Most of you will disagree and i can understand but heres one. A 1994 Ford Escort Coswerth in mint condition and with reasonable miles is around 15 to 20k ish and a 1992 Toyota Celica GT-Four Carlos Sainz is around 3k for any decent ones ive seen. The gt4 has the great rally legacy and so does the coswerth and they are around the same performance wise but the celica is rare and the one i have mentioned are so rare in good nick even after hours of searching i couldent find one i would buy so if they are so rare why are they less than the cossie ? Can any of you think of classics in the same situation as this .

Ford Escort RS2000 Mk 2 v Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. A decent RS will be twice the price of a nice SL and being the former owner of the superb SL I know which one I'd rather have!

I think part of it is people buying the cars that they dreamt of as a kid rather then actual performance.

You're trying to analyse the market, which is all about sentiment and personal taste, not stats driven "logic".
You could start a thread called "the most underated and undervalued classic car".
If you're feeling brave it's "the most overated classic car" for which I'd nominate that big truck the E type Jag. (Bricks this way please)

ford has a massive fan base for its cars, especially the older ones, for many of us the escort cossie is the last proper fast ford before the accountants took over and ruined them with FWD ..

the sainz whilst a nice car is not that quick stock (i have put 2-3k miles on one) the ST205 GT4 was a lot faster

I agree it doesnt make sense: remember the mk3 escort someone was asking £25k for?

And every year we see non-running, decrepid Astons being sold at auction for as much/more then perfectly good driveable examples, even though the former will cost at leats half as much again to be retured back to perfect condition- (and if its a DB5, it'll be painted in silver birch).

And of course, cars like the 250 GTO which sold recently for over £22m. You can buy a proper, original, good looking, with provenance Supermarine Spitifre for less. You could probably buy 4 of them...

But when did it have to make sense? Despite Octane mentionning the investment value every sentence, people buy classic cars with their heart, and to hell with the value, cost, investment potential or whatever. I knew someone a few years ago who saw his home restored DB5 (bought in the late 80s for the same price as a new XR3i) increase in value to a point where he was scared to drive it, scared to leave it at home if he went out (the garage had a lock....and thats it), scared something would break in it. All he could do was clean it and look at it, and worry about the value decreasing if somehting decided to stop working. He was one of the unhappiest men I've ever met, despite owning a DB5.

Escort prices are distorted massively by the Historic Rallying situation, you have to have one to win, so the cost of shells is rising and that's dragging up the road cars with it. Outside of the Historic scene, an Escort is still the car to have to build a quick RWD competition car.

2CV prices are baffling - no one dreamed of owning one of those.

Very true Will. I have a friend who has a DB6 and when he has it valued for insurance purposes each year he gets a long face when it has shot up from the previous year.
He's almost too afraid to use it and I'm getting more fun from my DB7 Vantage Volante which is worth a fifth of his 6.
Funny old world, isn't it?

With Jaguar saloons there is a price inversion effect.
Looking back at the classic 60s Jags the pecking order was

Mk2
S-Type (Mk3)
420
Mark X / 420G

Now,

The 420 and Mark X / 420G are the cheap ones
Then S-Type
and Mk2s command silly money.

Who said prices had to make sense.