Interesting that that was only £10K more than the high bid on the other RHD 550 - maybe people are seeing past the mileage issue?
I dunno, I find the entire premis of paying a retail price (or in some cases more than retail) at an auction as some form of insanity. Sure it makes sense for something like the Manual 599 due to rarity and a global audience, but not regular production cars. I follow the prices as I simply use it as a barometer of buyers appetite. It gives a window on the general sentiment of the market. I didn't see the bidding on the red car, but much of the bidding I did see was akin to pulling teeth for the auctioneer. A lot of uncomfortable silences.
Maybe the blue car will appear in a future Harry’s Garage video? He did give the money mpression of having an itchy wallet in the preview...
I remember there was some questioning about this cars mileage and suggestion of a dodgy vendor earlier in this thread, but the reality was that the car was quite clean and the history files show good recent maintenance. There was obviously some discounting for the holes in the earlier history and in Japan (note the Cornes mats), but if someone wanted a car to drive and enjoy, it looked like a decent bet. As much as owners tend to dismiss these auctions as being "ropey" when they don't like the prices on their favourite toys, I think reality is slowly returning to the market. A few examples: The 599 Alonso sold for £208k all in. Only earlier this year, Gayet was asking for €550k for a similar mile car. The 30k km 512M was sold £153k all in. Came from a well known collector, and obviously well maintained and driven. This price point should make sellers think about all the over £200k cars that attract no interest, The 19k km manual 599 sold for £360k and a 11k km RHD 599 GTO high bid £360k, both a third off the 2016 highs. A combination of political factors (possible 10% import/export taxes to EU) and currency appear to have narrowed the RHD premium - many of the cars yesterday were heading back to the continent. While yesterday must have felt like blood out of stone for the auction house, I think they did well to get even a 35% sell through rate, and in that process bringing some realism back into the market. Interesting to see that the crowd was more end-users rather than trade/.speculators.
