Summer’s here and the time is right for cruising around in vintage cars and trucks. It’s also a good time to look at what is happening with collectible car values. It turns out there is a changing of the guard underway which comes with some surprises.
Classic cars and trucks as an asset class have enjoyed a boom in recent years. There are even funds buying up vintage cars as investments.
Hagerty, a company that sells insurance to owners of vintage vehicles – including me, provided data to the Auto File on which groups and generations of collectible vehicles have risen and fallen most in value over the past decade.
Of the 15 vehicle generations that gained the most since 2014, seven are European brands, mostly sports cars and super cars from BMW, Porsche and Ferrari.
If you hung on to a 1988 BMW M5, its value has soared by 644% to $95,200 in 2024 from $12,800 in 2014, according to the Hagerty data. A chart of the top value gainers is here.
Four Japanese models are among the Top 15 in value appreciation since 2014, including the 1984-89 Toyota 4Runner, up 280% to $33,800, the 1993-98 Toyota Supra (+230%) and the 1991-96 Acura NSX sports car (+217%.)
Only four Detroit models make the list, and three are trucks or SUVs: The 1973-79 Ford F-series pickup (+289%), the 1966-77 Ford Bronco (+203%) and the 1969-72 Chevrolet C/K Blazer SUV – a Bronco rival that is now worth 186% more than it was a decade ago.
One surprise: No. 9 on the Top 15 list is the 1987-93 Ford “Fox Body” Mustang which has gone from being a $9,000 used car in 2014 to a $33,100 collectible today, according to Hagerty.
“There’s a generational shift going on,” Hagerty CEO McKeel Hagerty told the Auto File. Baby Boomers, now entering their mid-60s and 70s, were the largest generation of collectors, and many amassed multi-vehicle garages.
Now, 63% of Hagerty’s new vintage car insurance customers are Generation X and Millennials – people in their 30s, 40s and 50s. And they are tending to buy European and Japanese sports cars, as well as older trucks and SUVs and 1980s or 1990s Mustangs, Hagerty said.
Younger collectors are inspired to buy cars they first encounter through videogames, Hagerty said. “They have history sections buried in those games” that spark interest in brands such as Porsche, BMW and Acura, he said.
The Hagerty list of the top five vintage cars owned by U.S. Baby Boomers has just two names – Corvette and Mustang.
The Top 5 vintage vehicles owned by Generation X Hagerty customers are more diverse: 1968-82 Corvette, 1965-66 Mustang, 2008-23 Dodge Challenger, 1967-72 Chevrolet pickup trucks and 1967-69 Chevy Camaros.
A warning to owners of late 1960s, early 1970s Detroit muscle cars. Those used to be hot. Now they are not. The 1968-1972 Chevrolet Chevelle was a Top 5 car for Boomers and Millennials in 2014. It does not make any generation’s Top 5 list today.
Also fading are values for older Detroit brands such as Nash, Cord, Mercury and Pontiac that have gone to the Great Junkyard in the Sky.
