The international collector car market has been subdued in 2025, but there have been some notable sale highlights. This is according to data from specialists Hagerty that tracks the values of 3000 models of classic and collector cars and is one of the most highly respected guides of the classic and collector car market.
“2025 has, in general, been an extension of what we saw in late 2024,” says John Mayhead, Editor of the Hagerty UK Price Guide. “The boom times of the post-Covid era are now firmly over, buyers are being much more careful with their money and, as a consequence, nearly 80 percent of values have either dropped or remained static. That said, delve a little deeper and certain areas emerge as hotspots, both up and down.”
One of the upward hotspots is definitely modern classics. Hagerty UK’s indices show growth in the Hot Hatch market, consisting of mostly 1980s and newer performance hatchbacks and within the RADwood index, which tracks 1980s and 1990s turbo era cars. Standout examples in excellent condition include the 1985-1986 Ford Escort RS Turbo Mk III which has risen in value by 23 percent. Possibly because of the hype over the new electric Renault 5, prices of the 1986-1991 Renault 5 GT Turbo have risen 7.5 percent and values of the iconic hot hatch that started it all, the 1975-1984 Volkswagen Golf GTi Mk 1 1600, have gone up six percent. This exciting segment of the collector car market reflects the popularity of the cars many people obsessed over in their youth and can now afford to buy.
Highly desirable Mercedes-Benz models once again asserted their dominance in the top echelons of the collectable car market, highlighted by RM Sotheby’s sale in February of the 1954 W196R Stromlinienwagen (Streamliner) that sold for a shade over £45.1m. This made it the second highest automotive public auction result after the 2022 sale of another W196R, the Uhlenhaut Coupe, which fetched £115m at the time.
Ferraris accounted for half of the top ten, but there was a late entry by the Gordon Murray Special Vehicles S1 LM that sold in Las Vegas for £15.7m ($20.63m) in November, and a McLaren F1 with high downforce kit that sold in Abu Dhabi in December for a record $25.3m. Ferrari did take the accolade for the most valuable new car sold, with a 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 auctioned by RM Sotheby’s for £19.9M ($26m). This was a one-off, built by Ferrari as a charity lot in addition to the normal limited run of chassis numbers that were all allocated to existing collectors.
It is notable that the majority of successful auctions continue to be in the US, although in 2025 the top two auction sales were in Europe. Meanwhile, high value British auctions have struggled, with Bonhams’ Goodwood Revival returning the lowest total since 2016. It is possible that continued complexity of export requirements post-Brexit and possibly reduced market confidence has pushed major sales overseas.
The Classic Index (CI), tracking the British enthusiast market segment, and the Best of British (BoB) Index, watching classic British cars like the Aston Martin DB5 and MGB, are both down, the BoB now at its lowest level since it was created in 2018. These two indices tend to have older cars with the mean age of first manufacture being 1962 for BoB and 1971 for CI.
Across the entire 3000 models of the Hagerty Price Guide, the story is similar, with British marques taking nine of the ten places in the list of models that have declined the most, with Bizzarrini the only foreign brand making the list. Jaguar is the brand showing the biggest drop this year, down 21.4 percent, partly due to a significant reduction in the mean value of the XKSS after one failed to sell at RM Sotheby’s London sale in November 2024. The subsequent market movement following that auction means that there was a wholesale re-analysis of XKSS values, including insured values, after that rare public attempt at a sale. Despite Broad Arrow’s successful £4.86m (CHF 5’181’250) sale of a cherished 1956 Jaguar D-Type, values of the C- and D-Type also declined in 2025.
The Shelby Cobra Daytona coupe showed the largest value increase of any car in the Guide, pushed up by a number of significant Cobra sales at Kissimmee and Monterey during 2025, and the subsequent change to insured values.
Another interesting statistic from 2025 shows that the number of older cars shipped from the UK to the US fell to a six-year low and was down 14 percent compared with 2024. Of the 15 brands typically shipped across the pond, only Porsche and Honda rose. Land Rover remained the most shipped older car from the UK to the US, accounting for 24.8 percent of all cars, followed by Porsche at 6.7 percent and Toyota at 5.4 percent. Uncertainty over tariff regulations may well have affected export numbers this year.
The good news is the downward trend in collector car values in 2025 is not a sign of a market decline, instead Mayhead is confident that it reflects the market returning to normal levels after a number of years of inflated prices.
GR Snippets
- Modern classics stand out with upward trend in values of Hot Hatches and RADwood turbo era cars
- Popular hot hatches include the Renault 5 GT Turbo and original Volkswagen Golf GTi Mk 1 1600
- Big collector car sales included a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R at £45.1m, a 1964 Ferrari 250 LM at £30.8m and a 2025 Ferrari Daytona SP3 at £19.9m
- 80 percent of classic car values have declined or remained static, showing a return to normal after previous boom period
