@PaulDC5 First off I love the i30N. Such an underrated car!
I am one of the people willing to pay these silly prices. My criteria was as follows - low mileage (everybody will view this differently, and not neccessarily an issue with these engines), championship white, red interior, C pack, recent import with full underseal and completely stock or as close to stock as possible.
I found mine with DCY and it ticked all of the boxes. Imported Nov 2019 (by them) 1 UK owner and had only covered 800 miles since import and been a garage queen, 59k miles, still reads in KM and limiter in place, champ white, red interior and a C pack. Not a spot of rust on it and all bodywork, badges etc are perfect. A very clean and tidy example that looked like it had just rolled out the factory. This cost me £16,985 in June this year. I was well aware this was top whack but this is a second car for me, will be garage stored and I will only cover around 3k miles a year in it. Although I will use it on track 2-3 times a year, I didn't want one that had a heap of mods because I'm a sucker for keeping something original. I was at Donington a couple of weeks back and in stock form it is still an absolute champ. Only limiting factor was the tyres but the brakes were rock solid with zero fade despite the 27C temperature.
I have always wanted a DC5 and I am only just in the position to be able to finally get one. While I know full well I possibly spent around £4k more than what some would say it is worth, it is perfect for me and I plan on keeping for many years. That said, if I get rid in 5 years and I do lose that extra £4k in value and it never increases during that time, I still see that as a damn good deal and less depreciation than on any other car out there and I will love every second of owning it.
Going back to
@carl hammond point about cars not selling, I think some sellers are keeping them on as a constant advertisement to get interest through the door and the next person to import through them. My DC5 is still coming up as for sale through DCY (although it does say deposit taken). Maybe they are all actually sold and at those prices?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224547085713?hash=item34480c9d91:g:UFwAAOSwoVBg~YsO My wife works in recruitment and half the jobs on job pages you see advertised don't exist and it is done to get people on their books for when future jobs come up.
The second hand market is nuts at the moment. My daily is a 3.3 Kia Stinger GT and that has increased in value by £3k since May despite me putting another 3k miles on it in that time. My wife bought a 68 plate base model 1 series last year for £14k and BMW are calling her a year later now offering £15k part ex if she wanted to get a new car, not that she is interested. Everything has gone mental and I don't see it changing until at least spring next year. I got rid of my MX5 for the DC5 that I had for 3 years and put 10k more miles on it and sold it for the exact same as I bought it for 3 years ago. I think it's safe to say that whatever value you think a DC5 is currently worth, you can stick another £2k on top just down to the current situation with the market. Some sucker like me will come along and still pay it haha