25/06/2010

In the efforts to finds a pulse somewhere in the market I've fetched up here, at the south-eastern end of BCA's operations and, on Fridays, mostly the bargain bin.

It's not as quiet as I first feared, with a good hundred people or so milling about. It's very hot, and there's a good deal of 'sports leisure' wear in evidence, making the whole thing look like a convention of gone-to-seed PE teachers. There was a fair bit of activity around anything sub-£1,000 (like I said, it's mostly the bargain bin) but the odd more interesting car was caught up in it: an 08-plate Tiguan that got a couple of bids and at £15,500ish only about £700 behind book, a 57 plate Polo with no miles that got, again, within £600 of book. But they're never going to get anything like the money that the vendors want if they're in amongst R-plated Rover 400s with no wheel trims and an ex-minicab E-Class with 250,000 miles on the clock that was trailing smoke like a WW2 bomber. It's worth bearing this in mind when looking at values on AuctionView, as we do when looking at auction results: was it the right car on the right day?

The strangest sight was a tidy M-plated Rolls Royce Silver Shadow in metallic blue, good interior and no obvious signs of rust (although by the way it lurched in and out of the hall I imagine the torque converter might well have left the building), fair bit of dealer history ... the punters stared at it, it stared back and the bidding wandered uncertainly up to £3,400. If he gets it, that'd be the bargain of the year; use it for wedding hire and you'd get that back in a month.