this theory further, you will not be surprised to learn that pre-war cars are pretty much as flat as your hat, with only a few notable exceptions such as Blower Bentleys and other competition cars. Hardly anyone can remember them from their day, but they can also be vast, great hulks of cars weighing in at over two tonnes, impossible to push around your garage and not exactly fun to drive on today’s roads. Add to this the impossible spare parts situation, with very few engineers with the experience or knowledge to work on them, and you have a car that will probably get little use and provide scant owner enjoyment.

At a very recent classic car auction, I witnessed a 1937 Rolls Royce 25/30 like this one sell for just £11440, which is peanuts compared to what it should be and once was.

In fact, evidence points to 1960s and 1970s Rolls Royces going the same way. A 1969 Silver Shadow Mulliner Park Ward hand-built 2-door coupe could only muster £21164 when it might have been over £50,000 a few years ago. This was followed by a 1975 Silver Shadow saloon making just £8000.

1950s saloons such as Standard Vanguard, Riley, Wolseley, Hillman, Austin, and Morris have sadly had their day, in that their restoration costs will now outweigh the finished value.