An unregistered 1980 MG Midget with just 162 miles on the clock, fetched over £11,000 when it went under the hammer at Anglia Car Auctions on Saturday. The Vermillion red car sold for £11,025 well ahead of expectations that it might fetch between £7,000 to £9,000.
“It was a very good sale – an exceptional price,” said Simon Whitmore, of Anglia Car Auctions (ACA), based at Beveridge Way, Hardwick Narrows Estate. “It had no reserve on it and the vehicle has never been registered.”
Also up for auction the same day, but which failed to sell, was a 2001 Mercedes Benz S500L, purchased new by former England captain David Beckham and originally registered as Y3 DVB in June 2001.
The car was up for sale with all manuals, service book and the original V5 bearing David Beckham’s name, with 117,000 miles on the clock from new. Its selling price was estimated at between £7,000 and £9,000. Yesterday ACA confirmed they would be speaking to the vendor to see whether the car would be entered into a future auction.
The MG Midget had been bought by the vendor after hearing about the imminent demise of MG but he never registered the vehicle as he intended to give the car to one of his young children on passing their driving test.
After 11 months, the car was despatched to Holland Bros., of Sleaford, for its first annual service. The car had, at this point, covered just 143 delivery miles. Whilst at the main dealer it was discovered that the only fault on the car was that the speedo would not read above 10mph. The defective part was duly replaced with documentation.
When it went on sale on Saturday, the speedometer read 19 miles, giving a total mileage of 162, and was sold with the original bill of sale, owner’s handbooks and service manuals. The Midget was bought by a buyer from Northampton.
Over 130 entries sold at ACA on Saturday for around £850,000 with provisional bids still being finalised yesterday. Other lots of note on the day included a Mini Moke which sold for £16,750, a Fiat 850 Coupe bought for £9,240, an SS Jaguar which made £30,450 and a Mark I Cooper S, which sold for £25,725.
Entries are now invited for the next auction at ACA which takes place on Saturday, August 23.