When we take our rally car on competitions, officials are always pleased to see the car and greet it with comments such as "Nice to see a proper rally car Mr Whalley". Why is this? I have come to appreciate that the Integrale is the last of the real "Driver cars", we do not depend on electronics to sort out driver short comings, as do the Subaru and Mitsubishi cars with their traction control, yaw control and intelligent differentials. It is for this reason that those cars are accused of lack of soul, the driver has become a navigator. The Integrale involves the driver in the total control and continually challenges the driver to move up to a higher level of skill.

It is these reasons that the car has retained its value and will continue to do so compared with many of its modern competitors. However, the market is a mine field, unfortunately just because a car is an Integrale does not mean it is always a high value car, there are many cars on the market that are in dire need of care and attention and unfortunately, some have had such hard lives that they have arrived at a point when it is questionable as to the merits of trying to restore them to health, due to the costs incurred in doing so.

There have been hundreds of "bargain cars" imported to the UK in the last few years, many of these were purchased by optimists who thought they could buy one cheaper than anybody else and many were imported by profiteers who bought them cheap and sold them for high profits. The truth was always that the good cars were not that much cheaper in Europe than in the UK and this is still true today. We have cliens who are still buying cars from Italy, but if they are to be successful, they must expect to pay good money for good cars, buying a cheap car in Europe nearly always ends in tears, there is no chance of any warranty cover or redress when the real condition of the car becomes apparent later.

It is these poor condition cars that have caused people to claim the Integrale is unreliable and expensive to run, it is not, any major failure on an Integrale is predictable, and is due to miss-use, lack of service, cheap fix repairs or previous accident damage, there are many cars we look after that have not given any major problems during their service life other than normal wear and tear.

From the above we hope that the message gets through to potential buyers, there is a high risk with buying what appears to be bargain cars unless you get it checked over thoroughly by a specialist before you buy it. It is necessary to be sure that you know why the price is low and how much more you will have to pay to put the car in proper order, because a performance car that doesn't perform to its full potential is a waste of money and very depressing. It is easy to be so impressed by a sick Integrale if you have never driven one before, that you can end up buying it before yourealise all is not as it should be, so ask us before you part with money.

We have not varied our price guide very much during the last 12 months in that the prices still hold up well on good condition cars, indeed many owners will not sell their beloved cars until the prices harden some more. There are of course, some desperate people out there with poor condition cars who are becoming increasingly desperate to sell at any price, due to the fact that most intelligent buyers do not want to purchase their potential nightmare.

Please, if you are a buyer, in all cases do as much research as possible and ask for assistance, all of the specialists are happy to try to help new comers to the market.

To potential sellers, there are buyers for good condition cars but the poorer examples are getting harder to move, I guess that here is the incentive to keep your cars in good order. Any financial savings you may make by not servicing or repairing the car, you will more than lose when you try to sell it.

There is still an excess of poor quality cars on the UK market and this has made it difficult to sell poor and even medium quality cars. There is a shortage of top quality cars and we are seeing demand hold the price of really good cars throughout Europe and Japan. Thus:

Prices You Can Expect To Pay
We have listed here the prices you can expect to pay for cars from the various sources.