7 Cars That Lost the Most Coin This Summer

We updated the Hagerty Price Guide last month, and “soft” is a word that keeps coming up. Most of our collector car indexes are down year-over-year, and some vehicles shed as much as 18 percent of their value. We’ve already highlighted some of the cars that lost the most in percentage terms, but below are some of the high-dollar classics that dropped the most in pure dollar terms. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and all that.

As always, if you have questions about how we arrived at these changes, you can read more about the methodology behind the Hagerty Price Guide here.

1965-70 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage Coupe

Condition #2 decrease: -$58,900 (-11 percent)

Visually similar to the DB5 that came before it, the DB6 added four inches of wheelbase and a slightly higher roofline, resulting in a roomier Aston. The side profile also changed with the DB6’s Kammback tail and upward flourish at the very back. Mechanically the DB6 is largely the same, with the Tadek Marek-designed 4.0-liter six mated to either a ZF five-speed manual or Borg-Warner three-speed auto. In base form the triple SU-carbureted DB6 is rated at 282 horsepower, while the hot DB6 to have was the Vantage version, in which the triple Weber-fed engine makes 325 hp. British magazine Motor called the DB6 Vantage “a very Grand Tourer” that “makes the overall speed limit of 70 mph look ridiculous.”

In the DB6 value hierarchy, the ultra-rare Vantage convertibles and base model convertibles are worth the most, each coming in at over $1M in excellent condition. Coupes, even Vantages, are worth less than half as much, and while all DB6s got cheaper this past quarter, Vantage coupes sank the most. Weak sales, including a high number of cars in mediocre condition hitting the auction market over the past few years, have kept DB6 prices soft.

1973-75 BMW 3.0CSL Batmobile

Condition #2 decrease: -$86,700 (-18 percent)

Launched in 1972, the 3.0 CSL improved upon BMW’s already solid E9 platform with lighter weight and more power, and nearly 1300 were built to homologate it for European Touring Car Championship racing. A lighter body, less trim, and Perspex side windows dropped weight. In 1973, things improved further with a bump in displacement to 3.2 liters and an aero package with a massive air dam, an even bigger rear wing, a small roof spoiler, and fins along the front fenders. BMW didn’t call this version the “Batmobile,” but the nickname has stuck with the car ever since.

BMW also didn’t sell this car in the U.S., but American Bimmer-heads have lusted after it for long enough that a decent number of them have made it to this side of the Atlantic. And, as classic BMW prices in general have appreciated significantly during the 2010s and 2020s, so has the Batmobile. From 2013-23, the condition #2 value of this car essentially tripled. Last year, however, was the peak, and sale prices have been soft. Since then, #2 values have sunk by 27 percent.

1955-57 Mercedes-Benz 300Sc Cabriolet

Condition #2 decrease: -$87,000 (-11 percent)

Part of the W188 generation of Mercedes-Benz, the 300Sc is quite rare with 98 coupes, 49 Cabriolet As, and 53 roadsters built. They are magnificent hand-built cars that retain some of that prewar coach-built streamlined elegance, but combine it with advanced postwar features like independent suspension and a fuel-injected engine similar to the one found in Mercedes’ 300SL sports car. In fact, a 300Sc actually cost more than a 300SL when both cars were new.

Not so now. In fact, 300Sc prices have been consistently dropping for nearly a decade, and two recent sales for the rare cabriolet models don’t show that trend reversing. A solid example sold this summer for $582,500, which is under its condition #4 (“fair”) value, and another brought even less at £368,000 ($477,885).

1963-64 Alfa Romeo TZ-1

Condition #2 decrease: -$150,000 (-9 percent)

Alfa Romeo’s racing successor to the Giulietta Sprint Zagato (SZ), the Tubolare Zagato (TZ) features a lightweight tube (tubolare) frame and an aluminum body by, you guessed it, Zagato. These days, people refer to it as the TZ-1 to distinguish it from the much rarer fiberglass-bodied TZ-2 that replaced it. Its distinctive Kamm tail (the Italians call it a coda tronca, or “shortened tail”) and curvy shape make it gorgeous, and it truly is light, weighing in at under 1500 pounds. TZ-1s were highly competitive in their class in the great sports car races of the day, and Alfa Romeo built just 112 of them.

With cars this rare, individual sales can swing price guide numbers significantly. Although prices high-end 1960s sports cars in general were soft this past quarter, one auction result for a TZ-1 made the case for dropping this Italian favorite’s value by six figures. An aged but good car in #3+ condition sold in Monterey back in August for $819,000. While 819 grand is a lot of money, it’s well under the car’s $1M presale estimate, and less than the TZ-1’s condition #4 value in our Price Guide.

1960-63 Aston Martin DB4 GT

Condition #2 decrease: -$450,000 (-14 percent)

Introduced in late 1959, the same year Aston Martin won overall at Le Mans, the DB4 GT is shorter, lighter, and more powerful than the standard DB4. Its wheelbase is about five inches shorter, its body made of thinner-gauge aluminum, and its engine tweaked with higher compression, twin-plug ignition, and three Weber carburetors to bump power from 240 to 302 hp. Visually, the DB4 GT is most distinguishable by its handsome faired-in, covered headlights, a feature Aston Martin later adopted on the DB4 Vantage and the DB5. Other details include quick-release fuel fillers for the large fuel tank and Borrani wire wheels.

DB4 GTs mixed it up on track with Ferrari 250 TdFs and SWBs (more about those below) and had considerable success. Aston Martin built 75 of them, and 19 more received lighter, curvier bodywork from Zagato in Italy.

Like the Alfa TZ, this is another scarcely seen ’60s sports car, and sometimes just one sale can precede a big price swing. One such sale happened in Monterey back in August, where a DB4 GT in #2- condition sold for $2.1M, which was condition #3- money, or about half a million less, at the time.

1956-59 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France

Condition #2 decrease: -$700,000 (-11 percent)

Ferrari won the Tour de France automobile race eight times between 1951 and 1964, and the company even nicknamed the long wheelbase, competition version of its 250 GT the “Tour de France” (TdF) after it won the event in 1956.

TdFs are among the most valuable and sought after of all classic Ferraris, so when their prices drop, a lot of dollars (700K of them, in this case) are shed. Vintage Ferraris in general had a tough go of it this past quarter. A TdF posted a soft $5.2M in Monterey, and Hagerty’s Ferrari index saw its biggest drop in over four years.

1959-63 Ferrari 250 GT SWB

Condition #2 decrease: -$800,000 (-10 percent)

The 250 GT SWB (Short Wheelbase) is an evolution of the successful 250 GT TdF and the predecessor of the famous 250 GTO, as well as a highly successful racing car in its own right. It has long been one of the most valuable classic cars in the world, and alloy-bodied examples can sell for eight figures. Given the soft market for 1950s and 1960s Ferraris this past quarter, though, the most valuable ones were bound to drop along with the rest of them.