Techno Classica Essen

[preS]

Well,

Two days gone by at Essen so far. I've seen a few cars sold here from the major exhibitors roll out at the end of the day, to be replenished by fresh "stock".

It's quite an exhibition, and should be on the "to do" list for any car junkie.

Prices are up "of course", but Essen is in it's own league sometimes in that regard. The biggest surprise I think I see is the value of the G cars and later (74 and up). These prices are rising very fast and the offering prices here are quite staggering, but you have to take it all with a grain of salt as it is "Essen", and there's other factors as well.

There's a thread over on Pelican regarding the prices that people are seeing and hearing about cars being offered by some of the major exhibitors over here, and I posted this over on Pelican, and thought I would offer it here as well:

I am at the show right now, spending some time with some accounts I have over here.

There's a few things you need to realize about the pricing that you see and hear about the market over here, particularly at Essen.

The prices here by the dealers include a 19% VAT tax. So a price of 25,000 euro's is suddenly 20,000 euro's.

The car has to get to Europe... prices on shipping have gone up dramatically. I was speaking to a vintage Mercedes dealer friend yesterday and the cost for getting 2 cars out of the Detroit area to his shop in Belgium was 6,000 eu, roughly 3,000 euro's per car.

A dealer here has to offer a warranty by law from my understanding, I was told that this is about 6 months, but it covers only certain items (maybe the engine block, but not the cylinder heads as an example). So, you have to cover this somehow.

The booths here at Essen are horribly expensive. One major exhibitor here has a roughly $80,000 bill for just his floor space, then he has to get his cars here by transporter from his shops in Hamburg and Berlin (and back again). He has a dozen employees here to feed and house at hotels that are incredibly expensive.

And then there's the fact that this is "Essen", so the pricing has a certain amount of expectation of being higher here as well. You think the sticker price is what is being paid? Not so....

So, yes the prices are going up, but you need to factor in a lot of the above to what you hear about the pricing.

cheers,
Eric

Eric you put things good in perspective.

BTW the floor price, board and room is why some vendor's from early days are not having a booth any more.

Richard

[Alan.uk]

I am flying over today and hope to catch up with a few people whilst there.

Ala

[Macroni]

Sounds like a to do.....

[Tom F.]

Very interesting thread. No photos?

[Bill Simmeth]

So, yes the prices are going up, but you need to factor in a lot of the above to what you hear about the pricing.

Eric, good write-up and analysis, but the other side of the coin is: There are people paying those prices to own those cars.

Enjoy the shows -- I'm green with envy.

[DutchmanPhotos]

Definitely a "to do"..!!

Been there all Wednesday, and will be there again on Sunday.

Prices are indeed going though the roof......

Few pics on my blog: www.bumpsteer.blogspot.com

[OliveR]

On the road to Essen...

[Soterik]

Very interesting thread. No photos?

When I get back... I'm on a very limited amount of bandwidth on the "pay as you go" internet connection I have here. I've taken a lot of pictures, a pretty much overall encapsulation from the show. Theirs vendors here of every kind from vintage parts, old signs, old lights, new tools, car trailers, car lifts, paint manufacturers, restorers of all types, suppliers to restorers, etc. etc. etc.

Mercedes has taken over almost a whole hall with their vintage cars, and then the vintage Mercedes clubs have booths within the Mercedes hall, and then some very specialized Mercedes restorers also are adjacent. As a rough guess, I think there's over 20 gullwings and maybe 30 300SL roadsters if you could go around and count them all up at the various booths. I would personally say that Mercedes is the highest represented car here without a doubt. There's a good 75 Pagoda SL's and 190SL's (maybe more) between all the booths.

Porsche is also well represented. They have now kind of taken over a hall as a corporate presentation, so VW, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, Porsche etc. The lions share is the presentation of vintage VW's, including a Vintage type 2 VW bus that is a Becks Beerwagon that they are serving from... (there's beer everywhere....). Porsche classic has a good size booth with about 5 cars spread out on display, including an RS done by the factory shop and then a 64 901 that is in bare metal on a rolling stand.

As far as Porsche's represented here, it's pretty strong with a couple of specialists like Manfred Heerman(?) with "Early 911S" and he's got Frank Gallogly's old green African rally car, a 73RSR, a couple of RS's, a 67S, 68S on a dolly, plus others. Porsche's are all throughout the buildings for sale at various vintage car sellers. As I mentioned before a real spike in pricing on G series and later cars (74+ though the 964's). These cars are also the most represented in the quantities shown here, with longhoods not as prevalent as the later cars imho. There's a couple of guys selling Porsche parts, but there's not too much of an offering, certainly nothing like the LA lit meet/Swap meet that many of use are used to. So, to me, it's no wonder that there are guys coming over from Europe and elsewhere to "our" shows (California in particular).

Then there's exotics of every description, from pre war and post war racing and classic touring and sporting cars from such as Rolls Royce, Lagonda, Pegaso, Maserati, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Facel Vega, Bizzarini, Talbot Lago, Bugatti, etc. etc. etc. and then guys who make new parts or sell parts to support these manufacturers as well. Mostly expensive cars and then products though. Virtually no VW's present with a couple of exceptions like the VW corporate display and a few vintage VW beetles.

Car clubs are very well represented here at the show with their own booths from virtually every make and model.

I think the attendance is about 170,000 people over the 4 day run.

I'm off to the Stuttgart show in the early morning, and will also give my feedback on this show as well with comments and pictures when I get back. This show is usually 2 weeks earlier than Essen, but some smart guys decided to overlap the shows and screw up the vendors and enthusiasts.... I guess somebody thinks that if they overlap the shows they CAN put the competitor out of business.

Plenty of "car guy" ephemera here too, Auto art, leather jackets, leather caps and gloves, vintage and vintage looking luggage, quite a few watch manufacturers, vintage watches, and plenty of beer...

More to follow

[beh911]

Good grief. This is on my calendar next year. Looking forward to pictures

[Gytis Kupinas]

Essen is short of nothing. Cars, parts, memorabilia and beer everywhere.
Glad I am here.

Prices are shooting for a stars, but have seen so many car with "SOLD" sign being rolled out the floor makes me wonder.

Met few guys . Hope to meet more. Two more days , but I was already sencory overload today .

Internet here is in weigh of gold, so photos will come later.