Experts have noted that once common-place no-frills modern classics are increasingly popular with the next generation of punters at auctions
With auction houses noting the increasing popularity of everyman classics at sales, it’s the ‘Billy-basic’ offerings from a few decades ago that are allowing punters to scratch their nostalgia itch.
With a younger generation of punters looking to buy cars they remember from their youth, it’s not MGs and Triumph roadsters that they’re nostalgic about, but the no-frills classics from the 1980s and early ’90s they remember, such as the smallest examples once favoured by many grandmothers, saloons originally doled out to sales reps and estates once bought by shopkeepers for runs to the wholesaler that seemed to be parked on every street corner in the UK.
Once overshadowed by their more luxurious and performance orientated brethren. entry-level models are enjoying a second market chance as buyers wake up to their rarity and undiluted basic charm. As a result, while values aren’t near those of the plusher and quicker versions, they’re certainly firming up.
H&H’s Damian Jones believes that lesser models can, if anything, rekindle more memories: ‘In terms of nostalgic appeal there are more people who remember friends, neighbours or family members who owned a Sierra 1.8 GL rather than an RS500.’
The increased demand for Eighties and Nineties family cars has also been reflected in higher prices. ACCW investigation earlier this year into the prices being paid for the big sellers showed that the top price for a regular Peugeot 205 had risen from £1800 five years ago to £3850 - an increase of 114 per cent. Other big increases include the Vauxhall Astra MkII, up from £1300 in 2018 to £4256 this year, and a 30 per cent increase f
