Price trends in the RV8 reimports market
Chris Watkins, who runs the well know RV8 reimporter HS Imports down in Somerset, keeps in touch regularly about his stock of reimported RV8s and developments with reimporting them. You will recall he sent in a reassuring note for RV8 owners following the investigative programme on BBC1 (the Great Car Fraud) concerning stolen 4x4s brought over from Japan in 2001. Well in this note he highlights some trends in the flow of RV8s coming to auction in Japan and the possible effect on RV8 prices in the UK. Anyone who knows Chris will know he is not the sort of person who talks prices up but is providing members with a well informed and authoritative guide to price trends with reimported RV8s. (19th June 02)

Chris Watkins runs HS Imports in Somerset, one of the leading vehicle reimporters in the UK. He has a close knowledge of Japan and family connections there so is well placed to understand the market and the auction system in Japan.

For three months we have been unable to find any decent RV8s coming through Japanese auctions. I delivered my last RV8 in May this year (2002) - it went to Geoffery Harris (Woodcote Green 1433) in Yorkshire - and I also handled the import arrangements for an enthusiast who bought one privately advertised on the net - this went to Paul White (Woodcote Green 1492) in Somerset. Then an old client spoke to me and told me that he was at a show recently with his RV8 and saw a green one from Japan, for sale at £18,000. He said it was immaculate with 17,000Km on the clock so it had not been converted with a mph speedometer. This led me to conclude that I would be foolish to stop importing RV8s just because the prices were creeping higher. It would leave the market open for speculators.

Last week we secured a good looking RV8 (Oxford Blue 1764) and I decided to buy it at any price, to see where it lead and whether the UK costs would work out too high. I also thought I might perhaps just keep the car myself. It was a very high auction grade, low mileage, etc, and the UK on the road price worked out to £15,300. It was sold on a deposit within 24 hours. In fact this was the car which is on the high seas sailing to the UK for the longstanding MGV8 enthusiasts, Keith Rowson. This week we bought two RV8s in Woodcote Green VIN 1682 and 1743. Both have mileages of 15,000 miles plus a few hundred, one

This note is really a kind of indicator of what has happened recently with RV8s prices from Japan. I still base my sale price entirely on what we pay for the car, and I will only buy the best. I did see an Oxford Blue car at auction when I was over in Japan in May, but declined it as it was repaired and still looked very shabby. I understand a UK buyer was looking at it so it might well end up here next month. It does seem as if the days of the £14,000 RV8 (my last one sold for £13,550) are numbered - or at least for a top grade cars.

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