'Your special edition classic car might be rare because nobody wants it'
It was possible to order ’70s cars with a Kermit green dashboard, writes Tristan Judge. And that's a good example of why rare doesn't always mean desirable for classic cars
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One of the important parts of our job is to advise and guide our clients – and sometimes one of the hardest things is helping them come to terms with the fact that rarity and desirability are not always the same thing.
Sure, if you have a coach-built Ferrari one-off with a Le Mans history then you can pretty much set your own price tag – and if Ferrari had built half the F40s it did then they would be worth more – but it doesn’t matter how many times you say only a handful of BMW 840s were ever finished in Dakar Yellow, they will still be worth less than a blue, green or silver one.
You see, rarity is frequently a function of undesirability; if your treasured classic is finished in a rare colour then that’s almost certainly because it was an unpopular choice when it was new and the passage of time tends not to make much difference to people’s tastes.
