All of my teen aged friends in the ‘60s had those cars. Myself, I had a sequential string of used Triumphs, a TR2, a TR3, two Spitfires, and eventually a TR4. Sometimes we worked for them, sometimes our parents bought them for us. I don’t recall paying more than $700 for any of those Triumphs.
That was not the world most of us knew, but I still doubt that 9 year olds and teenagers were the primary market for expensive cars.