Stunning 240 estate

[Othen]

Originally Posted by rustytoba

Hi,

I've always thought that cars houses music and art all suffer from the same cyclical problem's. In reality possessions are only worth what people are prepared to pay regardless of how rare something is.

Greed plays a big part as we have all observed following a specific car on eBay for the umpteenth time with the reserve not met as we all clock up in our heads that by now the car has probably seized to the spot and I'd in no way still drivable but the seller still insist on a high reserve never selling.

Worse of all this has the potential to inflate the expectations of sellers or buyers pricing everyone out of an already difficult passtime to get into.

No matter how mint the 240 in my eyes a last of the line is not going to be as interesting as an early B20 model and I wouldn't spent 10k on either of them.

Just a thought,

Scott

That was very astute Scott. The value of anything is generally determined by the relationship between supply and demand for it, that is all.

Of the capital items you list property has the most intrinsic value because the population of the UK increases by 300,000/year but the place doesn't get any bigger. At the moment cars are going up in value a bit because there is more money (due to quantitative easing over the past 15 years) chasing less of them (as a result of supply problems as a result of the pandemic) - that situation will right itself fairly soon.

When it comes to Volvo 240 motor cars the demand is pretty small but they are not particularly rare. We all see them every day and at any one time there are probably 20 or 30 for sale across all platforms. We see people expecting high prices sometimes, and some people like to believe those are regular prices, but in my experiences they probably never make £11,000 and the reality is nearer half that.

I agree with you about the late 240 cars - why would a motor car that is less than 30 years old have any great value? If is just an old car, why on earth would one pay more for it than a recent car that would do everything much better? As motor cars reach 40 years old they become more interesting (in a nostalgic way) and the supply is much more restricted. The government recognises their heritage value at this point and has created a separate taxation class, exempting them from VED and MoT testing.

I suspect 240s will increase in value as have previous models from the '60s and '70s - but probably in a less profound way because more will survive.

Alan