2021 Aussie Family Car Market Review

By: Cliff Chambers

Date: 01.07.2021

What's been happening to the market for the cars we grew up in? Uncle Cliff reveals all.

It seemed during the year just past that every time an auction gavel fell to denote the sale of a significant Australian car, another preconception died.

According to every pundit worth asking, 2020 should have been an Annis Horribilis for the classic vehicle sector; Worse than anything experienced during the past 80 years.

Looking at those auction results we find the bulk of sales still did not involve the high-profile, heavily promoted models that regularly made unsolicited appearances in mainstream news broadcasts courtesy of the auction houses’ PR operatives.

However, the ones that reportedly sold for exceptional amounts did set the scene for heightened and often misplaced expectations in other sections of the market.

To generate extreme prices in a competitive sales environment you need more than one person who is desperate to own an item, with funds available to cover their bid and sufficient resources to withstand a decline in the asset’s value – sometimes a decline that is significant and long-term – should circumstances change.

Buying to the limit of your resources because ‘the end is nigh, and I want to enjoy a car like this while I can’ makes little sense for two reasons. If the world as we know it doesn’t end and much of your capital has been submerged beneath a lovely but overpriced motor vehicle, how do you fund basic living costs for the next several decades?

Also, should legislators decide to ban or heavily restrict the use of such vehicles (which we suggest will not happen for some decades) who will want to buy something with a massive and diminishing value? There are alternatives.

Midsize models from the 1970s – Cortina, Torana and the maligned Chrysler Centura – all acquired locally-made six-cylinder engines during their time in our market. That means performance that is more than adequate and while they aren’t suited to track-day heroics, except maybe on the drag strip, decent examples cost $15-25,000 and you can repair most things that go wrong in your carport.

Wanting a Great Aussie V8 does not need to mean going six figures into hock for a GT Falcon or Monaro. Look at VK-VL Commodores, XD-XE Falcons or for something bigger a Statesman or Fairlane and there will be the grunt you need with the space you want plus an Aussie badge on the back and all for usually less than $30k.

This inventive nation is also noted for the quirky stuff we designed or built; models that today are enjoying heightened demand. Things like the Capri Clubsprint, various incarnations of Mini Moke and yes, even the Goggomobil Dart. All of these and many beside them offer basic fun, aren’t overly expensive and are climbing in value.

During a year of unpredictability, the factor that shone through was the willingness of Australians to support brands that they might studiously have ignored when such cars were being sold new. A Holden didn’t need to broach the million-dollar barrier and a Falcon didn’t need a GT-HO dash plaque before someone would stand resolutely beside it as the neighbours came to exercise their jealous admiration.

For all our diversities, disagreements and Red versus Blue brand loyalties, Aussies are still car people at heart and devoted to ensuring that significant models will remain relevant and revered.

Cliff Chambers
February 2021

From Unique Cars #450, March 2021

Unique Cars magazine Value Guides

Sell your car for free right here