Graph of the Week: Cars with the biggest price declines at auction
Across the collector car auction market, average sales prices are up six percent over the past year, but there are some notable cars bucking the trend. Some of them had previously seen large price surges, some like the Model T are long-standing favorites in the hobby and still others are newer cars that either still seem to be depreciating or have seen an increase in supply (at auction) driving prices down. For reference, the car with the biggest increase in average sale price has been the Porsche 928, which is up 85 percent.
The current generation Dodge Challenger has been on the market since 2008, but the introduction of the SRT Hellcat version for 2015 is what brought the model into the world of collector car auctions. It was still fairly difficult to get a Hellcat 12 months ago and into the early part of 2016, so the handful of Hellcats that showed up at auction could expect to bring over six figures. Over the past year, though, 60 percent more Hellcats have come to auction, and the average price has fallen much closer to the original MSRP. As for the 1991-02 Eldorado, this model’s depreciation seems to continue.
C4 Corvettes have fallen across the board, but the biggest drops in average sale price are for rarer models like the ZR-1, Grand Sport and 1995 Indy Pace Car. Porsche 911s and Jaguar E-Types both saw rapid, robust appreciation and huge auction results over the past two years. Values for both have settled during 2016, and the general quality of cars offered seems to have fallen as well. This is because big results for shiny and fresh restorations tend to drive the auction market and encourage lesser examples to come up for sale, which naturally command less money.
