Lord have Murci! This Lambo’s price almost doubled in 1.5 years
$5391.30 … that’s how much this 2003 Murcielago appreciated with every single tick of its odometer—just 46 total—since it last sold. Looking at it another way, the Lambo’s price gained $515.59 every day between its first time selling on Bring a Trailer (New Year’s Eve 2020, for $282K) and its second time (April 26, 2022, for $530K). Sure, we’ve seen all kinds of crazy car prices this year in every corner of the market, but that kind of return is enough to make this Murcielago our sale of the week, and has us wondering what the heck happened.
The Murcielago was Lamborghini’s first new car since the Sant’Agata company’s takeover by Audi, but much of the Murcielago’s development and design happened before the Germans waltzed in. That’s why some view it as the last “real” or last “old school” Lambo. The 6.2-liter V-12 and all-wheel drive were developed from the Diablo. The scissor doors were also standard fare, as was the fresh but still unmistakably Lambo styling by Luc Donckerwolke. The transmission may have gained an extra gear over the Diablo, but the six-speed was still a gleaming open-gated manual, although a single-clutch “E-Gear” with flappy paddles was also available.
Despite all those ingredients, the collector car market seemed to view post-Audi Lambos more as used exotics than modern collectibles, at least until very recently. Now, though, buyers are clamoring for any and every supercar with a big naturally aspirated engine and a stick shift. Since Lamborghini doesn’t sell sticks anymore (the last manual was the 2014 Gallardo) attention naturally drifts to the older models, and the Murci was primed to take off.
A year and a half ago most Murcielagos traded for well under their original MSRP ($281,000 for a base coupe), but that started to change last year and a $445,000 Murcielago in Monterey confirmed that something was happening. With the latest update of the Hagerty Price Guide, most versions of the car were up 30 percent, and manual Murcielagos command a 35 percent premium over the equivalent paddle-shifted car.
As for our feature car, it is number 4 of 50 special 40th Anniversary editions. These had carbon-fiber window surrounds, silver brake calipers, an upgraded Alpine CD stereo and different exhaust, and came with a special set of carbon fiber luggage. The biggest giveaway of a 40th Anniversary Murcielago, though, is the paint in Verde Artemis, a sort of jade green with three-layer pearl effect. These cars sold for over 300 grand new.
The Bring a Trailer car isn’t perfect. There is seam separation on top of the gauge cluster, and the car’s handy front axle lift system apparently didn’t quite go high enough to prevent a minor scrape on the bottom front lip. And although the aftermarket Tubi exhaust lets that V-12 really scream, the seller admits that the original exhaust is no longer with the car. Neither is the luggage set. That said, it has just 7154 miles and consistent servicing, and with just 50 of these 40th Anniversary cars sold worldwide, good luck finding another one.
At $530,000, it’s the most expensive Murcielago ever sold on BaT and indeed anywhere, just edging out the $520,000 paid for another six-speed Murcielago sold a few months ago. And it just about doubled in price in less than a year and a half. The seller, who was offering the car on behalf of his father, noted that they were offering the Lambo because “we have some very nice cars that just aren’t being driven and/or enjoyed enough. So we are passing them on to others who can and will enjoy them as intended.” A glance at other recent Murcielago prices surely helped motivate the sale, too. Either way, they timed the market perfectly, whether they meant to or not.
