Brightwells Auctions

[WelshBentleyBoy]

Two Sharks sold on March 8th

https://www.brightwells.com/classic-mot ... 7th-march/

A 1985 low mileage auto for £9000 ( £10080 with premium)

A 1988 176k miles manual for £7000 ( £7840 with premium)

Both look cheap to me but the auction site was snowed up a few days before the sale and bidders may have been put off.

[Pod]

I went to one of their auctions a couple of years ago. The E24 I was interested in was not accurately described and in my opinion, the quality of most of the stock there was poor - so maybe these two made as good a price as they were worth

I wouldn’t waste my time going to another of their auctions.

[WelshBentleyBoy]

They always seem to have a couple of E24s in their sales.

Its difficult to comment on the prices of our cars as there can be such a vast discrepancy in condition.

They sold a nice 633 a few years ago for about £9k which appeared on a dealer's web site two weeks later for £14,500 and appeared to sell!!

[Mark Shutt]

the thing that confuses me is prices seem to be all over the place and I'm yet to see any non M sell for much more than 10k regardless of condition.. there are dealers advertising what look to be nice low mileage examples for over £15k but they never sell and some have been for sale since I was looking for one! (November 2015). I would hope nice ones have gone up in value but have no evidence. like mentioned though, condition is everything..

[randall977]

The manual seemed like good value - mine will have cost me much more than that when finished - I had seen it advertised else where before. I've been watching E24 projects on eBay (here in the UK), most seem to be going for more than £3500 now - all auto. I really regret mot buying an 85 manual runner before Christmas for £1500 on eBay - well worth it for the parts.

[Pod]

The days of buying a cheap E24 -runner or not- have long gone. This is exactly what happened to the E9s twenty years ago.

[WelshBentleyBoy]

I have a theory that cars start to increase in value when the generation that lusted after these cars when they were new now find they can afford them
I have always had interesting cars but my E24 attracts more attention than most.
Condition is everything as the dreaded tin rust has reduced supply. The M versions have already shot up yet I feel that very few of their owners drive them to their potential and could get equal satisfaction from a standard E24

[randall977]

I agree with you there Paul, also I think a car has to go from looking dated to classic - with most at 30+ years old they are definitely classics. I'm glad the values are on the rise, firstly they are very expensive to restore so their value makes saving them more viable, secondly, it takes them out of the hands of abusers* (*many caveats apply to this last bit!). I've always liked the E24 but was put off from buying as they were nearly always 'modified' in a way that suggested that they didn't have a careful owner.

[86_6series]

Randell,

"but was put off from buying as they were nearly always 'modified' in a way that suggested that they didn't have a careful owner".

Your quote. Could you elaborate What kind of mods turned you off--just curious.

[randall977]

Ha ha, I knew I'd get into trouble with that! I think what I meant to say was... During my uni days I saw a few E24's locally which were pretty rough - untidy internal trim, ashtrays overflowing, poorly chosen alloys, additional spoilers etc - hold on that's my car when I bought it .

I don't remember ever seeing an E24 that looked well cared for...apart from one on the A34 a few years ago...which made me think 'I want one of those'. I think values, desirability and collectability etc is very much about peoples aspirations and associations. For years Capris and Escorts were ridiculed because of the type of people they attracted - not so anymore.

By-the-way, I'm on no way trying to put anyone down or say that certain people are of less value than others - absolutely not...don't hate me.

[wattsmonkey]

It's true of just about all BMWs until quite recently in the UK though, isn't it? They were simply ignored by the classic car fraternity. A friend of mine, fifteen years ago now, simply couldn't understand why anyone would want a 635 rather than an MGB GT. I couldn't understand why anyone would want such ancient engineering with a live rear axle, pushrods and siamesed exhaust ports when they could have a car which actually had decent performance for a quarter of the price. We agreed to differ. He sold his MG and I've had E28s, then E24s since. Don't get me wrong, I really like MGs as pretty things to look at, and I understand that they are from a different decade, but the notion that they are more of a classic than the E24 is wrapped up in all sorts of peculiar prejudice.

It mystified me why the E28 M5 should have been so much more desirable than the M635 for so long. Yes, numbers were lower and they weren't built on the normal production line, but the M635 must represent the flagship of the BMW range? It would appear that prices are finally starting to reflect this.

I must say that a lot of the fun has gone out of trawling ebay now that prices are getting ridiculous.

How's that for going off topic?

Rob

[WelshBentleyBoy]

BMW seem to have a longer gestation period than most marques before they become collectible. I had a 1971 2002 which I used for regularity rallying. I bought it for £4k and sold it 5 years later for £6k. Four years on it was sold last year for £11k! When I bought it I could have had a TII for a thousand more and that would now be nudging £20k. The 3.00CSL is another flier that took a long time to catch on.

For me the looks of the E24 will guarantee classic growth, not that I am in it for the money. I have always bought cars that I like the look of and want to drive.

I did have an MGB convertible once but it was s**t brown and every boy racer with a Ford Escort could see me off! It had to go!