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[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Last night at seven on five.

Quentin Willson and a tall blonde piece of totty were talking in depth about classic cars.

Classic cars as an investment?

Triunph TR7.......£2000-£5000. No thanks.


Bentley Turbo R .......a good one can be had for around £10,000. Prices are rising.


Ferrari 456 GT.......currently around the £30,000 mark, but likely to increase significantly in value............Yes please.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Seem to recall a car mag a bit ago suggested that the Omega is set to be a future classic. My logic is this - in the 80s and 90s every major mass-producing manufacturer made a large executive saloon, F0rd, Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Rover, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, but by the end of the 90s, into the 21st century, pretty much the only one left was Vauxhall, as a proper rear-drive machine with a nice number of cylinders that didn't have a chassis honed to be as back-jarring as possible like everything since, that was still affordable. It was comfy, well-specced, well made, and you could get one at one time brand new for £19,995 - that's Astra money now!

I hope that one day the Omega will get truly recognised as a genuine effort by a large-scale manufacturer to beat the 'big boys' at their own game. Lots of makes' efforts wasn't a that serious, just an average car, but a bit larger. But the Omega and Carlton/Sennys before were serious contenders, and truly good, dependable cars. I hope that people will realise just how decent these cars are/were, and the Omega, as the 'last dinosaur' will earn a place in automotive history.

I mean it was so good they brought it back as the Monaro - and the first 'Vauxhall'(ok, Holden) to get praise from Clarkson in many a year! How many cars in history have been axed, and a foreign development of that car has then been re-launched/re-imported to universal praise? I genuinely love the cars, long may they me remembered.

Also, mine's a Bentley Turbo R 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

The Omega can only go up in value.

A decade from now a £1000 Omega will be £2000. I think.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

  Oooh, if values are set to double at that rate only ten years to wait and mine will be worth £300!! Get in! 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Oooh, if values are set to double at that rate only ten years to wait and mine will be worth £300!! Get in! 

Each Omega that loses a fight with the crusher only makes the 'survivors' more desirable.

[Diamond Black Geezer]

 

Wish there was a reliable way of knowing how many Omegas are left - the howmanyleft site gets nothing but slated - offering only an approximate, sadly. Wish I knew if it was in the hundreds or thousands. I suppose the next five years will see numbers drop drastically, as the 'natural life' expires. Already barely see any PFLs any more.

(except two this morning!  )

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Wish there was a reliable way of knowing how many Omegas are left - the howmanyleft site gets nothing but slated - offering only an approximate, sadly. Wish I knew if it was in the hundreds or thousands. I suppose the next five years will see numbers drop drastically, as the 'natural life' expires. Already barely see any PFLs any more.

(except two this morning!  )

I've no idea how many Omega were produced.

As the production run extended from 1994-2003 I'm guessing about 150,000 in total.

10,000 left?....who knows for sure?

 

[Diamond Black Geezer]

Best I can find is via Wiki and that states a production run from the Russelsheim plant of 797,011. But that is all 'Omegas' so presumably including the 'A' - and of course, that's Europe-wide (and N American?) sales - so your estimate of 150k sounds well within the realms of probability. Would love an exact production figure, annoying that isn't easy to find.

So after some digging.... Approximate though it is, the howmanyleft number for all Omegas reads as in its first year of sale (1994) 11k sold. Up to and including 2000 there were 11-15k sold per year. As from 2000-2003 there were a theoretical 7, 6 and 1 thousand sold  . 

These figures do not take into account the number lost through what I can only call 'natural wastage' crashes, theft/fire etc.. So the figure of only 1000 sold in their last year will be a little higher, for sure. By that time there were of course 9 year old Omegas out there, some which would have headed for the scrappies at a higher rate than a year or two before.

To move it forward a bit, since production ended, there have been from 2004 - 4k, 8k, 11k, 11k, 11k, 13k, 10k, 9k, 6k, and 5k and 4k in 2014. The numbers of attrition are moving at a steady 1000 cars lost per quarter, interestingly! The graph slowly levels, of course, it's not like in another 4 quarters there will be 'none' - unless you read the Daily Mail-style graphs and think that in Britain there will be an estimated 100million baby-eating Foreigners by 2020, etc...

Looking ten years previous, there are now a reported 560-ish Carltons - a figure that has hovered around that going down and up for a couple of years now. So in ten years there'll be something like  500 Omegas, we can infer.

Here's my graph from Howmanyleft...

Year         On roads   Number increase/decrease
2014         13k      -4k
2013         17k      -5k
2012         22k      -6k
2011         28k      -9k
2010         37k      -10k
2009         47k      -13k
2008         60k      -11k
2007         71k      -11k   
2006         82k      -11k
2005         93k      -8k
2004         101k      -4k
2003         105k      1k
2002         104k      6k
2001         98k      7k
2000         91k      11k
1999         80k      14k
1998         66k      14k
1997         52k      11k
1996         41k      15k
1995         26k      15k   
1994         11k      11k   

Finally I know Howmanyleft isn't accurate, but it's the best we've got!  Possibly interesting, possibly dull to read, but it killed half an hour 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I don't believe the Omega will ever become a serious classic. A low mileage , mint condition example will fetch a few bob in years to come, but the same can be said of any car tbh.
The only previous large Vauxhall which commands high prices is the LC, and that was a pretty special car regardless of the badge on the bonnet.

[Kevin Wood]

I don't believe the Omega will ever become a serious classic. A low mileage , mint condition example will fetch a few bob in years to come, but the same can be said of any car tbh.
The only previous large Vauxhall which commands high prices is the LC, and that was a pretty special car regardless of the badge on the bonnet.

Indeed. Let's face it, the Senator predates the Omega by a good few years and, for most of its' life, it was distinct from the 4 pot repmobile end of the range occupied by the Carlton, unlike the Omega. It's only really a classic in the eyes of enthusiasts these days, and isn't exactly romping up in value. The Omega can't be expected to fare any better.

[Vamps]

I don't believe the Omega will ever become a serious classic. A low mileage , mint condition example will fetch a few bob in years to come, but the same can be said of any car tbh.
The only previous large Vauxhall which commands high prices is the LC, and that was a pretty special car regardless of the badge on the bonnet.

Absolutely right, cars that I was weened on, early Fords and Mini for example in really good nick are nearing £10k when I was a lad they were changing hands for £100 or less........

[Sir Tigger KC]

Thing is, will today's offerings like the Mondeo, Insignia, Focus and Astra be as sought after in 30 years time as a good condition Cortina, Viva, Escort or Chevette is today? 

So what will be the future classics?    Crystal ball anyone? 

[Entwood]

One thing that, IMHO, will prevent the Omega, and many other modern cars ever becoming "Classics" is the complexity of the designs ...... as parts become NLS from the makers the cars will die .... as an example ... we all know that only genuine Crank sensors work for the V6 Omega, likewise cam cover gaskets ....  so what happens when they become NLS ??... then ECU's, coil packs ... etc etc etc

The thing about cortinas, consols, chevettes, even minis, imps etc ...they all were very basic and parts can easily be fabricated .... not so with the modern beast ...

[aaronjb]

"Modern" classics (like the Carlton, Senator, Omega) just don't look as cool as a proper classic, either, IMHO..

I saw a Moggy Minor on the way home tonight - beautifully restored, yellow Koni shocks just peeking out underneath, period exhaust - and it looked stunning, the kind of car you stop and look at.

Most modern classics of the 80s, 90s & 00s just don't have that kind of look, I don't think (let's face it, most of the cars of those eras are downright ugly!).. ok some exceptions but certainly the luxobarges like the Omega fall into that "nondescript" category.

[Sir Tigger KC]

Maybe the 'Frog eyed' Scorpio would have been one to stash, as although unloved at the time it was different.