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I was thinking about expensive cars and how they are in real terms a bit of a waste of money and I came across a post on ListServe. Undoubtedly all the cars on the list are very nice cars, but of them all, I wonder which of them would go on to become a good investment.

In tenth place was the Maybach 57, which is in my opinion a German copy of a Rolls Royce, high end luxury, uncompromising on its quality without regard to the cost. I think a certain Simon Cowell has one of these, or perhaps he has the other model. With a list price of over £290,000, it’s a very expensive car, but I seem to recall an episode of Top Gear where they discussed it’s depreciation in a less than positive light. Not surprising, you only need to thumb through a copy of Auto Trader and you can pick up a 25 year old Rolls Royce for Mondeo money.

In ninth place was another Maybach, the Maybach 62, a slightly more expensive version of the 57. Again its value will probably fall sharply once driven off the forecourt, so not a good investment.

In eighth place is the Porsche Carrera GT, this is actually a very nice looking car and quite rare. If it were not a Porsche, it would probably hold its value rather well, but unfortunately, in my mind, Porsche have become a victim of their own success, and although this is a very exclusive car, it’s not an exclusive marquee anymore. A better investment than a Maybach no doubt, but not the best.

In seventh is the Mclaren-Mercedes SLR, which to me looks like a regular Mercedes SL on steroids! It looks the business, but it’s no Mclaren F1, which was its predecessor, before Mclaren jumped into bed with Mercedes. I don’t think the SLR will be as fondly looked back upon as the Mclaren F1 was and still is. The F1 had supercar status, it had a normally aspirated V12 pumping out over 600bhp, whereas the Mercedes engine uses a supercharged V8 to give it a similar number of ponies. I think it will hold its value reasonably well, but again like the Porsche, Mercedes is no longer an exclusive marquee.

In sixth place is the Koenigsegg CCR, costing over half a million US dollars, it’s a lot of money, but it is a lot of car! It was reviewed on Top Gear and I think Clarkson almost wet himself with excitement at how good it was as a car. So it’s got some guts, it’s a beautiful looking car and it will be very rare, as they are only building a handful a year, and unlike other supercars manufacturers, Koenigsegg only build supercars. I think this car would hold its value well.

I will complete the top five in another post, in the meantime I don’t think any of these cars will be worth more than they are currently worth now in ten years time. However, in the long term, in twenty five or more years from now they could appreciate in value, assuming they are kept in mint condition. Given inflation, it’s possible that the value could rise to more than it is currently. Being completely hard nosed about it, taking into account cost of servicing, cost of capital tied up in the cars, they would really need to appreciate by a huge amount for any of them to outperform property or stocks/shares as an investment, but if you have the money spare then why not enjoy it!

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