Crossley & Webb: Visiting Cape Town's Collectible Car Specialists

In many ways Crossley & Webb was a groundbreaking and bold new venture. It was the first company in SA to offer storage, buying and selling combined with a detailing facility and premium showroom experience. 

Words: Wilhelm Lutjeharms

The high ceilings with wooden trusses, the glass box with fancy Ferraris in storage and the variety of classic and modern exotics on offer -  all of this combined makes for a very alluring space. 

A significant portion of the Crossley & Webb facility is dedicated to the storage side of the business, while at the entrance you will mostly find cars that are currently for sale or which are there for a short-term visit.

There is not only a wash bay, but also an in-depth detailing and paint-correction facility that offers the full package of ceramic coating and even leather repairs where your car can be pampered to the n'th degree.

And if you simply want to sit back, have a coffee and a bite, or get some work done, the coffee bar has ample seating space and is managed by friendly staff. Don’t be surprised if an Aston Martin, Lamborghini or Jaguar’s loud exhaust note erupts close to you as cars are often moved around for a variety of reasons. As I walk into the washbay area, I even notice a 997-generation Porsche 911 Cup race car in the corner!

One of the proprietors of the business is Gareth Crossley. He has been in the car business for a couple of decades and explains how the idea for Crossley & Webb came about.

“When I was at Ferrari in Cape Town, I could see that space was a problem and I noticed that the coffee bar setup on a Saturday morning worked rather well. Through further experience, I realised that you need to bring all these aspects together. One of my clients, Brian Webb, was moving down to Cape Town and it was during a test drive that he explained to me some of his needs in the future and I saw the general need for similar services for other clients as well. It was really a collaborative natural process, but mainly sparked by him moving down form Johannesburg. And that has really been an ongoing trend for the business, enthusiasts moving down from Johannesburg to Cape Town in the last 10 years.”

“The core of the business is really starting with the client and the needs of the client. It is not just the renting of a parking bay, but Crossley & Webb being of service to them. This could include detailing, any repairs, taking a car for a service and then also recommending the specialists around that. In the beginning we tried to do everything ourselves, including in-house servicing and restoring. Then we realised you need to be quite selective in what you do and offer.” 

“The quality in what we now sell versus cars in the early days is quite different. We now only sell high-quality cars. What we still do on site before a sale is a full technical inspection to analyse the car.”

As the business is now 10 years old, Gareth has seen a lot of clients, cars, collections and restorations over years. Enthusiasts and their approach to collectable cars have changed significantly during those years.

“In the early days you had a type of buying frenzy of classic cars. There was shortage of supply at the time. There was a sharp upward trend in the demand for nearly any type of classic car. I would say it peaked around 2018, and from then on it became very selective in terms of quality and brands. Mercedes-Benz has remained very strong, so has Porsche and Ferrari. We are now focused more on the European brands than on the British brands.”

“Some sales you won’t even know we’ve done. A good example is the Pagani Zonda C12 S that was sold in 2018 here in South Africa. It was done under the radar.” That car has sadly left our shores and is said to have landed up at Pagani HQ in Italy. “That car never came through our doors. We just brokered the deal.”

Other special cars Crossley & Webb have sold over the years include a number of Ferrari 599 GTOs. Thankfully all three sold went to new owners who also live in South Africa, as there is always the chance that an overseas buyer would want to export. 

“You need to give the local market first the opportunity to buy it. We’ve had a Porsche 356 that was on the market for around year, so everybody had the opportunity to buy it locally, but in the end we had to export it. We really see it as only a last resort.”

Other highlights include a number of Lamborghini Aventadors, a few classic Countach's and even a rare 350 GT. The latter is the only one of its type in SA, as far as we know, and also the oldest Lamborghini in the country. Another two standout cars the company has sold, are a Ferrari 575 Maranello fitted with the six-speed manual gearbox and a Ferrari 512M. 

A regular at Crossley & Webb is the W113 Mercedes-Benz SL, also lovingly known as the Pagoda.

Putting Gareth on the spot, I asked him which cars are likely to keep their value in coming years. He points to any limited-edition Ferraris, while stating at the same time that Ferraris fitted with the modern double-clutch gearboxes have made the potential pool of buyers also larger than manual-equipped cars.

The R107 Mercedes-Benz SL also seems to be doing well. “With these you really need to assess the condition of the car, as there are some really bad ones on the market. What makes some of these cars rare is the alignment of several layers. For example, right-hand drive, very good condition, numbers matching, original colour, original interior, original books from new and a comprehensive maintenance history. When you start adding all these things together, you get an element of rarity. When you only have two or three of these layers, then the car is not rare.”

Pay them a visit and take a walk through the cars, it is really a pleasant place to spend some time and you might even change your dream car list after seeing the metal on their floor.