Hagerty Price Guide 20 Indexes Overview: Collector car market remains strong

All-new pricing was recently released in Hagerty Price Guide 20, so we now turn our attention to the seven broad market indexes that we regularly report on.

Overall, the collector car market remains strong. Upward movement was somewhat relaxed compared to the first eight months of 2012, but prices continue to increase overall. In fact, six of our seven indexes showed positive gains, while the lone decline (Hagerty’s Affordable Classic Index) was by less than a tenth of a percent.

The largest gain was 2%, shared by our Blue Chip, British Car, Ferrari, and German Car indexes. Of these, the Blue Chip, Ferrari and German indexes are all now at highwater marks since their 2006 inception date, with 10, 10, and 11 consecutive periods of positive growth, respectively.

Naysayers may look at this last period’s slower growth figures critically, but we view them as proof that speculators aren’t entering the market at unsustainable levels yet. More measured growth points to long-term health, in our opinion.

Widening the lens, 12-month performance tells a similar story, though the numbers are gaudier. The best of the best, as measured by the Blue Chip and Ferrari indexes in particular, exhibited one-year gains of 14% and 18%. Over three years, all but the Index of 1950s American Classics (down less than half a percent) have shown improvement, with five of the indexes cracking double digits. The strongest of these is the Ferrari Index, with prices today 59% above where they were in January 2010.