A Day at a Classic Car Auction | The Cars We Loved & The Prices We Got Wrong!

A £50,000 Audi Quattro, a bargain Lagonda Rapide, and a handful of French and German oddballs that prove the market is full of surprises. If you love classic cars, auction drama, and the kind of brutally honest price-picking that only comes from people who are part of the industry, this episode is for you.

The Old Car Lady puts 6 lots under the microscope with sharp, opinionated calls on value, condition, and desirability. From a 1990 Audi Quattro 20-valve press car with a serious premium question hanging over it, to a rare Lagonda Rapide that's suddenly looking like smart money, every car gets judged on more than just shiny paint and a glossy brochure. 

She invites Richy Barnett - Markets Editor for Classic Car Weekly, Simon Monks from Lot 76 YouTube channel and dealer Jason Hall from Bramhall Classics to share their market insights as well as challenging them to guess where these cars will end up under the hammer.

You'll hear detailed reactions to a 1978 Peugeot 604 V6 SL in exceptional condition, a no-reserve 1978 Citroën GS Club, and a beautifully preserved Mercedes 190 Ponton with one of the most obsessive history files you'll ever hear about. Along the way, the conversation digs into what actually adds value at auction, why press car provenance can be both a blessing and a curse, and which classic shapes still stop people in their tracks.

• In this episode: the 1971 Hillman Hunter Super 1725 is discussed as a no reserve resto-mod-style car that had a strong preview appeal, and the final price lands at £5,344 including fees, above the early estimate.
•  Simon from Lot76 weighs in on the 1990 Audi Quattro 20-valve press car, arguing that the 20-valve version is more desirable than the 10-valve and that press-car provenance may justify a premium, but only up to a point.
•  The Audi's press-car history becomes the big question: better documentation and preparation, but potentially a harder life from magazine and TV testing, track use, and repeated wear.
•  The Lagonda Rapide is highlighted as the speaker's top pick of the sale, with a concise history of Aston Martin and Lagonda being brought together under David Brown and the market shifting from high-value to much more accessible territory.
•  The Lagonda Rapide is praised for its design and value, with the estimate reset from a lofty prior range to a more saleable level, and it ultimately sells for £50,625 including fees.
•  Jason Hall of Bramhall Classics joins the conversation outside to talk through a batch of French and German curiosities, and how he very nearly ended up a Maserati main dealer.
•  The Peugeot 604 is treated as a hidden gem: left-hand drive, automatic, recent cosmetic work, and a strong sense of old-money elegance, though the market estimate looks low for such a tidy
•  The 1978 Citroën GS Club gets a strong endorsement as a practical, efficient, compact family car that still makes sense today, with special mention of the bi-rotor version and the strength of Citroën enthusiast demand
•  The Mercedes 190 Ponton closes out the discussion as a car with exceptional history and real driver appeal, but the lot does not meet reserve and remains unsold despite reaching €10,000 on the day.

I would like to apologise for the reduced quality of today’s episode - the Producer is having a well earnt rest and I’ve had a crack at it myself - normal higher quality business will be resumed shortly.

A Nod To

Simon Monks of Lot 76 YouTube channel @Lot76CARS

Richy Barnett of Classic Car Weekly and www.thespecial.org website

Jason Hall of Bramhall Classics 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Samuel Carlady and welcome to the Wheels and Deals podcast. Instead of talking about the olden days of motoring this week, I'm going to look at how much the cars from the olden days are changing hands for at the moment. And we're better to look than a classic car auction. So I went along to HH Classic Auctions at Buxton Pavilion Gardens last week and met up with Richie Barnett, motoring journalist at Classic Car Weekly, dealer Jason Hall of Armour Classics, and Simon Monk's of Lot76 YouTube channels. So I get their perspective on a few of the cars that piqued our interest. As usual, our toast is a little left field. And I challenge them with guessing where they thought the prices would land on the day. Stay with me because of course I do let you know where they end up. And as usual, some of our guesses were way off the mark. If you don't already, please do follow me on all the social media channels. Just look for the old car lady and do let me know what you think about the current classic car market and the prices these cars offer. It really helps independent podcasts like mine to grate. Right, let's crack on. The first car Richie and I had a look at was a 71 Hillman Hunter Super 1725 offered with no reserve. So do you recognise this, Rich? We saw this at iconics at the NEC back in November, I think. That's right. Um we liked it. Definitely. You do like it with a resto mod, I know. So this is a big hit with you. No reserve, Rich. Away, away, put it in our hats in the ring for this one. Do you think three grand? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

I think three to four. I think I think it should do. I think it should be. Should do. It should be five grand's worth. And it wasn't far off. It fetched £5,344, including the fees. I asked Simon from Lot 76 YouTube channel to give me his thoughts on the 1990-20 valve Audi Quattro press car.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, the reason I want to talk about this one, it's a 20-valve car rather than the 10 valve car. So I consider it probably more um desirable. This, I'm not sure whether this is Mars red or not, but this colour does tend to suffer with lack appeal. This one seems to be pretty good. What I like about this car, it is a pressed car, but it does come with a pressed car premium. So looking at the prices of these, we're talking about a car that I think is guided 50 to 60. I think I'll have to have a look and check that. But normally we'd see these about 40 to 50. Is a pressed car worth a premium of about 10,000 pounds? It's got VAG plates, thoughts out of group plates, but you can get plates made up. That's not a difficult thing to do. It's got the proper back window where the quattrows into the back window might be difficult to replace those. But the paintwork, it's not too bad. The difficulty with these cars is, as I know, with my Audi B8's parts supply, you've even now Audi Heritage parts, even for quattrows, it's quite difficult. It's got a sunroof, which is a mixed blessing, a little bit of drama on the sunroof there. Um but generally speaking, it looks to be a very, very tidy car. The only thing I would question with the car is just whether it's worth that sort of guidance. So it is guided at 50 to 60.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Simon, why do you compress cars at Mandahai Prime?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Well, sometimes they've appeared in magazines, they've appeared in Evo, they've appeared in AutoCAR, they might have appeared in Top Gear in period. People like to see them there. But also with press cars, they do have a fantastic maintenance record. When the car comes back from a test, the tires will be changed, components will be changed, the car will be absolutely at its best when it's been tested by a magazine or by a TV programme. But on the downside, the car will have had a very, very hard life. Potentially, a car like this will have been tracked, will have been performance tested, the clutch will have been had what have um where, but the cars are prepared every time they go out.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I've had this talking to a few people about pest copping, they will have had the absolute knackers brushed off them before generally by people that have more dry. Now these cars do better being driven hard.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

They were built for driving, they were built for crashing, they were built for rallying, weren't they? I think this is a this is a good example. It's a usable example. It's just whether it will command that sort of premium, 50 to 60. I I don't know, that's my concern.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

What would you take it in for?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

45?

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Son is just showing a sold on the website. I know on the day it got to 47,000, so Simon was spot on. If we add the fees on, that's £54,050, presuming that no more negotiation was done on the day. My pick of the sale, Simon. Thank you. It's a Legonda rapede. Uh fascinating story. Pre-war, Legonda and Aston were big names, very, very highly desirable marks. By the 40s, they were both in the ship financially. There was uh bloke called David Brown, who was running a uh business at the time producing largely tractors, who was he was doing very well financially, and he bought them both separately as businesses and merged them. Um and they got the best of both worlds. So Lagonda got the performance in the engineering of Aston, and Aston got the luxury um and and the sort of prestige of of the Lagonda. So based on the DB5, essentially, but with all the Lagonda styling and luxury. And I know aesthetically they're not to everyone's taste, but I think these are beautiful cars.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

It's a lot of car for the money, it's now um guided up to the honesty.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

2021-ish, going 80 to 100 at the top end, condition-wise. They then dropped down to 70 and 18 look good value, they've then dropped down to 50 60 look good value, and now they are sub 50 with bells on, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

It's guided at 50 to 60 when I saw it go to 456. It's now starting at 38. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Which do you know what? It's priced to sell. You know, uh it's great to see people recognising the market value of a car instead of flogging the dead horse with the hundred grand thing, you know. But I think I think this will fly. I don't know whether because it is guided so sensibly, whether it won't do a little bit more, because I suspect it might get quite a lot of interest. Great to see the repeat do well. It sold £50,625, including fees. And then we had a look round outside with Richie Barnett of Classic Car Weekly and Jason Hall, the Bramble Class. Delighted that we're studying friends for Bristol, Jason, and you've not managed to make or any sort, but no, because we've made that quit. We decided we're we're better.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

We came here a while back and they had two of these.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

I said, We're not going to make the joke, are we, Jason? Because we're better than that.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

Yeah, looking at that Maserati over there, uh, in the 80s, in fact, I can tell you exactly when it was, I think it was about 1986. I had a garage in Stockport with a pal, and Maserati called round and said, Would you like to have the dealership for Maserati's? And we're like, Oh, yes, please. And they wanted the 25 grand. And they said, You get two cars and a load of spares. And I said, Oh, what cars are they? And they're like, Well, it it's a whole brand new range. Uh, one of them's called a buy turbo, and then the other one's called blah blah blah. And then they eventually, reluctantly, out of your suitcase, brought this catalogue out, and it's like we'll have a think about it. He just didn't want to show us an actual photo of the car. So it wasn't big and glossy. That's not really. The car was gross, huh? Neither. And do you know what in hindsight? Yeah, they're gaining popularity now, probably due to like in there. No, probably, you know, just rarity value. I mean, they were a terrible car, but towards the end they probably fixed loads of things.

SPEAKER_00 7:15

But now they're Italian exotica. What do we think of Peugeot 504?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

I personally love it.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

French glory. You cannot beat this. I I'm sorry, but I'd have this in preference to a CX.

unknown 7:27

Pepper.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Would you? Yes. This is just I just love the chiseled. I do like lines.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Then we found a 1978 Peugeot 604, it's the V6 SL in unbelievably good condition.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

It is so majestic in a low-key way, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, even things like the bumpers and the headlights, it's all so simple. It's almost like brutalism meets 1970s French car design. And what's wrong with that? You cannot fault this. The design is so plain. Look, this one hasn't got sunroof. No. But look, it's all lovely and straight. And the interior is just beautiful. It is always lovely as well. And there's a no-frills dashboard, it's very similar to that 1980s Mitsubishi that I've got. It's all functional. There's nothing flash. It's just beautiful. I mean Can you imagine going to the south of France in this from say driving down getting on the boat because you wouldn't have gone in the on the channel to gofting down through to the south of France? It would be nice. Because this car is proper, old money fresh car.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Look at that rear blind. I I would die for that. Has to be to buy one of those as an accessory now, it's got to be three to five hundred quid.

SPEAKER_02 8:41

And just how cool is this car? It's plain, it's and look at this automatique. Automatique as well. It can't get fairer than that, can it? Or better even than that. Well, I think that is from the sound, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

A little squint, a slight squint. Yeah. And I'm channelling a Mercedes 280 SE.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

I think it'd take a slight splendid three bottles of wine before I can. No, well, you know, so I'm good for that.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

And the other thing, why this is cool, is for a decent up market car, they put the aerial on the back wheel. Sorry, the antenna is on the back.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

I'm guessing it'd be electric.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Well, it wouldn't there wouldn't be any vandalism.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Me and Sam were saying the other week, we were stood next to a carving electric car, and we were saying, isn't that just a great It was an MR2?

SPEAKER_00 9:23

It wasn't even a particularly nice car, but we loved it because of the aerial.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

Yeah, well, there's nothing wrong with it. I love all the ones they do in Japan where they go on the gutter. Yeah. And they like the big V shot. Or that funny little one they have on the front bumper. I've got one of those now, as Sam will tell you on my Kia picks up one on the Kia. Your traffic signals, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_03 9:40

No, it's a parking thing, so you don't bump the walls. Oh, because I had a Lexus that had one, and on on the on the radio there was a button you pressed for like a very rudimentary Japanese traffic system. You know, like that one that you used to have on your steering wheel that had LEDs that went north, south, east, west. Really? Yeah. And that's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

I've only got the parking pole, which just tells me how near the wall I am. But you'd have seen that on the old Car Lady, classic car community play. You said now I've got the yellow headlights. I love the yellow headlights. I do love it. Now this needs real yellow headlights.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Produce some facts and figures now. Uh I've not got the spectrum on. I've not got the spectators on, so I'm loosely facts and figures. 78 Peugeot, 604 V6SL. It's had a recent cosmetica overhaul, which I would absolutely concur with. It's in super condition. Uh guided at 9 to 11.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Yeah. See, that should be 100, shouldn't it, really? As much as we like it. As much as we like it. No, they like it.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

No, point taken though, that people don't get them. I mean, if it's a W123 Merck, people will be all over it. He's left hands. Yeah, which is cool.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

I personally love it, and it's in fantastic condition.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

And I love the close-together wipers like those early 70s S classes had as well. So that is just one. Who needs a one wiper like a CX when we're going to have this?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

One owner from Util 2020. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Yeah. Right. Nice paint job on it. Where are we going with it?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Great Jones, place your bets, where's it going to go?

SPEAKER_03 11:14

I think the hammer's going to fall unsold at five grand.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

It's off. To a new home, it will go for eight and a half. I think you're going to ring the owner.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

I agree with you. I think this one's going to end up being a provisional deal, but I do think it's I do think it might do somewhere between six and eight. I think a couple of people on the day, I think it's a really special, unique car, and I think if you're building a collection, this is well, well worthy of a spot in it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Forget your W123s, kids. This is what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Well, no, so this one did not sell it. Got to six thousand pounds on the day. So me and Jason weren't a million miles away, but it did not go to a new home. Next we look at 1978 Citron GS Clubs. Bit of me, this is so people either love these, hate them, or have a love-hate relationship with them. Which one are you, Rich? Jace, don't go away. Somebody do I want to shoot the sitting? Absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

I like everything about now, I'll tell you what, let's be sort of semi-political. Why in this day and age do you need a car any bigger than this? It's got room for five, it's got a boot, and it's got a spare wheel. It's got a spare wheel. So what else do you want? I mean it's economical, reliable, comfortable, hand. Hydrate suspension. Looks the part, and look, it'll go in most domestic garages. And in fact, this should still be made today. It's lovely. It's a lovely mix of sort of slight French eccentricity with a bit of accepting there are other markets beyond the bigger.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

They did a rotary one of these. By rotor.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

With the NCU engine in.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 12:47

Worth a fortune if you could. From a grow 80. Yeah. Yeah, but they most of them were scrapped. Yeah. Weren't they?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

They had all those problems, plus a load of citron problems. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Let's get two problematic cars together.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Citron Maserati. Bingo.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

I'll tell you what else I like about these dog dish hubcaps. Fantastic. They even sound good. Isn't it? I love it. Oh, she's very harsh. She's harsh, isn't she?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

So gents, no reserve. Where are you pitching it?

SPEAKER_02 13:22

I'm going to pitch it quite strong. Yeah, I am. Because there's such a strong six and following. I'm going to go to four to five grand. Damn you, sir. That's exactly what I was going to say for.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Four to five grand. Well, let's let's let's see it. We were well off the mark with this one. It did sell for six thousand seven hundred and fifty. You two can keep with such a you're not going off that move. So we've got a bit of history with these, haven't we? 190 ponton.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

I love them. I absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

That's what it would have looked like if we'd persevered.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah, so I was storing. So well, I sold the car for Jason. He had a project car in his storage unit that was at a 190 ponton that had the file from day one.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

8-0.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

But it had the service from day one.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

From the day the guy bought it, right through to him writing to Mercedes like ten years later, saying there was corrosion on the exhaust, and he thought that was disgraceful. I've never seen history.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

If you go you go back, and you do have to go back quite a long way on my social media, I did a few videos of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the kind of the bar, the bar if I want. Yes. Go back and have. If you ever want to see the best history file I've ever seen on a Merck, go back and have a look at it. Anyway, let's have a look at this. Uh oh, Rich, come and have a look at this inside.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

So this is absolutely delightful. It's just fabulous.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

And they drive really well. They are sort of they keep up well with modern traffic. They they stop reasonably well for a car of its age in modern traffic. Cull and change gear. In fact, shut the door, it sounds just like a Merck. Yes, that should Oh, should we do that again then? Well that heading 17. I need to get a sexy hobby. No, it it this is beautiful, right. Fabulous. What you're getting up price wise? Don't look. Okay. Don't look.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

Well that uh it's got to be ten to twelve.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Fourteen to eighteen. Oh really? It is a particularly nice example. It is. But you can find them, they are around. You rock up to a puddle outside a club in this.

SPEAKER_03 15:19

Oh god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

You're standing out a mile, aren't you? And much more than in a new Lambert.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

If that pulled up and the Lamborghini pulled up, everybody would be looking.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Well, everybody what like people like me and you.

SPEAKER_03 15:29

No, mate.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

And you. I mean, I'm not sure the chicks are gonna dig it, but I think the old car people will. But would the girls go for the bloke in the Aventador or the Bloke in the Ponton?

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Sadly, we know. Necessarily. I think so. Necessarily. Sorry, Samba.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

No, it's true. And last but not least, the Ponton didn't sell. It did get to £10,000 on the day and is still available. So that is it for our chat from H H Classic Options in Buxton. Let me know on social media if you think these cars went for the right money. And if you've got any questions for me, Richie, Jason, and Simon, please do join the old Car Lady Classic Car Community Group on Facebook. We would love you to get involved. So until next time, happy motoring.