How much value does a famous owner add?
IT’S fairly obvious that a car which once had a famous owner is generally going to be worth more than the equivalent car that didn’t. But just how much of a difference can it make to the asking price?
Curious to find an answer to this question, international classic car authority Hagerty did some research and crunched the numbers. The company searched its databases for celebrity owned cars that had been offered for sale.
Hagerty’s researchers then compared the sold price (or estimated sale price) with the values for a standard car at that time. When faced with a unique car such as the Popemobile or a Batmobile, Hagerty valued a nonmovie equivalent of the vehicle it was based on.
Six categories were formulated: Movie Stars: Paul Newman is at the top of this list thanks to a single sale: a 2002 Chevrolet Corvette sold in 2012 for $275 000 (R4.45 million) against a Hagerty value of $38 000.
Paul Walker comes in fast and furious with 20 of his cars, bikes and trucks hitting the auctions in the last two years alone, with an average “celebrity appreciation” of 331%. Topping that list was his 1995 BMW M3 Lightweight (E36), which sold for £295 495 (R5.9m), up 1 096% on what its value would have otherwise been. Next up were Patrick Dempsey (up to 273%), Steve Mcqueen (up to 1 105%) and
Don Johnson (148%).
Cars: It is no surprise that Bullitt topped this list.
The 1968 Highland Green Ford Mustang that Mecum sold in January 2020 for $3.74m (R60.5m) had absolutely everything going for it. The difference between this value and Hagerty’s “standard” price of £17838 (R356 000) made a massive delta of nearly 16000%.
Other front runners were the 1978 Pontiac Firebird from Smokey and the Bandit (up 1544 percent) and the Herbie VW Beetle (619%).