Classic Aston Martin V8's
Discussion
Thank you.
It's a bargain for what it is. When you see restoration projects at £60k-£80k which you will then have to spend at least another £100k to do properly then it makes sense to buy one that has been done. Fully restored bodywork, complete retrim in Connolly leather, rebuilt engine etc.
Fingers crossed!
It's a bargain for what it is. When you see restoration projects at £60k-£80k which you will then have to spend at least another £100k to do properly then it makes sense to buy one that has been done. Fully restored bodywork, complete retrim in Connolly leather, rebuilt engine etc.
Fingers crossed!
I recently came across this thread and it's remarkable. Congratulations on the work, the resourcefulness and the ability to put it up for others to read about. There seems to be a lot to these cars. The DBS has always been a personal favourite of mine, but other cars have come up first. I will be looking out for an opportunity. Cheers.
Thank you. I thought it would be an interesting project to document so I'm glad so many on here have enjoyed reading the thread.
The auction didn't reach the reserve and although there are a couple of people making enquiries I'm not convinced they will lead to anything but you never know.
Either way, I have booked the Vantage in for the restoration to commence. This will most likely be just after Easter as they have a couple of other projects to finish first.
In the meantime, here's a few photos from the H&H website. I can't fault them, they presented the car very well and I was happy with everything they did. These Aston V8's don't seem to typically do well at the more traditional auctions but the car was in storage nearby so I thought it was worth a try. A very nice Series 3 V8 with a manual gearbox and 7 litre RS Williams engine conversion did sell on Collecting Cars recently for just over £150,000. A good price so maybe something to consider.
The auction didn't reach the reserve and although there are a couple of people making enquiries I'm not convinced they will lead to anything but you never know.
Either way, I have booked the Vantage in for the restoration to commence. This will most likely be just after Easter as they have a couple of other projects to finish first.
In the meantime, here's a few photos from the H&H website. I can't fault them, they presented the car very well and I was happy with everything they did. These Aston V8's don't seem to typically do well at the more traditional auctions but the car was in storage nearby so I thought it was worth a try. A very nice Series 3 V8 with a manual gearbox and 7 litre RS Williams engine conversion did sell on Collecting Cars recently for just over £150,000. A good price so maybe something to consider.
Sorry it didn't sell but I have not bought from the big auction houses for some time due to the 'buyers premium' it is a stupid thing to do to make you pay to buy something.
The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me - maybe I am the only one that is fed up with this premium, Auctioneers are just estate agents really, they dont charge these fees yet.
Some of the cars on the auction yours were in were quite soft on prices, maybe the market is readjusting.
The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me - maybe I am the only one that is fed up with this premium, Auctioneers are just estate agents really, they dont charge these fees yet.
Some of the cars on the auction yours were in were quite soft on prices, maybe the market is readjusting.
classicaholic said:
The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me
I might be misunderstanding how it works, but I just looked at the CC site and it seems like the buyer pays 6% of the hammer price, from a minimum of £600 to a maximum of £6,000. That's buyers premium, no?classicaholic said:
Sorry it didn't sell but I have not bought from the big auction houses for some time due to the 'buyers premium' it is a stupid thing to do to make you pay to buy something.
The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me - maybe I am the only one that is fed up with this premium, Auctioneers are just estate agents really, they dont charge these fees yet.
Some of the cars on the auction yours were in were quite soft on prices, maybe the market is readjusting.
Yes, agreed I didn't think the prices were that strong. It might be a readjustment or at least a levelling out, a good thing in my opinion. The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me - maybe I am the only one that is fed up with this premium, Auctioneers are just estate agents really, they dont charge these fees yet.
Some of the cars on the auction yours were in were quite soft on prices, maybe the market is readjusting.
leglessAlex said:
classicaholic said:
The collecting cars site has no buyers premium and the seller pays the commission which seems better to me
I might be misunderstanding how it works, but I just looked at the CC site and it seems like the buyer pays 6% of the hammer price, from a minimum of £600 to a maximum of £6,000. That's buyers premium, no?classicaholic said:
Sorry, I thought there was no buyers premium - my bad!
I thought it was me misunderstanding, which on this forum is generally pretty likely 
These seem a little undervalued in general I've always thought? Quite a few in the upcoming Bonhams seem to be in the mid five figure range, that's a lot of car for the money! I'm struggling to think of another classic as handsome and prestigious for the same money.
leglessAlex said:
These seem a little undervalued in general I've always thought? Quite a few in the upcoming Bonhams seem to be in the mid five figure range, that's a lot of car for the money! I'm struggling to think of another classic as handsome and prestigious for the same money.
It depends on the model... some go for quite big money. I had one for many years - a volante vantage, quite a rare one as it happened. 
NDA said:
leglessAlex said:
These seem a little undervalued in general I've always thought? Quite a few in the upcoming Bonhams seem to be in the mid five figure range, that's a lot of car for the money! I'm struggling to think of another classic as handsome and prestigious for the same money.
It depends on the model... some go for quite big money. I had one for many years - a volante vantage, quite a rare one as it happened. For a standard pre-1977 V8, prices had been in the doldrums for a while. Only now are they reaching respectable levels. I can't think of many contemporary cars with that level of performance that could seat four in relative comfort. Lamborghini Espada is much more money. Ferrari 365 GT4 is probably the best comparison.
I will be interested to see how the Bonhams auction goes too. The V8's offered look like they will need work at some point...
Just a brief update on the my 72 AM V8.
After no luck at the H&H auction where the highest bid was £95k I spoke to Collecting Cars about potentially listing it with them. They would not accept the car with a reserve higher than £100k and ideally they wanted it at £85-£90k. This was too low for me.
So I put a classified ad up on Car and Classic and the car has just been sold to a very nice German man for £145k.
Sad to see her go but relieved it's gone to a very good home and an owner who is going to keep in touch and update me on his life with the car.
Now hopefully the work on the Vantage will begin soon....
After no luck at the H&H auction where the highest bid was £95k I spoke to Collecting Cars about potentially listing it with them. They would not accept the car with a reserve higher than £100k and ideally they wanted it at £85-£90k. This was too low for me.
So I put a classified ad up on Car and Classic and the car has just been sold to a very nice German man for £145k.
Sad to see her go but relieved it's gone to a very good home and an owner who is going to keep in touch and update me on his life with the car.
Now hopefully the work on the Vantage will begin soon....
Given the quality of the previous posts, I also look forward to a Vantage restoration continuation of this thread, and picking up a few maintenance tips. I've been gradually modifying my early Oscar India to late 80's X-pack spec, it now looks the part 
- all that remains to do is (gulp) the engine upgrade. I've held off until now as my cars original lump still runs very sweetly and the cost of a full rebuild to the later spec (or one of the popular bigger bore versions), even if the required and very rare carbs can be found, is eye-watering 
- all that remains to do is (gulp) the engine upgrade. I've held off until now as my cars original lump still runs very sweetly and the cost of a full rebuild to the later spec (or one of the popular bigger bore versions), even if the required and very rare carbs can be found, is eye-watering Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff