CF 9 for sale

[Classicus]

CF 9 for sale....
   
   http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C336861
   
   http://www.vdvgrant.be/en/sale/ac-frua-428-convertible/
   
   http://acfrua428.activeboard.com/t15999627/cf-09/
   
   

[Classicus]

Asking price 250,000 Euros. Think I'll pass....

[REV]

I do wonder that if you took the cost price when new and applied an inflation index what the cost of the car would be now?
   
   Interesting math I suspect and one that may indicate that a lovely well sorted car is worth it's money.
   
   I would also think that the cost of building such a hand made car today would be considerably more than in the 60's as labour etc. has risen far beyond inflation.
   
   If it's as good as it looks it may not be as silly as you'd at first think. There is going to an event.... and then there is arriving at an event..... I would think you'd be noticed in this car.
   
   :-)

[French Frie]

250,000€ represent about £18,330, in "1968 pounds" (given a 1,15 francs/€ ratio for 1968, and a 11,86/1 francs/GBP 1968 conversion) ... what was the 1968 retail price of a 428 frua convertible ?
   
   for illustration only, beautiful pics of another convertible in the Villa d'Este background : http://montesquieu.over-blog.fr/article-voitures-de-legende-167-ac-428-frua-cabriolet-1965-105548155.html (sorry for the french text [;)] !)

[REV]

Wikipedia says of a 1965 car: "The AC 428 coupé sported a recommended UK retail price of £5,573 (including automatic transmission), to the manual transmission Aston Martin DB6's £4,460 - itself roughly twice that of a 4.2 litre Jaguar E-Type roadster at £2,225"
   
   One thing to factor into any inflation index would be that the skills needed to produce such a car were relatively common in those days. Those skills are no where near as common today. Good quality restoration today costs a fortune.

[lyonheart84]

You can see why the AC 428 at approximately 20% more new than an Aston Martin in the late 1960's struggled to sell in higher volume in addition to the well documented development and production delays. Although the skilled labour is rarer these days, a lot more work could feasibly be done by modern machinery with modern materials which might balance out production costs. I guess if you compare with the current entry level DB9 series Aston at circa £ 130,000 the AC if they built a modern equivalent to the 428 would be about £ 155,000 today, probably too expensive to sell in viable quantities, especially if it still used a 'bought in' high performance engine. The most expensive Frua that I know of that has actually sold was the Convertible CF12 advertised at £ 175,000 for about a year which had gradually gone up in asking price over a period of 3 to 4 years as it passed through various auction and dealer's hands. Although advertised at that figure we do not know what it actually sold for of course or if part exchanges were involved as that is between the dealer concerned and whoever bought it