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What a car is worth is the easy half. These are about the reason behind the number — written for people deciding whether to buy, keep or sell.
The 996 Carrera: the cheapest 911, and the engine question that decides it
A good 996 Carrera is valued at £25,000, less than the 997 that replaced it and well under half an air-cooled 993. The discount is real, and so is the reason for it. The car to buy is the one whose engine history you can read.
· 6 min
The V8 Vantage: the cheapest way into a modern Aston, and the gearbox that decides it
A good V8 Vantage is valued at £32,000, about what a DB9 costs and a third of a V12 Vantage. The car is the bargain of the Gaydon range. Whether it is a good buy depends mostly on one choice.
· 6 min
RM Sotheby's London: £36.6 million, an F40 above estimate and a Barchetta nobody bought
56 of 64 lots sold, led by an £8.2 million Daytona SP3. Modern limited-run Ferraris and Porsches beat their estimates most clearly, Senna's NSX made ten times a normal one and the near-new 550 Barchetta did not sell.
· 8 min
Every Ferrari 550 Maranello is a manual. It took the market years to notice.
£143,685 new in 1998, around £60,000 at the bottom, £120,000 today. The 550's recovery follows one fact: Ferrari never built one with anything but a gated six-speed.
· 6 min
Two Ferraris at RM Sotheby's London, and what their specification is worth
A 550 Barchetta with 571 km and a 575M with the rare HGTC pack cross the block on Saturday 31 October. Both carry estimates far above a normal car. Here is what the premium is for, and whether the market has paid it before.
· 6 min
Honda NSX: NA1 or NA2, and what the Type R premium buys
A good early NSX is £85,000 and a 3.2-litre NA2 £110,000. The original Type R is £320,000. The step from NA1 to NA2 buys a better car to drive; the step to a Type R buys something else entirely.
· 5 min
E-Type Series 2 or Series 3 V12: the case for the later cars
A good Series 1 is £95,000. A Series 2 is £45,000 and a V12 £60,000. The later E-Types are not the poor relations the gap suggests, but they are not the same car either.
· 5 min
The Testarossa made the poster. The 512 TR is the one the market pays for.
Same flat-twelve, same strakes, same basic shape. Yet a good 512 TR is valued at £200,000 and a good Testarossa at £120,000. What the extra £80,000 buys, and when the original is still the better buy.
· 6 min
Ferrari’s customers chose the F1 gearbox. The F355 market has chosen the manual.
Soon after 1997, most F355 orders were for the paddle-shift car. Today a manual Berlinetta sells for around £33,000 more than the rest. What that gap pays for, and the service record that matters more than either gearbox.
· 6 min
A 328 costs more than almost any 308. The exceptions are the oldest ones.
The later car is the better car, and on most of the ladder the market pays for that. Then you reach the first carburettor 308s, and the order turns over.
· 5 min
The first 157 Countaches are worth nearly twice the other 1,825
An LP400 "Periscopio" is £800,000. The LP400 S that replaced it in 1978, wider and winged, is £420,000. The premium is not for speed or for age. It is for the shape before anyone changed it.
· 5 min
R32 vs R33 vs R34: which Skyline GT-R is the buy
An R34 is £85,000, an R33 £48,000 and an R32 £38,000. The three line up almost exactly in order of how many were built, so the question is not which one is mispriced. It is what each one is for.
· 6 min
Six more cylinders costs £1,000
A DB7 with the supercharged six is £26,000. The same body with an all-new V12 in it is £27,000 — and it is the better car in almost every respect.
· 7 min
The cheapest manual V12 Ferrari costs £65,000. It has back seats.
A 550 Maranello is £120,000. A 456 GT — same era, same layout, same gated manual, one V12 — is little more than half that. The difference is two seats nobody uses.
· 5 min
A gearbox worth £20,000: the last manual 911 Turbo
Two Porsche 997 Turbos, same year, same engine, same power. One has three pedals and is worth £65,000. The other has two and is worth £45,000.
· 5 min
Two identical E-Types, £175,000 apart. The difference is paperwork.
A Series 1 3.8 with its original engine is £250,000. The same car, same year, same colour, with an engine that came from somewhere else is £75,000.
· 5 min
Everyone says "the last air-cooled 911". Here is what the phrase actually costs.
A 993 Carrera is £68,000. The 996 that replaced it two model years later is £25,000. Almost nothing else about the two cars explains a gap that size.
· 5 min
The 996 Turbo is punished for an engine problem it does not have
The IMS bearing ruined the 996's reputation. The Turbo does not use that engine — and it is still priced as though it does.
· 5 min
The E30 M3 costs more than every M3 built since. That isn't nostalgia.
A Sport Evolution is £140,000. A G80 M3 — quicker in every measurable way — is £75,000. The gap has nothing to do with which is the better car.
· 5 min