i think the point is that 2cv's have some design genius. and they are very versatile and it have built with a lot more thought put into them than a kids play car with a hedge strimmer stuck in it.

clearly nobody questioned why there's only 20 left!

Probably much like a fat bird, great fun to get inside and thrash about for ten minutes, but you'd soon regret having to look at it every day.

Tish, that's a bargain mate, try this one..........

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1732495.htm

Russ you've gotta work on your metaphors mate that one made me queazy.
Plus ten minutes is waay to long before the regret kicks in.

I don't suppose the phrase "collectors item" will cut the mustard here but it is true. All things that become rare become collectors items and hence the price. I suspect the Peel has gone up since Clarkson drove one around the BBC centre for Top Gear.

Don't knock three wheel bubble cars, they hold an important place in the evolution of motoring in just the same way as a 2CV.

I love oddities like the Peel. I owned a Bond MkC once which an amazing piece of "not so" technology.

If there only 20 of that Peel left then the value is going to reflect that.

How much would you pay me for a bit of canvas with some paint on it?

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/20/WAG3374.JPG

Not knocking anything, Grifftravel. I helped one of my cousins rescue and refurb a knackered Isetta in 79/80, when we were but kids. We drove it around and around a farmyard testing it. He kept it for years in his garage, until one day in the late 90s he decided he'd never drive it on the road again, so he got rid of it for not much money at all. C'est la vie.
What amuses (and amazes) me is that certain cars suddenly shoot up in value while others don't. I kind of hope that this never happens with 2cvs, cos the moment it does they'll become nickable... and then the carefree fun of thrashing around in an underpowered snail will be lost.
I don't think "classic" cars have reached the silly values that they got to in the late 80s early 90s, but they do seem to be getting a bit over-heated lately.

Me neither. I don't knock bubble-cars, micro-cars or whatever there happens to be, I like them all. What I don't like, is the equivalent of being charged four thousand pounds for a can of beans at the supermarket. Don't get me wrong I like the beans, I just don't like the price tag, because why wouldn't I go away and eat steak instead for less money?

The 'market' makes a nonsense of the things that it plays with, and unless enough good folk will resist market trends then it always will, that's all I'm saying.

But there in lies the problem. Market values will always be driven by people and speculation. It is unlikely that it could be deterred from doing the same to the 2CV. In fact I am amazed that it hasn't already.

A mate of mine is fixing up a peel 50 engine for someone at the moment, he has made a cradle up in which to run it The engine was also used in a German moped of the same era, and puts out something like 6hp, which although sounds pretty puny,is about 4 times what a 50cc engine usually puts out so pretty trick for its time.

When 2cvs are priced at £2000 upwards, I think you could probably say it has happened already. The thing I don't understand is the 'rarity' people talk of, they just aren't. I also don't understand why people pay so much when there are still 2cvs out there for peanuts. That bamboo I had was £50, and the special I have now was £150. Yet, yesterday I heard of a dyane which was untaxed and off the road for 3 years for sale for £450, the last two dyanes I bought were £250 and £350 respectively and both were completely road legal. Even the taxed and tested sidewinder was £600.

My thoughts as to where to lay the blame? eBay, and Internet speculation.