Is it though? I could go out tomorrow and buy hundreds of different 2cvs, they aren't hard to find they are just expensive.

So if you had a good 2CV which you wanted to sell how would you put an asking price on it. I always look what similar age, mileage, conditions cars are advertised for, add 10% for haggling thats my price.

If it sells then the price has been pitched right. If it doesn't sell its over priced. Isn't that how anything second hand works.

I agree, that's how it works, which is why we have £500+ scrap cars about. I just don't agree that it's because they are hard to find.

Had I been around longer then I think I would feel more defensive of my 'scene', but I have to say I agree with pretty much every thing here, I particularly like Brian's attitude. If people think they can buy their way into a scene and then tell everyone else off for doing it wrong then they deserve to be wound up and not taken seriously.

Having said that they have their uses, if everyone had the same DIY, make-do and mend (tightfisted) attitude that I have, then the specialists and parts suppliers would have gone out of business years ago, and spares would be far harder and more expensive to come by.

On the downside, the recent rise in profile of the cheque book warrior, has coincided with the dramatic increase the in cost of cars, although which is cause and which is effect, I'm not completely sure. At the end of the day, whether consciously or not, what I suspect a lot of us, (me certainly), hold against these people is the fact that they're pricing us out of something we love, and for that I won't forgive them.

Admittedly 2cvs aren't as rare as their prices might initially suggest, the trouble is that price isn't dictated by rarity alone, but by supply and demand, and it seems to me that it's a recent increase in the latter that has driven up prices.

You could say that the 2cv has been a victim of it's own success, they were so plentiful and cheap for so long that although consciously everyone knew they weren't being made anymore, it took a while for the run-it-into-the-ground-and-buy-another attitude to disappear, and consequently in the last 5 years or so they have become a much rarer sight on the roads. This has, ironically, increased their credibility with the general public, which has lead to car enthusiasts who 10 years ago wouldn't have considered owning a 2cv, joining the scene. There are a few of them around here, and while you're very welcome guys, I'm afraid you've missed the haydays.

So, is there any light on the horizon? Well, classic car prices generally did shoot up in the boom of the '80s and then fell back to a more reasonably level in the early '90s, and I wondered if the current depression would bring the prices of 2cvs back down, but so far no luck. I think there's going to be only one thing for it, we're going to have to make the 2cv un-credible again,

I think a lot of it, is a change in attitude, by Joe Public. Before I "saw the Light", I hated 2cvs with a passion, but now, I'm one of it's biggest fans Over the last 12yrs or so, since I owned one and entered the "scene", the overall response from the general public has improved immeasurably. Only on Friday, I had a crowd of 20 somethings(age wise, not number of people )round my 2cv, looking all over it and inside and taking photos with each person standing by it, it's just becoming more accepted by ordinary folk, as a result of that, we seem to be getting the type of person, that Matt is raging about, that is the cause and that is the effect. It's been mentioned about the economic situation at the moment, well, the car seems to have ridden that wave, as we seem to be moving out of recession(if the figures are to be believed)and if the prices have remained buoyant through the recession, then the only way I see them going.....Is Up! That won't stop me from using my 2cv and having a bloody good time, the 2cv scene is the BEST, you can't find better people elsewhere

There probably is an element of 'scene tax' creeping in, as the point and pay folk who now are in the position of being able to buy a second or third car to fulfil a whim or simply want a jolly retro plaything, go for a 2cv as that is the car that everyone remembers and recognises, as opposed to the 'lesser known' varieties like Dyane and Ami which still only fetch a fraction of the sale prices 2cv's do these days.

The rising prices were the thing that got me back into 2cvs. I had them years back in my student days when they were worth pennies (I bought my Dyane for a fiver) and had been hankering after another ever since.
I'd always kept an eye on the prices and realised that if they carried on rising at the same rate the I'd never be able to justify buying one as an extra car.
I think we shouldn't under-estimate the amount of thirty/forty somethings that are buying 2cvs again as they share my rose-tinted specs memories of abusing 2cvs in our youth. I'm not loaded by any means but if I've got to throw my little bit of disposable income at anything, then it might as well be a barmy little French motor.

Maybe the fact that they are worth more/prices higher isnt all bad, surely in reality the fact that they have been out of production for 20 years and you go for days and weeks without seeing another one on the road means they are a fairly rare type of car now, i mean they made ten times as many vw beetles and you dont see them much either. What i'm trying to say is surely they are not a 100 quid throwaway car now and certainly so far removed from the mundaneo euro boxes on the roads these days that its obvious to me that they are going to start fetching a few quid .

True, values will increase ben, but.

There are many many 100 quid scrappers needing chassis, floors, sills, screen surround etc etc that people now ask 700 quid for, sorry, but no way.

If you need to realistically spend 800 quid on parts let alone labour and paint (which will be at least double again in most cases) then a car like that is still 100 quid.

And they arent that rare as Russ says, OK you dont see them, but they are out there and for sale everywhere, in france they are still ten a penny, just have to look around a bit to see that.

Prices are odd recently though, i feel the prices have settled to a bit more sensible place for shabby yet useable 2CV's yet shabby dyanes etc (especially on e-bay) seem to have gone up in comparison to what they are actually worth.

Swings and roundabouts, pay your money take your choice. sorta thing i guess.

Let me make it clear im not moaning about anyone or any social type owning a 2CV. Im moaning about their lack of real interest and involvement yet they push us mere mortals with real world recession wages out the market. You know?

There's ask - and there's get.

To ask that money only requires one deluded person.
To actually get it requires two.

What's far more likely is that it'll sit there for a year, then get given away or sold for a hundred quid after all.