Griff £ Values / Lack Of
Discussion
I need to get racing so I can join in the racing banter
My 2p on Griff values....
I'm new to Griff ownership, but have had a lot of classics including Ferraris, air cooled Porkies and an NSX, all of which have boomed. The Griff has a little bit but not to the same extent, and the only difference I can figure is the following.
Those cars have benefitted massively in price from a combination of:
1. Low interest rates pumping up asset prices (houses, art, wine, cars... when the bank is paying zero looks like people would rather own something that is appreciating), including a lot of cross border movement of assets (er, except houses)
2. The kids of the 80s and 90s now having the money to buy what was on their wall as a kid
3. Prices of standard ones being dragged up by the marquee cars (ie. if the 250 cali is worth £5m then the 355 goes up, and if the 355 goes up, stands to reason the 348 has to at least partly follow)
4. Simply getting older and rarer and in many cases invested in repairing or restoring, which goes into the price when it is sold
I think the only difference is that the Griff doesn't have 3 and TVR isn't a going concern so is less newsworthy, plus being pretty UK centric so not having as much international demand. Also, how many people have £30k to spend on a plastic car which is potentially lethal and has a reputation for unreliability (which I think is hugely unfair vs anything else from the same era having spend 1000s rebuilding Porsches that all leaked before and after, and £7500 on a single service for a Ferrari, versus my 350T and Chimera which may have had wobbly trim here and there, but never had a single meaningful issue... I think the difference is very visible niggles versus catastrophic problems and whopping bills for the others).
I think the Griff's has serious upside potential. I'm keeping mine for good if life circumstances allow so am not fussed either way, but IMHO TVRs are undervalued and the Griff should be the most valuable TVR. Not because it is the best necessarily, but it is the most iconic.
It looks insanely cheap compared to most classic cars and certainly anything comparable on performance - look at the price of replica Cobras, let alone real ones!
My only one caveat is that it is all still relative... my (admittedly very rough) 4.0 Chim was about 80% of the car for just over 20% of the price.
cjb44 said:
I am with you on that Cobra replicas should be banned
I think Griffs will have their day, probably helped by the revival of TVR, which, if successful will focus attention back on older TVRs. There is a lot of stuff written about the Griff being the archetypical 'British' sports car, together with its looks may well raise its profile again, particularly if they call the new TVR a 'Griffith'.
Pete
Pete Mac said:
There is a lot of stuff written about the Griff being the archetypical 'British' sports car, together with its looks may well raise its profile again, particularly if they call the new TVR a 'Griffith'.
Now that would be very cool.Their timing's almost impeccable - a new griff is usually due every quarter century or so
It is pretty silly....even decent early capris are selling for more than griffiths these days for goodness sake. I think part of the problem is people are still selling/advertising them far too cheap. There was a mint, totally rebuilt early(ish) Griffith advertised and sold relatively recently on here for 15k, it obviously sold in about 24 hours of being advertised (understandably). Looking at the pictures and reading the spec and comparing it to the price of other classics it should have been well over 20k easy these days. Look at the current price of triumph TR's etc....There was a mark 1 Capri sold on eBay recently for 28k.....I know which I'd rather have in the garage !
Good point Paxo1! Ideas to get more fair values:
- Why don't we all invest £11 to advertise our cars at £50k plus on pistonheads, and change he values overnight? Has to be worth it.
- or I could put it in RM auctions with a £12m estimate and hope someone from Russia waves at the wrong time during the auction and accidentally buys it
- or I could put an air-cooled beetle engine in it
Indeed they don't Bob.
I made one of my keys look a bit better when I managed to find a T car alarm fob on ebay.
Irritatingly I only have the 'in progress' photos here at work but you can use your imagination for the end results.
The black sealant on the end of the key in picture 1 was from when I created the impression inside the bottom half of the fob (picture 3) so I could also fit a magnet in the fob for my David Beer boot opener.
I made one of my keys look a bit better when I managed to find a T car alarm fob on ebay.
Irritatingly I only have the 'in progress' photos here at work but you can use your imagination for the end results.
The black sealant on the end of the key in picture 1 was from when I created the impression inside the bottom half of the fob (picture 3) so I could also fit a magnet in the fob for my David Beer boot opener.
Edited by Barreti on Wednesday 2nd September 16:37
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