Which Classics Will Be on the 2025 Hagerty Bull Market List?
When it comes to Hagerty’s Bull Market List, our annual selection of vehicles most likely to appreciate in the near future, we set aside feelings and choose based on fact. Indeed, many of us here at Hagerty love sifting through spreadsheets to uncover a few choice candidates. Imagine yourself sitting with us in the dim light of all those computer screens. Which cars would you expect the data to favor?
I expect our Bull Market picks would be pretty close to those of the Hagerty Community. You can read some of your picks when we asked the same question last year, but we really want to know what classic, antique, or special interest vehicles you think are primed to make a splash in the market for 2025?
Here’s my choice:
For the record, I already know our Bull Market 2025 winners. And sadly, the 1990–95 Corvette ZR-1 is absolutely not on this list. I am choosing this car for our little thought experiment for a few reasons:
- I want the ZR-1 to appreciate in value and become the classic American icon it so deserves to be. All the “math homework” Hagerty could give me will never change my opinion on this matter.
- They seem to be slowly, gently appreciating in certain colors, model years, and conditions.
- One shockingly clean example wound up at a local you-pull-you-pay junkyard to me this year. Owned by LKQ, the corporate mothership quickly realized the local yard’s mistake, yanked it from inventory, and likely sold the parts off that goldmine elsewhere in their empire.
None of these reasons are valid, and my colleagues would laugh me out of a conference room/Zoom call for proposing that the C4 Corvette ZR-1 join the Hagerty Bull Market for 2025. But this isn’t a company meeting. This is my fireside chat with the Hagerty Community: I shall propose whatever I like, for whatever reasons I choose!
And so should you. The ball is now in your court, folks. Please tell me, esteemed members of the Hagerty Community, what you’d like to see on the Hagerty Bull Market for 2025. Maybe tell us why, as well; your stories are always insightful and enlightening.
If the writers and editors of the annual Bull Market Issue want to turn a quick and substantial return on their hypothetical investment, they should select the penny stock of collectibles; the beautiful Fiat 124 Spider! Here they would find a sensuous Pininfarina designed body, with a rev-happy, Lampredi engineered motor, with a smiles-to-dollar ratio that’s off the chart. These overlooked beauties can still be found for the cost of a Wall Street business lunch, and even a modest uptick in value produces a return-on-investment to warm a fund manager’s heart. Why not take a pass on the Ferrari 250 GT for $5 million, invest in a 1981 Fiat 124 2.0 Spider look-alike for $5,000, and buy your girlfriend a little something with the savings… like a new home in Palm Springs?
I agree, this is a great little car, great driving fun for the buck.
I vote for my 66 Shelby GT-350 replica(I hate the word clone). It’s still in pieces in the garage barn and basement. I bought it 14 years ago as a rotisserie restored California car off of eBay.
I have watched the decline of original GT-350 prices to the point that my car is probably more valuable as the 66 A code GT it was originally!
The point of my comment is, it seems to me that buyers today look to the market and go with the blue chip investment.
The early 90’s Corvette ZR-1 is a great investment for a track car if you can get it cheap! Otherwise carefully dismantle it and sell the parts on eBay. You may get a good return year after year if you start young enough!
Generation 3 GM Cars. AKA (The Forgotten Years) 1973 – 1977 Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Chevelles !!!!
I would add Grand Prix to those years, partly because I recently purchased a 73GP with only 7k miles and drove one in high school.
1990’s Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 Spyder. 500 or less made per year. First retractable h/t since the Crown Vic, outstanding performance, AWD, 4WS, and a growing supply of parts from specialty shops. And the looks….so sexy.
1998 BMW e36 M3 Sedan. e36 sedan only offered in 1997, 1998. Clean lines, great interior, a true “drivers” car that is a treat to maintain in your own garage.
I would also put a vote in for 1970-1971 LT-1 Corvette Coupe. Most Chevy engine technicians will comment that the 350 LT-1 was highest quality performance small block engine to come out of the factory during the muscle car era. The LT-1 Corvette was purpose built for the true enthusiast with only limited options. Owners of the car will tell you there is nothing quite like the sound or feeling this car provides when you let it rip towards 6500 RPM. I have seen a number of decent “fairly original” cars trade between $35,000 – $40,000. Most of these examples would be worthy of a quality restoration.
my ’68 c3 roadster with th400. why? i want to sell it next year!
Ditto on the 122S Volvo in my garage.
I read the headline and immediately imagined either a 1995 ZR-1 or a 1996 LT-4 Collector Edition before reading the article. I am pleased as punch to see Sajeev agrees with me. 🙂
That makes two of us!
My guess would be the 1980’s Porsche 944’s especially the Turbo models
How about that ’69-70 Biscayne (Impala) with the 327, Redlines, bench seat and what appears to possibly be a 4-speed?
I’ll say it again, I don’t care about what I “Could” get for my 74 Grand Prix, I love it and it’s not for sale. I get lots of thumbs up on Sundays when my wife and go touring. We love the attention but that’s not what we go out for, it’s the fun and relaxation of the drive. I enjoy meeting a fellow or gal passing me in the oncoming lane with a classic like mine and gives a wave from the driver who appreciates an old relic. ( the car, not me!). ❤️
I think we need to be realistic about who is buying these growth sector cars now. Young people with disposable incomes and very different tastes from anyone over 50. They grew up on “Fast and the Furious” and video games that made unobtainable JDM cars their fantasy. They had different posters on their walls than we did, and they weren’t posters of E-Types or a 928s. And, I hate to say it because I love a great small block Chevy V8, but it wasn’t of a Corvette either. Even if they did lust after a C5 or C6 Corvette, there are just too many of them out there to really become high fliers as collectables. Maybe a rare Z1 will score, and there will always be a love for exotics from this next generation’s youth, and Ferraris and Lamborghinis will be part of their list of childhood dream cars. But they will also love SUVs in a way that us older guys just don’t. They will probably be as apt to lust after a 2012 Jeep Cherokee SRT from their childhood as they are a 911. They will venerate unmodified Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru WRXes in the same way we lusted after ’58 Vettes and GT350s.
No one is going to be coming into the hobby and bidding up anything built before 1970 or even 1980, unless it’s a Ferrari or some other rare exotic like a Countach. Yes, people like me, in our fifties, have the money and the still-vivid childhood fantasies that make acquiring our 60s, 70s, and 80s dream cars a regular occurrence. But if we look at what was highly desirable 15 years ago to the guys who were the generation before us, that stuff isn’t selling for nearly what it used to. There are a whole lot of folks who paid huge money for restored Chevelles, Cudas, and Camaros from the Muscle Car heyday (and their childhood fantasies), who will be taking massive losses. And those losses will only grow as men of their generation age out of the hobby, stop buying, and start selling.
And we all know what’s happened to the 50s Bel Airs, T Birds, and Cadillacs that used to get top dollar. They’ve gone the same way as the previous generation’s collectable Packards, Town and Country convertibles, and pretty much everything else from that era. Nothing sadder than when a family or widow goes to sell “Dad’s dream car” only to realize that the Cord or Series 62 Caddy he always said was worth a fortune, has lost much of its value.
I think that classic Japanese cars – the precursors to the JDM and 90s cars they love today – will be popular. We’ve seen Toyota 2000 GTs go past a million bucks. But a super low mileage, unmolested early Skyline or Bluebird will find buyers. So will early, low mileage Integra Rs and maybe even GTRs. The first gen NSX had a real spike during covid and has settled back down a bit, but the rare versions in really good shape, like the R and rare colors should still appreciate.
We will likely be seeing Group B rally cars bringing big money, especially in Europe. Cars that didn’t sell well off the showroom floor just a few years ago, but were rare and unappreciated at the time, will probably follow the path of the Lexus LFA and go through the roof. Remember that the McLaren F1 sat unsold (admittedly for nearly a million dollars) on showroom floors. I think some of the rarer new generation Acura NSX performance models that barely sold when new, may find an appreciative audience.
I also think that the media we consumed made us hunger for certain cars… Risky Business, Bullit, Gone in 60 Seconds, Cannonball Run, Dukes of Hazard, The Graduate, Magnum PI, Back to the Future, Rockford Files, Ferris Bueller, Smokey and the Bandit, James Bond, Starsky and Hutch, and Miami Vice, all featured cars that are so iconic that everyone reading this just naturally named the corresponding cars as they read the titles above. And not all of the cars from the list became expensive, but they fired our desires.
This next generation gets their cues from movies and video games, but also from hip hop stars and athletes who identify with automotive status and prestige in a different way than previous generations. Modern supercars and hypercars are big with them. So are ultra luxury cars – including SUVs. Then again, Kendrick Lamar just came out with an album this week called GNX and shows him on the album art with his beloved GNX, so it’s not all McLarens, Ferraris, Bentleys and Rolls Royces. But the younger generation also get their cues from Instagram and TikTok.
If you want to know what will sell in the future, look at what kids have been lusting after over the last 20 years and buy the rarest version of whatever that was.
Always looking at interesting cars priced right…Got a deal a few years back on a Canadian 1966 Impala SS convertible. SS convertibles will never die and always command a premium so in my minds eye these cars are a good investment. Will roll out spring in Ermine white, red interior, red walls and Nova hub caps. Yeah its only a 283 glide but its road touring to Cape Breton from Ontario, my proclaimed Canadian Route 66. High priced collectible tend to gather too much dust and the C3 Corvettes won’t pay simply due to terrible ingress/egress with that high pillar. Cramped in a tight cock pit is not my idea of fun. So no C-8 for this guy. I’ll stick with my pickups, 66 Vette, and roomier F body GM’s. I think the best will remain in the under 50 grand class with virtues in comfortable cruising. Long live the Mustang and vintage Camaros.
JohnB – “Vamanos! “
As the owner of a 94 ZR-1 Corvette I agree that it should be on the Hagerty Bull Market List. Chevy did build to many of them and didn’t differentiate the ZR-1 that much from the standard car. With that said however the C4 ZR-1 story and the development of the LT5 with Lotus is an amazing story.
Proper vintage Ferrari’s will always maintain collector interest given the iconic designs, race pedigree, collector passion, etc and while most are spoken for in terms of value some seem to languish despite above mentioned criteria and relatively low builds. Most everyone applauds the 365 GTB/4 Daytona as the last V12 grand tourer and numerous journalist profess their preference for this vintage classic over more recent F550/575 younger counterparts (which by the way might as well also make this list)….. the Daytona just seems to ooze classic “end of an” era style, power and presence. For those who’ve enjoyed it, you will never forget it… for those yet to experience it, don’t miss the opportunity.
With the undisputed looks of a Muira, the Daytona had tough competition but the gap in price is hard to raionalize given build numbers (~ 750 vs 1200) and reliability and performance that heaviliy favored the Ferrari. Moreover, with Dino prices escalating into Daytona territory at half the performance and twice the build units (albeit with Muira sex appeal) it makes sense that a well kept or well restored Daytona is poised to rise in value.
Oh, and lets not forget it’s proven race worthiness…… enjoy the ride!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-4kYD7mDds