5 Cars Posting Gains in a Soft Market

It’s been an eventful three months, and another update to the Hagerty Price Guide has landed. The unofficial start to the auction season kicked off in January with Kissimmee and Scottsdale, and now that the driving season is upon us, market activity has picked up since the start of the year. While the market overall remains nuanced, there were some clear standouts that gained notable value in the past few months and offered some lessons for where the hobby currently stands.(Read more to learn about the methodology behind the Hagerty Price Guide.)

1953–58 Studebaker Commander Station Wagon: +44%

With its 1953 redesign, Studebaker’s Commander was the carmaker’s top-of-the-line model. Compared to the previous series, the Commander was significantly upgraded, with a stunning and more aerodynamic-looking design. Although the appearance was radical next to Studebaker’s larger competitors, the car’s success would be hampered by poor marketing and the company’s assumption that buyers vastly preferred four-door models; tooling up production to meet that perceived demand would prove a misstep for Studebaker (one of many the brand would make in the postwar period leading to its demise). Unable to meet demand for two-door models, early quality control issues, and an inability to compete with the cheap prices offered by the big three, Studebaker struggled with its customer base.

Since shuttering its doors in 1964, Studebaker has been overlooked by the broad pool of enthusiasts, left to a die-hard group of marque fans to keep the flame alive. The good news today is that their tenacity has paid off. There is very good parts support for a car that is far less common than its contemporaries, and there are more options for buyers who now find station wagons far cooler than they once might have.

A handful of Commander wagons popped up over the past few months, bringing strong and consistent values, above where the market has been historically. Not to worry, though, as these are still somewhat affordable buys; despite a 44 percent increase, a pristine Commander wagon can be had for under $40,000, and a driver-condition example in the $20,000 range. Is this a resurgence of the 1950s independent automakers among enthusiasts? Likely not. However, it does show the strong love for station wagons of all eras and marques—even the ones many of us forgot about.

1985–86 Audi Sport Quattro: +30%

At the peak of Group B’s reign as the most unhinged class of racing, Audi led the way. The Quattro’s all-wheel-drive system changed the game completely, its prodigious grip necessary to put down all the power the turbocharged cars were producing. It would set the standard for rally racing moving forward.

The Sport Quattro was the second iteration of Audi’s dominant Group B racer, and it was shortened and lightened compared to the Ur-Quattro in order to better attack the tight, challenging roads of rally racing. Of course, as with many motorsports series, the FIA required a certain amount of road-legal examples to be produced in order to homologate the model for racing, and the road-going Sport Quattros kept Audi within the rules. With just 214 examples made, they were hyper-exclusive right out of the gate. Add in the fact that they share DNA with the insane rally cars, and you have a car that is highly sought after.

There are many reasons why the Sport Quattro has seen such a big jump in the past few months. These were already expensive cars; a pristine example could run in the neighborhood of $500,000, but that number’s increased yet again. With each passing year, the legend of Group B continues to grow, and it attracts new audiences—and new buyers. As the apex predator of the era, demand for these Audis is on the rise. There is also the fact that we haven’t seen one of these cars hit the market in quite some time, and while a car offered by RM Sotheby’s in January wasn’t a concours-quality example, it blew past the expected price of a concours car. One sale doesn’t constitute a trend; however, when dealing with a pool of just 214 cars, we have to take market examples when they come and make some educated leaps as to where the data are pointing. Right now, the data point upwards. Group B race cars have already sold for seven figures, so the direction their street-going counterparts are taking was only a matter of time.

1984–89 Subaru XT: +25%

Nowadays, the term “sporty Subaru” is synonomous with the Impreza-based WRX and STI. For good reason, too, as Subaru was a force to be reckoned with on the World Rally Championship (WRC) circuit, and the WRX/STI were the closest mere mortals could come to being Colin McRae. But they weren’t Subaru’s first shots at making a sporty car to attract more buyers to the brand. We had the funky and exceptionally rad SVX, and before that, there was the XT.

Now, the XT name might be familiar to some as the sporty version of the Forester, but for a short time, it was actually a car model—a wedge-shaped and weird-looking one at that. It was the ’80s, after all, and anything sporty needed to look like a door stop, apparently. Subaru sure did nail everything about the 1980s with this car. Unfortunately, the Japanese giant managed to sell just under 100,000 of these things, and before long it would be relegated to memory. There are a number of enthusiasts flying the XT flag, however, and recent sales above price guide–appropriate values have driven values jumped a few grand. Despite that, you can still pick up an AWD, turbocharged XT in the neighborhood of $20,000. Will the XT follow the Brat as the latest old Subaru to gain traction in the collector world? Time will tell—they could be simply too wacky and uncommon to gain long-term traction.

1973–77 Chevrolet Monte Carlo: +24%

With the launch of the G-body platform, General Motors effectively cornered the personal luxury market when the redesigned Pontiac Grand Prix and all-new Chevrolet Monte Carlo arrived for 1970. Like it or not, these cars would set the standard for mid-size, sporty cars throughout the ’70s. The A-Body based 1973 Monte Carlo would come out of the gate strong, selling more than a quarter-million cars (over 50 percent of the total first-generation production), and sales numbers would increase from there.

Mid-’70s American cars are a bit like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield: Large, brash, and they just “don’t get no respect.” They’re hobbled by abysmal horsepower ratings, poor gearing, and awful parts support from the aftermarket. But despite all that, they have a certain charm to them. Nostalgia is a strong motivator, and it has a strong influence on what we’re willing to spend our hard-earned money on. While we can’t get in the head of every buyer, it is clear that with a number of strong sales the past quarter, the mid-’70s Monte is receiving some of the appreciation in the collector market that it’s been missing for far too long.

1964–70 Honda S600/S800: +21%

We may not think of it now, but Honda started life as a motorcycle company. That its first car, the S500, was a tiny, sporty roadster seems in hindsight a logical way to step into the world of four-wheeled transportation. These cars and the siblings that followed would solidify Honda as not just a car builder, but also as an engine builder. The tiny engines, (606cc in the S600 and 791cc in the S800) would make decent power for their size, but in Honda fashion they’re best known for their insane redlines (9500 rpm in the S600) and fantastic engineering. Turn the clock ahead three decades after the last S800 left the factory and Honda gave us a worthy successor in the incredible S2000.

Classic Japanese cars occupy a weird space—a few from the 1960s and ’70s, like the Toyota 2000GT and the Datsun 240Z, sit at the front of our consciousness. Others, like the Honda S600/800, have been criminally overlooked. Sure, they may be tiny for American consumers, but they carry everything that makes a sporty Honda so great, and were foundational in establishing how we think of Japanese enthusiast cars. People are taking notice lately, however, judging by the recent sales of two very good examples (one crested into six-figures). While this doesn’t mean that every S600 or S800 is a six-figure car now, it does demonstrate swift-growing interest, and that the S600/S800 are cars to watch.

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