It was with genuine sadness that we recently had to announce the fact that Zenos Cars has
gone into administration
, not least because the product was genuinely engaging and great value. The basic E10, hotter E10 S and range-topping E10 R have all given us plenty of laughs so we can only hope someone steps in to save the company.
That said, it does make now a very sensible time to get into Zenos ownership. With no more being produced at the time being those in the trade reckon prices are likely to firm up even further.
"Obviously, they're going to get rarer and rarer now, which can only help values," says Andy Noble. "It is a very good car - very reliable - and they've also made enough cars that there's enough around parts around to look after the cars that are there. And most of the parts are out of the Ford parts bin, so they're easy to maintain."
Until now, used Zenoses have experienced a bit of a slip in value; the cheapest E10 in our classifieds is an S with just 950 miles on the clock, which seems a bit of
a bargain at £24,999
, down from the £32,995 list price of a new example. It compares well, on paper at least, to the two-year-old E10 with 4,000 miles on the clock that's
asking £28,495
, even if the latter does have some nice options on it.
But while that price slip is set to stabilise, Noble isn't so sure that values are going to start going the other way any time soon. "I think in the short term E10s will certainly hold their prices," he says. "But are they an investment? Hmm. Maybe the E10 Rs are; the last one we sold was an E10 R Drive, which is a limited edition and there are only 15 of those, so I think you could see those going up in price."