Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

JD classics have a nice sprint for sale,
just phoned for the price out of curiosity and its 83500.00!!!

claimed they sold an S4 recently for 63500 within 2 weeks of advertising

a little shocked to say the least!

best regards to all
Deryck

Deryck,

curiosity got the better of me, so I've just had a look!

83500 is an awful lot of money....

regards,
Mark

yes definitely

but good news on the value front as thats raised the bar to another level

I'm assuming this is the car
http://www.jdclassics.co.uk/showrooms/L ... /12528.htm
It's nice but ?83,500, that's getting into Lotus Elite prices and there's nothing else out there anywhere near that value and there are some nice Sprints for sale, all around the ?47,000 mark.
The car that shows as being sold was a yellow over white Sprint and if they got ?63,000 for it then someone must have more money than sense comparing it to others out there.

Just my opinion of course and happy to be wrong

Well my retirement portfolio is looking a little better.

Maybe Ronnie Peterson sat in it once

Hi
When you look how much a sh....... horseshoe crab imitation, named Porsche 356 ( my opinion )
to pay is, and waht you to get for this price, then this car is cheep. Logically I wouldn't pay so mutch.
To drive an Elan makes more fun as to drive this overheating, poorly ventilated biscuit box.
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/porsche/356
Cheers Urs

Is it a coincidence that it is a single colour S4 Sprint which some may argue looks more sophisticated than that of the two tone Gold Leaf livery?

for that price, the least they could do is dye the leather on the steering wheel black!

The car is moving around within the trade; advertised earlier this year http://www.juliensumner.com/full-detail ... p?code=103 for ?50k .

Gordon.

tedtaylor wrote:for that price, the least they could do is dye the leather on the steering wheel black!

Perhaps that's the patina that you would be paying the high bucks for

There's just one tiny detail missing from the shocked comments above that nobody seems to recognise the value of. It's a one owner, super-original car with perfect and full provenance and only 18,600 miles on the clock.

That is incredibly rare, and makes it stand head and shoulders above the 'average' Elan that most of us have, and probably puts in in a collectors market sector that would contain only a tiny number of other Elans in the UK. And none of those are for sale.

Add that to the JD business model of buying the best / with interesting history / famous competition cars, and doubling the price they paid for it, and sitting on the car for 12 months plus. Slowly word will get around that 'the best Elan' is available at JD, and it will sell. They have done this with many Astons, Jags, Ferraris and several of the ex-works Lotus Cortinas, some of which they've sat on for a couple of years or more. But they do sell eventually.

It has to be good for the marque, but I'm in no doubt that it makes no difference to the value of the vast majority of Elans, including my lot!

The collector car world isn't so different to the collector antique world, with a big difference between the best and the rare, and the rest. For example, I can buy a new copy of the James Bond 'Casino Royale' book for a few quid, and it has exactly the same words as a mint and perfect first edition of the same book. The difference is that I would have to pay well over ?10,000 for that one!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1ST-1ST-UK-ED ... SwstxU~va2

Nothing to do with value, everything to do with rarity and desirability.

Mark

Mark

Elanintheforest wrote:There's just one tiny detail missing from the shocked comments above that nobody seems to recognise the value of. It's a one owner, super-original car with perfect and full provenance and only 18,600 miles on the clock.

That is incredibly rare, and makes it stand head and shoulders above the 'average' Elan that most of us have, and probably puts in in a collectors market sector that would contain only a tiny number of other Elans in the UK. And none of those are for sale.

Add that to the JD business model of buying the best / with interesting history / famous competition cars, and doubling the price they paid for it, and sitting on the car for 12 months plus. Slowly word will get around that 'the best Elan' is available at JD, and it will sell. They have done this with many Astons, Jags, Ferraris and several of the ex-works Lotus Cortinas, some of which they've sat on for a couple of years or more. But they do sell eventually.

It has to be good for the marque, but I'm in no doubt that it makes no difference to the value of the vast majority of Elans, including my lot!


Mark

Mark

well they certainly saved no expense in setting up a good showcase for photos, and that certainly helps for what I believe is part of their customer base (investors buying expensive Italian cars) - that they are expending into the Lotus area would draw attention of that crowd to what remains currently underrated pieces of engineering to my eyes...

But as for the car in question, relatively low mileage but repainted anyway (plus new dashboard - with few lights? , repro door and I believe trunk seal, then one may want to double check if the crashpad is abs or genuine, too) : is it truly a rarity, or rather just a nicely recommissioned auto...

There is still no capital gains tax applicable for profit made on the sale of a classic car (in the UK). Buy the right sort, sit on it for a while, then sell and take the profit tax free.

I think JD classics are catering for the investor, the web site made me drool with all the finest examples possible for each marque on display and for sale.

The asking price is exceptional for an exceptional car, but remember that the ? has effectively devalued by 25% since this time last year and we were all getting used to seeing ?50,000 cars advertised.

Good points Alan. We also have to remember that a project car is now ?15k to buy, and a cheque-book restoration over ?60k with a waiting list of some 3 or 4 years for the best restorers.

That's virtually all the money they are asking for this car, and perhaps that puts the value of this car in perspective. With the restored car it's 'just' another restored car, probably without the cast iron provenance of this Sprint.
Mark