My advice is to completely ignore asking prices, especially dealer asking prices, if you want to learn the true value of your Morgan at any given time, follow classic car auction sale prices (including the premium).
An auction will always find the true value of anything!TBH, I wouldn't want to be in the classic car auction industry right now because it's quite clear sellers haven't corrected their value expectations in line with the current market, the auction house understands the true current market value of the car better than anyone else but sellers are ignoring the auction representative's advice and are still expecting the numbers being achieved three years ago. Sellers are refusing to accept the market has corrected itself, and from what we now need to acknowledge was a bubble.
Sellers setting unrealistic reserve prices is a real problem for auction houses right now, the auction house representative's biggest current challenge is trying to realign their seller's value expectations with the depressed market conditions. Auction houses don't earn any money from failing to sell on the day, understanding this, now study recent classic car auction results you'll soon see the percentage of unsold Lots has gone through the roof over the last 18 months. This is typically why their first proposal to sellers will be the 'No Reserve' option, the auction house has fixed costs so a sale at any price is infinitely better (for them) than no sale at all, if this is refused by the seller (and I recommend you do refuse it) the next proposal from your auctioneer will be a low ball reserve because the auctioneer knows the market is depressed and a low reserve will be far more likely to secure a sale too, the seller must then negotiate with their auctioneer to bring the reserve up to just below the
true market value of the car.
As the market continues to fall, over inflated dealer prices that once just looked expensive are now looking comically ambitious, this is a real problem for dealers who must rotate their stock regularly. Right now dealers are holding declining assets that are just not selling, if the dealer bought the car outright or even took it as part-ex deal, for every day that goes by his asset is getting closer and closer to a negative margin situation. This is why dealers love to sell on consignment, there's no financial commitment and the dealer sidesteps all risk of negative equity, indeed all the risk is on the seller! When a car is being sold on consignment, all the dealer has to do is assign a small amount of space in his showroom and upload a few images to his website, and often the cheekier dealers just take the photos and then persuade the seller to store the car themselves, that's "nice business if you can get it"!
Back to the current market conditions, it's quite clear the natural overall price correction situation has also collided with a very noticeable shift in buyer's tastes. Out are vintage cars and cars from the 1950's, in are hot hatches and other cars of interest from the the 80's & 90's, buyers are younger and want something that scratches a more recent nostalgia itch, they also want cars that are reliable and usable on modern roads, the sweet spot period seems to be 1986 - 1996.
So what does all this mean for Morgan values, well, starting with the positives modern trad Morgan's have modern engines and transmissions making them surprisingly usable for something that looks like it was born somewhere between the 1930's - 1950's. Sadly that's where the positives end, like it or not Morgan's are perceived as an old man's car, and even old men now are more inclined to be nostalgic about the 1986 - 1996 period. Most buyers these days just aren't emotionally connected to the 1930's - 1950's period, worse still for the values of a modern Trad Morgan's is the change in Morgan's traditional
'low supply, high demand' model that for years ensured the cars were always more or less depreciation proof.
Sadly we must now accept these times have passed and as the value of CX chassis cars continue to fall, its no surprise the very limited number of prospective used Morgan buyers out there right now start to favour the newer cars over our Trads further depressing the value of our Trads. While all this may seem quite negative, for me and hopefully you too none of it matters.
Because we bought the car we like, and we're keeping it
