Check out those pics of the underside.
Thatās a gem indeed! Thanks Mick for posting! Wouldnāt want to be driving it though? Itās value is in its originality I guess? A real time warp car interestingly, not sure if itās a commission sale but either way, owner will get less than the asking price, just over Ā£4K dearer than invoice price. Less any service/maintenance costs etc? Is there actually a profit for last owner? Realise he (Mr Simms) didnāt pay the invoice price when he acquired it? Very nice car all the same and perfect for a collector 
Barrie
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Yes, that one has been for sale before - it initially went through an auction house in Scotland and sold for Ā£14,500 I think. Then it reappeared a few months later on a website called āCollecting Carsā - and was bid up to about Ā£18,000 - but did not reach the reserve?! That must have been a year / eighteen months ago, and I wondered what had happened to it - and now it has surfaced again!
Even though it is technically ānewā - at 23 years old, it would still need a cambelt, and all the usual stuff doing to make it useable in my opinion - and obviously tyres!!! And then what do you do - if you use it, the value will go down because it is no longer āas newā.
Having said that, I had a Berkeley as my first MX5, and I loved it - so I would be over the moon to give it a nice home, but not at that money!
And I would want to use it and enjoy it?!
Thatās just it, dilemma, use it or store it again.
Watching repeats of that Bangers & Cash programme yesterday one seller had three unused MGās, sadly the owner had departed this world and they were tasked with selling them off. Still had the factory wax covering on, they went for around Ā£10k each probably a tad more for one.
The one they followed still needed a respray as the wax had got into the paint finish.
Love watching these types of shows, certainly need a large pad (and wallet) to collect and store cars but then what, they donāt get used and some just sit there unloved.
It depends on how you look at the value really. Yes for an old car it is expensive, but i have just paid Ā£30k for a new MX5 that will depreciate and its a modern car. If you like early MX5ās, then you could pay considerably less and use it as you would a new car, with a few compromises. It would be a shame to do this to a fairly rare car, but its all how you perceive thingsā¦
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That is a beautiful looking car but it wouldnāt be where Iād put that amount of money.
Could this sort of thing be what escalates classic car prices beyond reasonable reach?
Someone puts a huge price on a car, someone else pays it and all of a sudden, that becomes the norm?
If it were me, Iād rather buy something like a Sunbeam Alpine and be able to use it without worrying about it losing Ā£s with every mile.
But thatās just me 
Sold in 2019 for Ā£15,600. In July 20, reached Ā£16751 at auction.
Thwy never fixed that wonky Timpson-quality badge
July 2020:
May 2021
Very sad car really, destined to be passed from dealer to dealer.
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Yes, sad is the word, it needs to be enjoyed by an enthusiast. Sadly most will see it now as probably a museum piece, in somebodyās collection.
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Hi saz9961,
Thanks for confirming the exact prices - I was going from memory when I listed the prices earlier!
I agree - it is a very sad car - and such a shame that the price is so high that it will probably never be bought by a genuine enthusiast who would really love it and use it.
When it went through the first auction in 2019 I think the estimate was around Ā£6,000 - Ā£8,000 from memory, and I was amazed that it sold for such a lot more than that! (I had actually said to my husband at the time, that if it had not been such a long way away from us, we should have gone to the auction to buy it - but I never expected it to sell for that much!!!)
If I won the lottery though, I think I would have to buy it - and use it!!
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I agree, this is one sad car and testament to what happens when something finds itās way into the hands of āInvestorsāā¦! 
Rob