MARKET: The Biggest UK Sale Of The Year

Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale 2024 | Source: Bonhams

What's going on here?

Here are your 5 headlines from Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale

Tell me more

1 - It was the biggest UK sale this year with the total sale value standing at c. £11,000,000. The 1928 Mercedes-Benz 36/220 S-Type became the most expensive car to sell in the UK this year at £2,871,000.

2 - Sell-through rate (STR) at 61% was steady vs prior Festival of Speed sales (62% in 2023 and 64% in 2022), but down on the average so far this year of 68%. The STR was pumped up by 40% of cars being offered at no reserve, that’s up from 29% in 2023 and 31% in 2022. When you take these cars out and only look at STR for those with a reserve it stood at 35%.

3 - Check out the comments section of the live stream and it was full of people saying how poorly the sale went. Looking at the data, that’s not entirely fair. 55% of cars didn’t meet their lower estimate (premium added to the high bid for those vehicles that didn’t sell). That figure on average this year has been in the mid-40s, so slightly higher but equally 55% is very similar to figures this sale has produced in the preceding years.

4 - What sold well: 2008 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 'Crown Edition' (estimate: £200,000 - £300,000) sold for £563,500. Bonhams have sold two other Crown Editions this year, both of which sold at c. £430,000.

5 - What didn’t sell well: 1986 MG Metro 6R4 Group B (estimate: £150,000 - £250,000) sold for £80,500. That makes it the cheapest 6R4 we’ve seen sell since 2011.

Why should I care

It’s easy to be downbeat but the simple reality of this sale was that when you view it in context it was business as usual. 

Looking across almost every metric there was consistency from prior years of the FoS sale, even if it was slightly down compared to what we’ve seen in the rest of 2024. Zoom out