published: 13-05-2026
update: 15-05-2026
Up until 2024 the generation of 50 and above had always dominated the classic car market, but that year it shifted to the age group of 30-40. That group had their careers on path, the house was bought and now there is money to spare.
As a result of all this the market is shifting. The supply of sixties and seventies oldtimer is suffering from a larger supply and diminishing demand and the focus shifts with it to the eighties and onward.
Some numbers
| Baby Boomers (pre-1965) | Declining — was >40% pre-pandemic | ↓ Exiting market |
| Generation X (1965–1980) | ~54% (dominant cohort) | ↑ Now largest buyer group |
| Millennials (1981–1996) | >20% (up from 15% in 2018) | ↑ Growing steadily |
These numbers come from Hagerty, who insure some 2 million cars world-wide. 38% of classic car owners are now under 40. Interest is shifting as well. Hagerty's 2024 Future of Driving survey found that 60% of Gen Z respondents want to own a classic car — compared with 31% of Baby Boomers and a 47% average across all ages.
We, old folk are (were) a generation of tinkerers. Buy a project-car, spent years to restore it and then drive it on a summers day when there is absolutely no threat of rain. We love to say that the younger generation is lazy, but they, and rightly so, want to drive their cars rather than store it climatized. So a good car that can be driven without issues from day one is preferred over the projects.
All this reflects of course in the prices. A Jaguar E-type, however beautiful it may be, is not a good investment. Buy one now and according to the analysts you are looking at a 15-20% loss in the future, The outlook on my two Lotuses, an Elan Plus2 and an Europa S1a, ‘67 and ‘68 respectively, is bleak from a financial perspective. Even the Aston Martin DB4, 5 and 6 do not attract the attention anymore which they used to.
The exceptions
Off course there are the usual suspects: the Ferrari’s and the 911’s. They keep doing well and prices are still going up, although some erosion is visible on the first. The 911 has the advantage that it is still being produced to this very day, so that keeps the older ones in focus and makes them even more desirable.
But then there is an unexpected group from the sixties. The Land Rover Defender and their predecessors. If there is one timeless and classless classic this is it. Then there are the Ford Escorts, the Mk1 and Mk2. Their sporting heritage most certainly helps. Compare that to the generational Opel Kadett, which was equally successful in ters of sales nubers back in the day, but has now completely vanished. And then there is the Mini. What all three have in common is a relative affordability, but their prices in contrast with the cars from the same era is on the rise.
The Mini is the more affordable one, but gets helped by the immense cuteness factor helped by the visibility of the Wood & Picket Ian Callum and the David Brown restomods and the exposure, still, of the Italian Job movie(s). It is a great and very usuable city car, they stayed on the streets in relative substantial numbers and your aunt used to own one. They were built until 2000, their long production run from ‘59 until that year kept them visible and of course it is a very good driving go-cart type of car.
For the Mini this translates into the following numbers, data taken from the Q2 2025 Mini Trader report:
- Mini Cooper S in average condition now valued at £17,030 / €19,692 / $23,132*— a year-on-year increase of approximately 12%
- Recent UK auction hammer prices reaching £9,720 / €11,239 / $13,204 , reflecting renewed collector confidence
- Page views on Mini Trader for classic Mini listings up 41% in Q2 2025
- Enquiries on used Mini Coopers up 26% quarter-on-quarter
- Average listing time for pre-2000 Minis fell from 18 days to 12 days
With the Escorts we see a slightly different picture, the everyday models come out somewhat cheaper than the Mini’s, but prices are still on the rise. The performance models like the RS2000 and 1800, twin-cams and Mexico’s are going through the roof. Although the last two present a lot of fakes. Where the 1100 and 1300's stay modestly below 10K, an RS2000 might fetch a tenfold of that.
When we look at the indexed numbers over the last ten years we see this:
Going from top to bottom on the right side: Green: top Escort RS versions, orange dotted: Sandard Escort Saloons, solid orange: average Escort RS, blue-dotted: standard Mini, good condition, solid blue: Cooper S,1275GT.
Remember these are indexed prices, meaning that the RS went up 120% and a standard Mini 70% in that ten year period.
The 2022 peak was caused by the pandemic: people had time and money to spare. The correcion after that was natural, but the upward trend is visible.
Outlook for the future
As the warning on financial products says: "Results from the past hold no guarantees for the future." I have concentrated on Mini's for now to keep it simple. I had a chart made up with the predictions. So the lines are both the base prediction and the historical lines. Those, with 228% and 208% (as compared to 2015) show a healthy growth with 58% and 38% respectively. The coloured area show the bandwidth of what could happen. The "Bullish" case as it is called shows a possible 210% for the sandard Mini and 300% for the Cooper S. The worst case scenarios see a drop with roughly 10%. This won't affect all cars. The "mweh" cases are likely going to suffer and the survivors will gain, so we will probably see both scenarios happening at the same time. Proect cars will succomb to rust and supplies will get shorter.
As said above: the younger buyers want good drivers. They have no sentimenal feelings towards he mousache of he Mk1 or he cenral binacle. Or carburettors for that matter, the reliability of injection will do, so expect, and we are already seeing that, the SPI/MPI versions from the nineties to increase subsantially and those younger cars are simply less rust prone and have a bit more ceature comforts, so I expect those to take larger piece of he graph.
Disclaimer: That we have ample access to the dry climate Minis, Escorts and Defenders from South Africa is purely coincedental.
Sources: Haggery, Mini Trader.