How we value cars.

The headline figure on each of our 1,061 car pages is for a good usable example: a UK car with an honest history that you could use this weekend, with no major work due. It is not the best car on the market, and it is not a project.

Either side of it sit two condition bands. A project car is valued at 60% of the driver figure and a concours car at 150%. Those ratios were set in October 2026 from the evidence: our guides price projects at about 70% and exceptional cars at 135–140%, Hagerty UK’s figures put concours cars near 170% of a good one, and the best recent 993 Carrera sales top out around 150% of its value.

A value is market information, not a valuation of a particular car. For insurance, probate or a sale, a specialist who has seen the car is the right person to ask.

A value moves only on what cars have sold for: dated sold listings (we read The Classic Valuer’s record of sales, weighing UK and European sales first), and the published results of the sales we cover, such as RM Sotheby’s London. UK price guides, including Hagerty UK’s and Classic & Sports Car’s, are used as a cross-check.

Asking prices, auction estimates and cars that failed to sell never move a value, however loud the market. A single auction result is a reason to look again, not a new value: one car can sell high for its history or low for its faults.

Once a month we re-read the dated sold prices for every car we can match to a reliable record, and every Sunday night for the cars on our fast-moving list. Each Monday, cars that have drifted from their sales are reviewed one by one. Before a value moves, we check that the sales are the same car: not a different body, a special edition or a replica. Where a car’s recent sales agree with its value, its page shows how many there were, where the middle half sold and when we checked, with a link to the record. Where they don’t, the car is reviewed before we show either.

Recent sales count for more: a sale’s weight halves for every six months of age, so values turn when the market turns. When eight or more sales in the year agree, the value moves to them in one step; with thinner evidence it moves by at most 30% at each review, so one freak result can’t drag a value with it. In October 2026, before the regular checks began, every car in our articles and guides was checked individually against UK sources, and about a third were reset.

Some markets jump. When a car’s recent sales move sharply away from its value, or swing widely, it goes on our fast-moving list (20 cars today). Its page then says so and shows where the middle half of the last 12 months’ sales fell. While the weekly steps catch up, the figure we show is held inside that range, at the edge nearest our previous value: the most conservative figure the sales support.

Concept cars, works prototypes and anything of which 3 or fewer were built almost never change hands, and when one does, the price says more about that car than about a model. Their pages explain this instead of quoting a figure. Cars we haven’t yet researched say “Not yet valued”.

Tell us at hello@auto-index.co, with the car and, if you can, a sold price: what it made, when, and where. We read every one, and the car goes into the next weekly review.