A large and varied collection of lots at H&H’s fabulous IWM Duxford venue produced a few interesting individual results and revealed  a greater trend

H&H always have  an eclectic mix of cars for sale with potential for some genuine bargains, especially if you are a fan of modern classics. Star of the show was a concours winning Aston Martin DB MKIII and at the other end of the spectrum was a 14,000 mile 1989 Fiat 126 – we’ll give you some time to consider which of them you think sold….

SL and XJS

If you had been looking for either a Mercedes SL (of pretty much any vintage) or a Jaguar XJS then Duxford was the place to be. The XJS is often touted as the next classic Jag and the SL is well ensconced in the classics “hall of fame”, but neither lived up to their expeected potential with all the W113 SL’s failing to sell (some bids came pretty close to estimate) and R107’s not faring much better. These cars aren’t cheap to restore or recondition due to the very thing that makes them attractive – their robust Mercedes engineering. Common or garden XJS are still not setting the market on fire but limited production, low mileage models in good order are certainly becoming more popular as demonstrated by this XJR-S.

The “surprise” result of the auction was a 1965 Austin A40 race car,  raced and rallied by respected lady driver Gabriel Konig. With good form in the fairly distant past, a previous appearance at Revival, known ownership and no doubt a boost from this year’s A40 action at the 2014 Revival this car sailed past it’s rather lowly estimate of £5,000-£7,000 to make £16,000 on the hammer. Strong money for a race car that potentially needs a significant amount spend on it to bring it up to date but other factors were clearly in play.

Only two Ferrari’s were offered with a 412 marking their steady rise in the of the slipstream of it’s more desirable brethren (but why not have one if you’ve got the rest of the set?) a 348 failing to sell (these will go up) and a Daytona Spyder “evocation” making a healthy £40,000. Amazing that it used to be a Jaguar XJ12!

Entry into the the Daytona Spyder (evocation) club starts at £40,000 + premium.

Expectation management

What sounded like a fine Aston Martin DB MKIII was bid to a sensible £225,000 and failed to sell – shy of its low estimate by £25k. We (and others – see below) felt this should have sold and this marked one of the recurring themes of the event – that sellers expectations were not being met even when lots were bid tantalisingly close to the estimates. Where these expectations arise remains to be seen but with a sell through rate of just over 60% they certainly weren’t in short supply. When you consider the effort and expense involved in getting a vehicle to auction, the owners must have been fairly convinced their cars were worth more.

The very last lot was a lovely looking Rolls-Royce Phantom II tourer – needing a lot of work but still with great potential for it’s future owner. Sold for £34,000 + premium.

Our verdict

The interesting statistic here is the number of cars unsold – nearly 40%. In fact our normal benchmarking figures are skewed because H&H did not offer estimates on a significant number of vehicles so the percentages within and out-of estimate aren’t as meaningful. What the figures do highlight is that many cars came close, but not close enough for many sellers. Is the industry managing their expectations correctly?

If you are still wondering, the Fiat 126 sold for £2,100 + premium.

The numbers

Download the full results and heatmap by clicking on the image below