7 Cars We Overlooked in Our Bull Market Lists

Each December, we put together the Hagerty Bull Market List, our annual selection of the collector-car hobby’s movers and shakers. Basically, it’s a group of 10-or-so cars (with the occasional truck and motorcycle thrown in) that the data tells us are poised to grow in value over the next 12 months. This isn’t investment advice per se—rather, an opportunity to point out that, with some due diligence and a smidge of luck, you can experience the joys of the collector-car hobby and maybe get your money back or a bit more when it’s time to sell. We’ll reveal the 2025 Bull Market list on December 9, 2024.

Many of the cars, trucks and occasional bikes chosen for this annual list of ours spend the next 12 months doing exactly what we expected: They gain in value. Over the years, we’ve picked some big winners as well as some major duds (see our results here), but looking back, we couldn’t help but notice some vehicles that we didn’t pick for the Bull Market list exploding in value. So, below are some of the classics we should have picked for each year of Hagerty’s Bull Market.

2018 list: 1990-97 Mazda Miata

It doesn’t seem like that long ago when even first-gen (NA) Miatas were truly cheap. Really nice ones didn’t even cost five figures. For a few reasons, though, they’ve gotten way more expensive. Many NAs got chewed up and spit out, left outside in the rain, raced, stolen, crashed, and/or cannibalized for parts to put on other, cleaner Miatas. Couple that with the fact that people on the hunt for a cheap, fun, reliable, easy-to-live-with convertible have few places to turn (Miata is always the answer, after all). As supplies of good Miatas dwindled and as more people fell in love with that cute, smiley, pop-up-headlight face, prices were bound to go up.

Our very first Bull Market list was in 2018, which happens to be when prices for these little guys really started to pick up. From January 2018 to January 2019, the NA’s condition #2 (“excellent”) value jumped 48 percent, to $12,600. That number has continued to climb, and currently sits at an average of $19,000. Technically, the Mk IV Toyota Supra we picked for the ’18 list has done better in the long term (up 145 percent since 2018), but the little Miata would’ve been the winner in 2018 had it been part of the group.

2019 list: 1999-2002 BMW M Coupe

We put the Z3-based BMW M Roadster on our 2020 Bull Market list, but only because we had already missed the clownshoe-shaped boat on the M Coupe, which should’ve gone on the 2019 list.

We figured roadster prices would follow in the charismatic coupe’s rapidly climbing footsteps. To our credit, they have. The M Roadster’s condition #2 values have seen an eight percent annualized return since 2020. But the coupe climbed earlier, and higher. From January 2019 to January 2020, #2 values for coupes powered by the S52 engine (earlier, less powerful) shot up 30 percent, while values for S54-engined cars (later, more powerful) jumped 40 percent.

The 2019 Bull Market list had some big hits on it, including the Fox-body Saleen Mustang and 1991-96 Buick Roadmaster. Both have both more than tripled in value since 2019, compared to the M Coupe’s average climb of “only” 80 percent in that time. But the heavy haunches of the BMW could’ve easily butted in to replace the 1996 Corvette Grand Sport (up two percent) or the 2008-09 Pontiac G8 (up zero percent) in the group.

2020 list: 1956-75 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia

VWs are no stranger to our Bull Market feature. The 1990-94 Corrado made the cut in 2020 and the 1980-92 Vanagon camped out on the ’21 list. Indeed, many Volkswagens, both the air-cooled classics and the more modern sport compacts, have grown in value significantly since the 2010s, some even stretching beyond the “entry-level” territory they had inhabited for years prior. The Karmann Ghia is certainly one of them, even if it never was a Bull Market car.

The median condition #2 value for Karmann Ghias is up 268 percent over the past decade, and a few models are up 300 percent or more. Their values climbed in 2015, when air-cooled Porsche craziness helped drag up some vintage VWs, but Karmann Ghias had a second wind in 2020 that we didn’t anticipate (like a lot of things in 2020 we didn’t anticipate).

From January 2020 to January ’21, #2 values for Karmann Ghia coupes were up 71 percent, and convertibles were up 39 percent. Our other VW pick for 2020, the Corrado, climbed 35 percent in that time. To be fair, though, the Corrado has exploded in the long term. Its #2 values are up a whopping 349 percent since we picked it, which is more than any other Bull Market car ever.

2021 list: 1992-97 Ford F-Series

The ninth generation Ford F-Series spans F-150s, 250s and 350s, different engines, Flaresides and Stylesides, Crew Cabs, Supercabs, and Long beds. Lots of versions, lots of different prices, but they’re all a lot more expensive than they used to be. Vintage trucks in general have gained more of a following in recent years, but during 2021 people really started turning to the 1990s Ford workhorse. From January 2021 to January ’22, the ninth-gen F-Series’ median condition #2 value grew by 85 percent. Compare that to the other truck we picked for ’21—the 2006-10 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8—whose prices were dead flat over the same period.

2022 list: 1993-95 Ford SVT Lightning

We put the 2010-14 F-150 Raptor on the 2018 Bull Market list, and it has done pretty well with a four percent annualized return. But Ford’s original peppy pickup—the first-gen F-150 Lightning—has picked up, too. Based on the ninth-generation F-Series platform we looked at above, the 1993 Lightning sat alongside the ’93 SVT Mustang Cobra as the first production models by Ford’s Special Vehicle Team (SVT). The show and go package included a 351-cid/240-hp Windsor V-8 with GT40-type heads, lower ride height, alloy driveshaft, special wheels, front air dam, and of course decals.

The sporty hauler had already gained value in ’21, but from January ’22 to January ’23, #2 values for the Lightning flashed from $21,100 to $39,700, an increase of 88 percent. One truck we picked instead for the ’22 list—the 1983-97 Land Rover Defender—actually lost value over the same period.

2023 list: 2002-04 Volkswagen Golf R32

It’s not a Nissan Skyline. It’s the other R32, the VW Golf R32. Built on the Mk 4 Golf, it’s a hot hatch turned up to habanero-level spicy. Mechanically, it’s similar to the 3.2-liter VR6-powered, all-wheel drive Audi TT, a car we put on the 2021 Bull Market list. The Audi had a good year in ’21, with some versions of the TT gaining 25 percent in value, but Golf R32 did even better, with #2 values jumping from $23K to $33K that year. They jumped even more in ’23, to the tune of 56 percent. Hot hatch, indeed, though they have softened a bit since peaking earlier in 2024.

2024 list: 2003-04 Mercury Marauder

This year isn’t over, but it’s safe to say that 2024 has been an interesting one for the collector car market, with many vehicles cooling, softening, or significantly dropping off from the heady highs of the pandemic boom. Still, some cars have appreciated, and the Mercury Marauder is one of them, despite not making the 2024 Bull Market list.

Built on Ford’s venerable Panther platform that lasted from 1978-2011, the Marauder is based on the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis but with some bad-guy styling touches and Police Interceptor performance upgrades thrown in, including a 3.55 limited-slip differential and aluminum driveshaft. The 4.6-liter, 302-hp Modular V-8 comes from the contemporary Mach 1 Mustang. Car and Driver quipped that “hot-rodding a Grand Marquis is a little like making a bourbon out of Geritol”, but the Marauder is a neat sleeper.

Ironically, Marauders depreciated a bit during 2021-22, but they have clawed it all back during 2024, jumping 29 percent from January to October. They currently sit at an all-time high, with a #2 value of $26,900.