Do classic car owners stay loyal to their brand for new car purchases?

We all know that car collectors can be a fiercely brand-loyal bunch: just ask any vintage Mustang owner what they think of Camaros. Yet we wondered to what extent, if any, this carries over to new car purchases. Hagerty policy data provides some answers. In order to insure an enthusiast vehicle with us, an owner needs to state what car they use as a daily driver. The daily driver doesn’t need to be a new car—but very often it is. Using our policy data that listed a 2018+ daily driver, we sorted those to identify the most popular enthusiast vehicle for each. To zoom in on the brand loyalty question, we only considered people with one classic vehicle on their Hagerty policy (because, naturally, someone with 50-cars might have say, a Ford and a Chevy).

The most popular new vehicles overall shouldn’t surprise anyone—pickups, crossovers, SUVS.

The most popular luxury vehicles are the Cadillac Escalade, followed by the BMW X5, Audi Q7, Cadillac XT5, and Volvo XC90. While not in sequence, they all slot between the top 40 and 55 daily-use vehicles.

Now, let’s look at brand loyalty. Turns out, Chevrolets really like to travel together.Here are the top classic vehicles for people whose daily driver is a new Chevrolet Silverado:

1. 1968-1982 Chevrolet Corvette C3
2. 1967-1969 Chevrolet Camaro
3. 1968-1972 Chevrolet Chevelle
4. 1967-1972 Chevrolet C/K Series Pickup
5. 1955-1957 Chevrolet Bel Air

Blue Oval folks are more willing to cross enemy lines. For the Ford F-Series, the top five are:

1. 1966-1977 Ford Bronco
2. 1968-1982 Chevrolet Corvette C3
3. 1967-1969 Chevrolet Camaro
4. 1965-1966 Ford Mustang
5. 1967-1972 Chevrolet C/K Series Pickup

The least loyal, surprisingly, are Ram truck owners, as the top 5 are:

1. 1967-1972 Chevrolet C/K Series Pickup
2. 1965-1966 Ford Mustang
3. 1967-1969 Chevrolet Camaro
4. 1968-1972 Chevrolet Chevelle
5. 1984-1996 Chevrolet Corvette C4

An important caveat here is that there simply are more old Camaros, Mustangs, and Corvettes floating around than there are Barracudas, vintage Chargers, and Road Runners.

Although most enthusiasts seem quite practical when it comes to their new car purchases, a good number list what many would consider an enthusiast vehicle as their daily driver. New Porsche 911s are common, but so are the Audi RS5 and the BMW M5. If that’s their everyday wheels, what is the Sunday driver?

Among people driving a new Porsche 911 every day, many have another 911 (Carrera 3.2, 993, or even a 912) as their other car. In some cases, a W113 Mercedes-Benz SL is the second car, but in other cases, the E39 BMW M5 is their weekend ride. Or even an R32 Nissan Skyline.

Miata is Always the Answer, but what if it is just half of the answer? And which half? Among those that keep a newer Miata as their occasional use vehicle, almost nobody has just two vehicles. For the few that daily a newer Miata, the occasional use vehicle is often a vintage British sports car. For many, it seems the answer is either only a Miata, or it is less than half of the solution.

Among folks that ride a newer Harley-Davidson or BMW motorcycle every day, the second vehicle is often a vintage muscle car or vintage truck.

So, what is your ideal two-vehicle garage? Silverado and ’70 Chevelle? F-150 and a ‘66 Mustang? Porsche 911 and (whisper it) a manual transmission BMW M5? Harley-Davidson and a ’79 Camaro? Leave your picks in a comment below.

Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it.