THE BEST-PERFORMING CLASSIC DECADES

Analysis of how classic cars have performed over the past five years shows 1970s cars have seen the highest price rises. The analysis conducted by The Classic Valuer looked at how prices of cars produced from each decade from the 1920s through to the 2000s have performed in price over the past five years. (Note that the data is global, not UK-specific, and that prices are based on the median sales price of vehicles from public auctions between 1st January and 30th

June each year.)

All decades have shown positive price growth over the period, except for the 1920s and 1930s. Aside from the 1970s, the strongest performing decades were the 1960s and 1950s. The trend in the analysis reflects the demographic movement as new, younger generations come into the market.

'To be clear, it is often misunderstood that there is some radical shift of buyers going on,' said Giles Gunning,

CEO of The Classic Valuer. 'It’s not. It’s a gradual progression where the buyer demographic is becoming younger over time. We’ve seen it for years and will continue to do so. Buyers tend to favour cars they idolised growing up, the cars they had on their wall or saw in films. However, increasingly people are becoming aware of these trends and those with the means are buying up swathes of a certain model and storing them away, banking on values increasing for those vehicles in the future. Regardless of price fluctuations or speculators in the market though, the most important thing is to buy a car you love, then consider the future value secondarily.' The price changes were: 1920s: –10.0% 1930s: – 8.8% 1940s: +20.6% 1950s: +29.0% 1960s: +50.8% 1970s: +64.8% 1980s: +25.1% 1990s: +17.1% 2000s: +10.4%