Sure as the sun will rise, trends change. In a digital world, they are evolving faster than ever before. And, as much as the automotive industry is pushing forward with a digital future, its analog past is very much still on the market today.
Bugatti sold 161 vehicles in 2022 and 2023 combined, all for over a million USD each. Five times that many classic cars were sold for over a million USD during the same period by outfits including RM Sotheby’s, Gooding & Company, Bonhams and Mecum.
The annual American auto auction calendar has big sale weeks centered around Monterey Car Week in August and the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in March.
This year’s Monterey Car Week saw 1,143 cars up for sale. Just 821 sold, a 72 percent sell-through rate according to classic car insurance company Hagerty. In the past, the sell-through rate was much higher, topping 75 percent.
“Hagerty puts out a forecast every year, and we had expected auction totals to grow. So by that measure, it was a disappointing year, although it was fairly close to last year,”Brian Rabold, Vice President of automotive intelligence at Hagerty, told Newsweek.
RM Sotheby’s
RM Sotheby’s
Hagerty’s bullishness in the market was centered around the fact that there were as many million dollar lots as there had been offered in the past. Offered did not equal sold.
“What we observed out in Pebble Beach during Monterey car week was just a more of a reluctance to buy those cars. The traditional blue chip collectible [built before 1981], million dollar plus car… a lot of those cars struggled to meet reserves. A lot of those cars didn’t have as as much excitement around them,” he said.
Many of the models that sold for the most money were specialty Italian models, or those with unique American muscle car history.
While the top 10 list of cars sold during Monterey Car Week read like models you’d expect to see there, Rabold said, “they just didn’t have that competition around the bidding process that they have in the past.”
But, that list doesn’t tell the whole story.
A vintage Ferrari sits on display awaiting bidders during the RM Sotheby’s Monterey Car Week auction.
RM Sotheby’s
“Another thing that we observed was that the auctioneers and the auction companies had to work a lot harder than they had in previous years … Throughout the course of the week, it became increasingly important for those auction companies to really try and work with sellers to drop reserves on the block. That always happens at auction. But, we saw more and more as the week went on,” Rabold said.
McKeel Hagerty, CEO and Chairman of Hagerty told Newsweek that he and his team noticed that despite the struggles on the auction block during Monterey Car Week, “Everything was at a next, higher level – event attendance, test drives, newer show cars, younger bidders. Simply put, it was just the new high-water mark.”
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.