Classic Car Buyers, Beware of Fakes

In the 1930s, British sports car maker MG manufactured exactly 33 of its vaunted K3 open-top race cars. But if you want to buy one today, there are more than 100 to choose from. No, the defunct manufacturer didn’t restart production. The tripling of the K3 fleet is part of the booming trade in fake antique autos as soaring prices for classic cars spur sophisticated counterfeits. “In the 1990s, I would find one faked car every five years,” says Norbert Schroeder, who verifies classic cars at TUV Rheinland, a Cologne (Germany)-based technical testing company. “Now I find up to five fakes a year.”

Fueling the jump in the number of bogus rides is heated demand from well-heeled collectors. Auction values for vintage cars have risen more than sevenfold over the past decade, according to Historica Selecta, a consulting company that specializes in vintage autos. In 2011, British auction house Bonhams sold a 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4 for £230,000 ($380,000). That was more than four times the price the same car sold for—in unchanged condition—in 2003, says James Knight, director of the auction house’s motoring department.