Esprit Market Watch

[Mark Blanchard]

The top ad was from 2002. That was top money for around then, most seemed to be around the £20-£24k. Cars needing some work could be had for £16k.

[Trevsked]

I gave them a call and told them you thought the price was crazy and they agreed an adjustment.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C636373

[Andyww]

To celebrate getting the aircon working I decided to use it yesterday, which was quite warm, by driving the Esprit into the West End with the wife, to our usual restaurant.

So we did the scenic route, Kings Road, Buckingham Palace, The Mall (Floored it on the Mall at great risk of attention from Plod), Piccadilly Circus etc.

This is something I have done often in the Ferrari. It always gets admiring glances but for most people a red Ferrari is a red Ferrari, they dont know or care whether its a classic or a new one bought by some rich banker with his bonus. Hence the occasional negative such as the guy in Sloane St once who shouted out "dickhead" which I thought was rather un-called for.

But the Esprit really turns heads and even gets the tourists cameras out. A group of girls going to a hen night jumping up and down and waving, Japanese tourists taking photos. When we parked up, in Lincolns inn fields a group of young guys appeared and looked around the car with comments like "wow, not seen one of those for years" and started taking pictures with their phones.

For "bang for the buck" the Esprit beats the Ferrari by miles

[C8RKH]

I have to admit Andy, looking at your "small" profile picture she is a real beauty and the red and white just suits the car prefectly. If I had the cash sitting around that is definitely the car I would be looking to get into and to be be honest, the Ferrari would be nowt but a distant memory, and probably quite distant in the rear view mirror on my favourite roads!  

However, after saying that, seeing that lovely long chrome gear selector and the delectable metal grate in the Ferrari - oooh, if only my manual Evora had one of those.....  

[Andyww]

The metal gate is all very nice, until you have to do the linkage adjustment to get the gate to line up exactly with the gearbox selectors, which can take hours!

[C8RKH]

Ooooh, but the that's why I pay the dealer for servicing etc.....  

[Mark Blanchard]

Here are the auction results from Silverstone Classic.  Not many bargains to be had!

https://www.silverstoneauctions.com/the-silverstone-classic-sale-2015/view_lots/pn/1/sort/default/order/asc

This Mercedes 190 made over £100,000.  Chavtastic!  A hoodie, an ASBO certificate and a stolen I-Phone came with the consignment.

[C8RKH]

A nice car, but £100k, jeez......

[phumy]

I went to look at one of these in Hertfordshire in a dealers about 8 years ago, it was one of only 6 UK registered cars and was up for sale at £20k with 20k miles on the clock. I couldn't quite raise the cash at that time so could have it.....they've certainly gone up since then, massively.

[Mark Blanchard]

I gave them a call and told them you thought the price was crazy and they agreed an adjustment.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C636373

You might want to give these guys a ring too.  

It's from this months Classic & Sportscar magazine.  In the magazine auction listing it shows a Turbo Esprit in good condition sold for £15k.

[nello]

The Fibreglass 308's make me smile - It was not that long ago all Motoring Journos 308/Esprit reviews dismissed the Esprit purely because it was 'plastic' and now look how they value and even market the plastic 308's over and above the steel-bodied ones!

[Chillidoggy]

Journalists, eh? Pffff!

[Bazza 907]

Does "recorded in the 308 fibreglass register" add some sort of value?

What does exactly does "detailing" 55,000 miles mean?

Not forgetting "ready to be enjoyed" - Presumably you shouldn't automatically expect it to be ready to be enjoyed at £188k?

I suppose if you're about to blow that amount of money on a car you might expect and be impressed by some ridiculously flowery language 

[GTK]

Does "recorded in the 308 fibreglass register" add some sort of value?

How nerdy would you'd have to be to build an online register of a rare classic 

[Bazza 907]

Having a car on a register is one thing but to imply it adds value is quite another.

PS are mine in the Esprit register? Can I be number 007?    

[GTK]

It's an interesting point. In terms of added value, are our certificates of provenance worth the money we pay for them? 

(this is not to suggest that it's anything other than fantastic to have a channel to the Lotus records in Andy Graham)

[Loose Cannon]

 "ready to be enjoyed"

= not had a floorcloth wiped over it for the past 20 years

= don't expect it to be anywhere near as nice as the price suggests

= you could use it at the dodgems and it wouldn't look any worse

etc.

[Vanya]

Having a look through the list...here and there some prices seem "ok" like the 348 GTS gone for 36 000 GBP, but that might have been a dog? NSX that went for 43,000 too..not too bad... 

I can't stop laughing at the '91 911 expected to fetch 230,000 GBP though.....and that 190 truly takes the cake at 100,000. Joke's on the buyer....

Odd lack of Lambo's in these discussions though. I've recently unearthed some sources with DIY guides for the Murcielago and Diablo so could imagine myself exploring those avenues after the Esprit. However it might be going from one uncollectible classic to another.... wonder why nobody's driving/talking about those cars? 

[Chillidoggy]

I wonder what the parts availabity is like for old Ferraris and Lambos? Hopefully it's better than old Loti.

[Vanya]

No idea, although I think the VW Lambos gotta have parts aplenty. 

[Laurie Cross]

Everyone wants the price to rise for self validation, yeah I love Esprits and the price is rising so everyone else does, In reality probably none of us would have one if the prices were going stupid like with other classics.

I had a Testarossa down as the next car I would get myself having admired them for ages, Now a couple of years back they were selling for 40k euros which I could stretch to not that the other half would like it but I could justify it, but someone somewhere decided that they're worth triple that and are now selling for 100k plus which 1 I can't afford and 2 could never justify having a car worth a house 

So next I may go for an S1 or a V8 as these are both still affordable though hard to justify buying two of the same car (that is how she will see it......)

I hope the Esprits stay affordable as I want to buy more..........

[PhilW]

Laurie, I've got 2 more or less the same. If you need any help with b......t justification let me know!!!!!

[GTK]

Everyone wants the price to rise for self validation, yeah I love Esprits and the price is rising so everyone else does, In reality probably none of us would have one if the prices were going stupid like with other classics.

 yeah but now that we all have one, let the price hike commence 

[Jacques]

no thanks, that will just lead to less driving the cars, and lesser spares and dealers. They'll end up as garage Queens from a long lost forgotten era.

The prices are right now somewhere between very cheap and a little bit expensive. This will keep the worst car-thrashers off, together with the worst 18 y.o. drunken stereoid users, and leave it to us, who will and can appreciate a Lotus Esprit for what is is: A superb drivers sportscar.

Speculation: No Thanks!

If you want to multiply some of your Money, just buy something really odd like an old egyptian necklace, once touched by a palaceguard, who used to know the Family who breeded Nefertitis cat, and which have since been in custody of the russian tsar's private Cook, during the very first day of the russian revolution, and having a frustrated divorced american female writing a book about it.

And leave the Esprits affordable to the rest of us normal people, with a normal income, thanks.  

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Tocus]

I had a old Lambo (a big year ago) and i bought the car with many parts,

just because the old owner, collected all the parts year after year, because its hard to find,

i still have 24 valve's (new in box) 12 inlet and 12 outlet, they are worth almost 2000 euro

if i can sell them for 1000 i am happy, but i dont get response....

my old lambo was a series 2 espada, and yess they are getting very high right now,