Classic car sales stall in Monterey as a new generation takes over

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Auction sales during Monterey Car Week were down 3% from last year, as the shift from old cars to new cars led to piles of unsold classic cars from the 1950s and 1960s.

This year’s total sales at the five auto auctioneers in Monterey — RM Sotheby’s, Broad Arrow, Gooding & Company, Mecum and Bonhams — will drop from $403 million in 2023 to $391.6 million this year, according to classic-car insurer Hagerty. This follows a 14% decline last year compared to the 2022 peak.

Of the 1,143 cars up for sale, only 821 were sold — representing a 72% sell-through rate, according to Hagerty. The median sales price was $476,965, down slightly from last year’s median of $477,866.

Experts say wealthy collectors still have plenty of money to spend and are optimistic given the recent rally in the stock market, but the types of cars they want are changing. Many auctions had a lot of similar cars to generate strong prices and sales.

“It’s saturation,” said Simon Kidston, founder of Kidston and a leading adviser to wealthy car collectors. “When I walked around the auctions and saw so many similar products, I asked myself if any of them had thought about what inventory they or their competitors had already consigned, and whether the cars were competing for the same buyers. Many of the entries had already been in dealer windows for months or years, which It always feels like sloppy seconds.”

At the same time, the new generation of collectors driving the market — mainly Gen Xers and millennials — prefer cars from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Classic cars from the 1950s and 1960s drove the market for decades, popular with baby boomers, and failed to find buyers.

The sell-through rate (or percentage of cars sold on the auction block) in Monterey was an anemic 52% for pre-1981 cars priced at $1 million or more, according to Haggerty. Sales of cars less than 4 years old were 73% higher – proving that young collectors are now in the driver’s seat.

Hagerty’s Supercar Index of sports cars from the 1980s to 2000s is up 60% from 2019, while the Blue Chip Index of 1950s and 1960s Corvettes, Ferraris, Jaguars and other storied classics is down 3%.

It is true that a small number of rare, true masterpieces will fetch even higher prices. The top car of the week was a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider, which sold at RM Sotheby’s for $17 million and the runner-up was a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider, one of only five cars in existence.

However, the broader shift in preservation in classic cars, especially as many older collectors begin to sell or downsize their collections, can weigh on the prices of older cars over the years.

“From an auction perspective, the market continues to choke as we transition from the hot, full-on classic and Enzo-era Ferraris of the so-called sports racers of the ’50s and ’60s to the modern supercar class,” said McGeel Haggerty, CEO of Haggerty. “The gap between old and new cars has accelerated.”

Some say high interest rates are also putting pressure on the classic car market. At the lower end of the market, many buyers used financing to purchase cars and build their collections. At the high end, rising prices raised the opportunity cost of buying a classic car.

“People think, ‘Instead of that million-dollar car, if you’re a great manager, I can make 5%, maybe 10%,'” Kidston said. “That, more than anything else, makes people think twice. A collector car is part investment. There’s no reason collector cars have increased in value over the last 40 years other than from an investment angle.