THE ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF THE HISTORIC AND CLASSIC MOTOR INDUSTRY IN THE UK

36 Table 11: Imputed rent from classic vehicles, 2019 Vehicle Number of classic vehicles Number sold per year Implied average years of ownership Average value (£) Annual imputed rent per vehicle (£) Total annual imputed rent (£m) Cars 1,607,182 222,728 7 5,421 751 1,207 Motorcycles 674,592 65,558 10 1,779 173 117 LGVs 375,019 71,163 5 3,722 706 265 HGVs 74,256 7,326 10 2,621 259 19 Buses 34,238 4,106 8 1,536 184 6 Others 253,483 20,701 12 4,163 340 86 Total 3,018,770 391,582 8 4,178 542 1,636 Source: DVLA, Octane, Car and Classic, Autotrader, eBay, Tradus, Cebr analysis Overall, we estimate a total imputed rent of £1.64 billion in 2019. Driven by both the highest imputed rent per vehicle and the highest number of vehicles, the majority ( £1.21 billion, or 74%) of this comes from classic cars. LGVs are second and motorcycles third, with HGVs, buses and other vehicles making only modest contributions. It is worth emphasising again that this imputed rent is not captured through transactions nor represents tangible economic activity. As such, there is no associated turnover, employment or employee compensation. Paradoxically, the alternative measure of ownership costs, which is the amount spent on purchasing the vehicles in a year, gives expenditure of £2.2 billion of which about £300 million is dealers’ markups (which is included in the estimated value of the industry elsewhere in the calculation), giving a net expenditure of £1.9 billion per annum compared with the imputed rent calculation of £1.6 billion per annum. The differences are surprisingly small whichever approach is used.