Paris, so often the capital of style and arbiter of trends, let the classic car business down last week at Rétromobile with huge positivity, great crowds but mixed results.  Sales rates were down on Arizona with 77.92%, 71.53% and 76.76% for RM, Bonhams and Artcurial respectively

First out of the blocks were RM Sothebys with what was the smallest inventory of the three big guns in town.  Last September at Battersea, they went totally against trend by selling a lot of Porsches at good prices – rumour on the day indicated that there was a single enthusiastic purchaser who accounted for the trend busting.

In Paris – RM did it again presenting 25 varied Porsches and only missing on two one of which was a 917 Race Prototype with a bottom estimate of €4,600,000.  The 23 sold units made an average of 131% of bottom estimate making a nonsense of recent poor results – that said, Ferrari didn’t fare quite so well with the shine off some of last year’s best performers.

When it came to Newport Pagnell’s finest, a lovely Series IV DB4 was an early non-seller but then the sales clicked through like clockwork with a pair of Zagatos, both first of their lines, shining very bright – a 2003 DB7 Zagato, number 1 of the 99-produced returned €392,000 with premium while a 2012 V12 Zagato number 0 doubled up with €750,400 with premium – an original DB6 Vantage concluded their Astons with a powerful €436,800.

Bonhams results looked distinctly lacklustre – like their companion auctioneers, No Reserve was very much the order of the day and, when you look at the variance on some of the cars between estimate and realised value, there must have been a mixed reaction from Sellers as the pendulum swung on prices.  One of the winners was the seller of the 1935 Aston Martin Ulster Sports – with a bottom estimate of €1.6 million the published sales value of €2,012,500 is substantially up.  But then when you take out the Buyer’s Premium and the Seller’s Commission, it all levels out.  Two non-sellers with a V8 Series III and another pre-war Aston, a 1.5 litre Standard Sports model were balanced by a V8 Vantage Volante that sold for €222,500.

As with the London Palladium, the top of the bill wound up proceedings in style – Artcurial were said to have drawn an audience of 3,000 + for their sale and there were the inevitable multi million euro sales but it is reported that the marathon event saw some slow and almost reluctant bidding and that was reflected in not the best showing for the Aston Martin contingent – a 1935 1.5 litre long chassis was the only non-seller but their pair of DB6’s did not exactly sparkle with neither breaching £300,000 and one only just making £230,000 – and that is with premium.  When you consider the Buyer’s Premium at Artcurial starts at 25% and is still running at 12% over €1,200,000 and then there is VAT on top, this must be affecting results.  Their Aston Martin V8 Volante POW would have been adversely affected by its Federal engine, but nevertheless, £405,709 with premium is not reflective of the demand for such a rare car.

Overall results were down on Arizona in terms of sales rates and revenues but where the auction recognised the Buyers’ market, the sales happened!

And then there were the Astons:

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