Ferrari GTB sells at auction

Last week’s Pickles auction in Sydney sold a late-model Ferrari GTB with just 2293km on the clock for $355,000, plus the 33 per cent Luxury Car Tax component.

The car was nabbed by Ateco Automotive Ltd, which distributes Ferrari in Australia and has since been onsold to an enthuasist.

Ateco spokesman, Edward Rowe, says the GTB was now back in the Ferrari fold.

“Ferrari guards its residual values jealously,” Rowe says.

Although Rowe would not comment on the price paid, Carsguide believes it was well over $500,000 and just shy of its new car price of about $600,000.

The Ferrari was one of several high-end cars that went through Pickles quarterly luxury and exotic auction.

More than $4.5 million worth of vehicles went under the hammer.

Other rich pickings included a 2006 Aston Martin Vantage sold for $162,000 and a 2008 Porsche 911 Turbo all-wheel-drive fetched $280,000. Even with the LCT component added into the price the cars were bargains.

Some home-grown performance cars also sold.

A 2007 Ford Performance Vehicles F6 Typhoon fetched $38,500, not bad when new it cost $63,310.

Apart from Pickles, GraysOnline and ManheimFowles auction houses are reporting a lift in distressed prestige sales by finance companies and cash-strapped owners and the economic crisis bites.

For the managing director of GraysOnline, Cameron Poolman, the downturn is proving a boon.

He says the traffic on Grays’ site has increased more than 25 per cent since the economy took a dive.

“We expect that it will continue to rise,” he says.

“People are still looking to buy but they’ll try to get it at a reduced price.”

Poolman says GraysOnline has helped take out the middle-man and dealers.

The upside of increased interest in cars going through auction houses is that it is helping push used values up.

Private owners and fleets are holding on to their cars for longer, leading to a shortage of used stock coming into the market.

This is lifting used prices of some popular late model cars by up to $1500.