The A2 used car market is definitely smaller than it was...

Waiting to see single figures. Whilst I know there are alternatives to Autotrader, it remains an interesting metric to me.
 
I think a factor that you don't get with a lot of other cars is the high scrap aluminium price and weigh in value. I heard of a 'dead' A2 being weighed in recently (before I entered the fold) for a scrap value of almost £900. Assuming that is broadly the case across the board, an A2 bottoms out in value at a much higher price point than the equivalent 20 year old small car.

Couple that with the (non A2 enthusiast) perception that these cars are prone to issues and complex/expensive to repair, so when they break down or fail an MOT, the economics of the situation mean cars are scrapped rather than repaired.
 
I very much doubt that figure to be true. The shell has to be completely cleaned of every nut and bolt that isn’t aluminium to weigh it in for clean Alu. That means all glass, rubbers, wiring and sound deadening. Once that is done it weighs only 180kg.

That would mean that aluminium would have to be selling for around £5000 a tonne to achieve £900 for a shell.

I really have looked into this (having scrapped a lot of them) and it would take about 3 days to completely clean a shell to weigh as clean alu giving a yield of about £400. Every scrap guy I come across has just weighed it in as non-ferrous metal as the bang isn’t worth the buck.

A few years ago a scrap guy collecting one of my A2’s tried the quick route of burning the car in a container with vents in the roof. He opened the door expecting to find his little gold mine waiting to be weighed in, not realising that aluminium melts when hot.

He had to scrape the remains of the car off the container floor 🤦‍♂️
 
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Quite interesting stats on that site. Taking a quick peek at A2 TDI SE, they sold well in '01 & '02, around 1500 per year but then dwindled to around 200 by 2004. They were of course most numerous then with circa 4500 registered in 2005, and now with circa 2500 registered and slightly less than 500 SORN, we're seeing two thirds still on the road after circa 20 years.
 
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