These 5 Classics Started 2025 with Big Gains
Happy New Year and welcome to 2025! On our calendar, January means big auctions, as well as a time to reflect on the previous year and debrief. It is also when we release our quarterly update of the Hagerty Price Guide. In the big picture, 2024 saw the previously hot collector car market cool down and settle. However, the collector car market has become more nuanced than ever, and while many collector vehicles have settled or stumbled, exceptional examples are still bringing out motivated buyers.
As the year drew to a close we still observed some notable value increases, but those gains were conspicuously smaller than the huge increases we became accustomed to seeing earlier in the 2020s, and the more noteworthy increases are mostly found in the less expensive segments of the hobby. Let’s look at the price guide’s biggest winners, measured by percentage increase across all conditions, in detail below.
As always, if you have questions about how we arrived at these changes, you can read more about the methodology behind the Hagerty Price Guide here.
1981-93 Dodge W-Series Pickups
Average increase: +16%
Six months ago, we visited this series of Dodge pickup and here we are again. The trucks of note then were the burly Cummins diesel-powered models, but now it appears the rest of the series has decided to catch up. The third generation D/W series (“D” for 2WD, “W” for 4WD) saw a major face lift in 1981 as well as a rebrand to “Dodge Ram,” a name that sticks to this day. Many of these updates were cosmetic to give the series a refreshed look, but Dodge also tightened up engine options, with a basic Slant Six through 1987 being replaced by a V-6, two V-8 engines with the 318 and 360, and a diesel offering in the form of the six-cylinder mill from Cummins.
D/W-Series trucks closed out the year strong. The four-wheel drive W-Series performed especially well, with some good trucks selling in late 2024 for prices far outpacing price guide numbers, and this went for both gas- and diesel-powered trucks. Two-wheel drive models fared well, too, with values gaining seven percent on average. Good Dodge trucks of this era do not materialize often. Much of this has to do with a lack of the restoration support Ford and GM trucks enjoy, compounded by Dodge’s lower production numbers. That said, good trucks are making it onto the market and enthusiasts are eager to snatch them up regardless of what’s under the hood, though Cummins-powered examples remain king in this market.
1991-96 Chevrolet Caprice Station Wagon
Average increase: +13%
Chevrolet’s fourth generation Caprice marked the end of an era for GM, leaving the full-size, rear-wheel-drive market to Ford’s Panther platform. These cars were built in the hundreds of thousands and were the transportation of choice for families, taxi companies and police departments alike. The “whale body” Caprice is held in affection amongst Gen-X and Millennial enthusiasts who grew up with them.
We’ve been watching the rise of station wagons in general over the past several years. From family commuters to high horsepower sport wagons, it’s a phenomenon that keeps growing. Which is good news for Caprice wagon owners who saw their cars increase 13 percent on average in value over the past few months. But that surge is only a small piece of the puzzle. While driver to project grade cars saw only modest bumps, a surprising amount of excellent condition cars hit the market at the end of 2024 and sold extremely well, prompting a big jump on condition #2 (“excellent”) cars, widening the value gap between them and #3 (“good”) condition examples.
While a driver-quality Caprice wagon still costs in the neighborhood of $10,000 a clean, lightly used example is now approaching $30,000. Whether this phenomenon is just increased willingness of buyers to pony up for the rare excellent condition car, or if this is collector recognition remains to be seen. Either way, if you’ve been hanging on to a nice Caprice wagon, chances are you’ll be pleased with the news.
1981-83 DeLorean DMC-12
Average increase: +11%
John Z. DeLorean’s attempt at creating a full-blown car company was an ambitious and gutsy, but between money problems and the high-profile drug bust involving John Z. (who would later be acquitted on grounds of entrapment), the whole enterprise died a sad end before the car could really get off the ground. The infamous stainless steel sports car got a second wind in 1985 with Back to the Future and became a pop culture icon. Aside from pop culture, the DeLorean received the accolades of car reviewers who found the car to be quite good although it lacked any sort of real power. Road & Track even said “it may well be that the DeLorean will become a cult car, purchased for status reasons by persons wishing to be seen as individualists.”
For years, the DeLorean enjoyed reasonable pricing, but over the past five years it saw real growth in the market, and the past few months saw another sizable surge as a couple of exceptional cars traded in the deep $100,000 range and other excellent-condition cars approached the six-figure barrier. While good (condition #3) to fair (condition #4) cars did not enjoy such a lift, it’s clear that there is a strong appetite for DeLoreans and buyers are willing to pay up for exceptional ones. We will have to see if these strong numbers bring more great cars to market, but for now the future looks bright.
1981-90 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60/FJ62
Average increase: +9%
Land Cruisers make another appearance to our list of significant movers. The 80-Series model was a big winner back in October, but now we turn our attention to the 60-Series. Introduced in 1981, the 60-Series Land Cruiser offered creature comforts to make them more livable as a commuters than previous models, all while maintaining the Land Cruiser’s famous go-anywhere capability.
While not as expensive as the 80-Series that followed it, the 60-Series has a devoted following that reveres it for its ruggedness and overall usability, not to mention Toyota’s famous reliability. While the best examples are now fetching close to six-figures, excellent quality trucks saw the largest surge last year, going from a somewhat palatable price of around $40,000 to the mid-$50,000 range. Don’t despair, though, as driver quality trucks are still commonly available at lower prices, with good condition #3 examples in the $30,000 range and trucks with needs at just around $10,000. The continued increases in values of Land Cruisers, however, proves that there is a high demand and enthusiasts are snatching up whatever models they can get their hands on.
1958-60 Edsel
Average increase: +9%
Those who do remember the Edsel brand mostly think of it as Ford’s big failure in the late 1950s. To be fair, the idea behind it was not so different from what GM and Chrysler were doing at the time. It was an upper mid-tier car that aimed to compete with the likes of Buick, Oldsmobile, and DeSoto. However, at the time their styling wasn’t well-received and quality was inconsistent. Plus, Ford introduced this all-new brand during a recession, which never helps. Edsel ceased to be a brand in just three years of existence, after losing FoMoCo over $250M.
Edsel is a niche marque amongst enthusiasts today and values rarely change at a big clip, but we did observe a decent lift in values the past three months. A handful have come to market, selling publicly and offered for sale at surprisingly high numbers. And while asking prices are just that—an ask—the trend is in the positive. While most of the movement was relegated to four-door models, it is clear that there is still life in ’50s American classics, even the ones that lurk just outside of our attention.
The Chevrolet Caprice Station Wagon reminds me of a pregnant whale that would give birth to Geo Metros. Not my favorite wagon design.
The oceans need pregnant whales, so we can have baby whales. Plus, there are (I’m sure) fans of Geo Metros out there, so they needed to come from somewhere!
Does that mean we should dump all Caprice
wagons of this vintage into the oceans to create reefs?
We have seen the end of car collecting when this is a sought after classic.
I’m sure Model A and Packard owners said the same thing about Mustangs in the early 70s too…
Count me in for Mustangs. Kinda assumed Muscle Cars would pick up steam, especially convertibles. But laughed at a friend who bought a ‘66 Mustang for $125, claiming it was a future collectible.
😳🥊🥊🥊
VERY good point!
I think you’re right, this is a pile of TURDS, except for the Edsel, and they’re a “cult” collectible.
We can also put the influx of V-W’s in here too, some folks have paid OVER $100K for “restored” busses !
Piles of dollars, but NO cents……. !
I’ve had several Geo’s, mostly convertibles,and I loved every one of them.
There was a black one around town for awhile with white designs and the license plate “Orca” so I guess it does look like a whale..
Probably because another one in you state already had “Shamu”!
😂👏😂
I had a Caprice Wagon and I don’t remember the year. It had a diesel engine. The after market fuel heater couldn’t get the fuel warm enough. In December I made it .06 miles to the corner and I had to turn back to home. Traded it in for a Buick Estate Wagon. If I remember right they gave me nothing for the Chevy. I guess I was lucky they took it off my hands. Other than that, it was an OK car.
The GM 350 converted to diesel was a flop, block was not strong enough, I remember cabbies that couldn’t use these in Jan.& Feb. For more than 3 hrs.
my wife as a rookie realtor bought a 86 Buick LeSabre 9 seat wagon. It served her well. It had a 307 4 barrel oldsmobile motor in it. It was pretty much trouble free.
A yes, a Caprice. Without a doubt the worst car I have ever owned; and I’ve owned over 100.
As I recall in my lifetime I have had two excellent GM vehicles: ‘62 Corvette and a brand new ‘65 GTO Tri-Power
I’ll bet you wish you still had the Goat & the Vette…….
i agree 100 0/0
Your right…the late ’80’s Mercury Sable and Ford Taurus wagons were much nicer.
You’re, like ‘you are’
Agreed.
Why are these sub-par examples of the automotive industry elevated to this status?
I wouldn’t give you a dollar for most of these when they were new.
We should celebrate the cars that are truly worthy of collector status and let these white bread versions of automobiles designed for mass consumption find their way to the recycling center.
We try to keep these types of articles data driven and are not cherry picking personal favorites. If that were the case, this list would be about muscle car era Pontiacs and JDM imports (seriously, I should be checked out for the combination of cars I like).
What data produced this list? It is an odd list for sure.
And you are not the only one!
Some of these “ugly ducklings” are appreciated BECAUSE they are different. The Edsel for example. Unique, a better story and might be the only on at your local car show.
I like the Edsels, the rest posted are just fluff IMHO.
Amen
Well, a car sales guy once told me “There’s an ass for every seat.” That was a quote that has stuck with me thru life as it applies to many various situations one may encounter. Yeah, none of these make my heart flutter but if they so for someone else, that’s great. I do hope the rising values of the Delorean will stop people from abominating them into B-T-T-F replicas.
I worked for that guy 😝. The rest of the quote was “ ya just gotta find the right ass for that seat” 1 pin stripe and wax job later the 76 Ford courier finally sold …in 1979 !
Sounds about right.
We had a neighbor who owned a black and white Caprice wagon…it had the license “SHAMU”.
My Dad’s wagon license plate said “LeBoat”
Lol, saw one on my commute yesterday, complete with wood paneling. It took up almost the entire width of the lane.
Gary, your a genius
You’re, as in ‘you are’
My young daughter said it looked like someone put a hose in the back and blew it up.
I drove a tour door 1959 Edsel as a teenager. When I pulled up to a red light I was often asked “Is that a real Edsel”. My reply was usually ” No, it’s a Packard. I just put Edsel badging on it to make idiots ask questions”. As I think back on that I am grateful that road rage wasn’t such a big issue then…
read these articles mostly for the comments…..thank you !
That was an outstanding answer! I’m guessing that was your parent’s car, since it was a four door. A teenager that brilliant likely wouldn’t be caught dead in a four door car.
So you called curious, but otherwise friendly people idiots, in essence!
Way to go!!!
I guess one half are american
Our kids, now in their 40’s, drove the same 87 Land Cruiser to high school, and it proved indestructible. After we sold it to a local college student, our youngest, who still had a key, and her best friend would “steal” it in the college parking lot and just move it over a few parking places. Drove the guy nuts…
I read these articles mostly for the comments…..thank you !
Freakin’ hilarious! Hope the poor guy isn’t seeing a mental health professional.
I don’t understand the rise in demand/pricing for DeLoreans. Why would people pay more for such an ugly car that is slow…
While I don’t agree that the DeLorean is an ugly design, I 1000% agree with it being a total mystery why anyone would own one after driving it in a spirited manner. Most people think it is a mid-engine car. It is not. It is rear engined. Having that big, heavy PRC lump of patheticness hanging out back ruins the handling not to mention the forward thrust produced is just pathetic. It is an elegant, clean and unique exterior hiding a HoRriBLe drivetrain. A tragic 130hp from 2.9L is simply a joke; a stop-gap at a time when the company was rushing this product to market. (My Renault R5 Turbo makes 160hp from just 1.4 liters.) You better set aside around 34 seconds if you want to reach 0-88 mph, THAT is how bad it is.
To get attention, period.
There’s a DeLorean that can reach 88 MPH under it’s own power without catching on fire? I would have to see a “non-Hollywood” video of that to believe it. 88 MPH? …Maybe if you threw if off a cliff. $100k seems reasonable only if you want to park it next to the Chevette you bought for $30k. Yep, “that guy” is out there somewhere.
“It is rear engined. Having that big, heavy PRC lump of patheticness hanging out back ruins the handling”
You should let Porsche know that…..they’ve been doing it wrong for decades.
I thought it was a mid engine .
The Porsche does not have a heavy lump of a French engine, don’t forget.
Porsche engines are mostly ALLOY, a hold over from 1930’s V-W engineering.
Even back then, they knew they had to minimize polar movement
Do your homework people. The Delorean engine is aluminum too.
I believe it was a collaboration of Peugeot-Renault-Volvo, PRV.
Just two possibilities, both movie-related: either there is newfound respect for John Z, or an overwhelming desire to get back to 1955.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
I’m betting because they link to the Aluminum Tesla’s? A certain amount of ‘collectors’ are all about TRENDY, not common sense. I owned 2 (manual) DeLorean’s over the years as potential investments and they were painfully slow in performance / value not to mention a pain to keep “shiny” as everybody had to ‘touch’. They hovered around $16,000 FOREVER
@William Bulpitt, same reason people buy the Cybertruck–they don’t look like anything else on the road!
Because there’s an ass for every seat! Lol!
Poor Edsel. The first year was the best looking and they were ugly as sin. Only got worse after that.
AH, Toyota FJ 60 Land Cruisers. I bought a brand new 1985 diesel 5 speed when I decided my wife would find it more practical than her small 1980 BMW 2 door. Her only question was “Why? I liked my BMW”. Oh well. The Cruiser travelled 300,000 plus KM with little or no trouble. Driven by our daughter and probably all her friends back and forth to university in Quebec. Only bills were tows to the local gas station to warm it up so it would start in very cold weather. She forgot to plug it in. Her younger brother and his friends did likewise. INDESTRUCTIBLE !! Kept it for 9 + years and should not have sold it.
Foreign cars may not mean the same thing if you live in Canada.
Toyota land cruisers are collectable in Australia because where many are used in the Australian outback vehicle reliability can be matter of life or death. Before satellite phones that was a very real possibility. Many have covered 600,000 miles without major repairs.
The word ‘classic’ cannot be applied to any of these cars. I think you need actual car enthusiasts in your media department, if this is the kind of article they are dredging up. Let’s be serious…
Technically all can have Antique Car plates now, so yes, they are ‘classics’. Just remember that the ‘classic car’ you now have was once an old used car that was worth $50 if you could drive it to the junk yard.
I went with a roommate when he was buying his (then) new 1977 Ford pickup. I asked the salesman if he would order me a 77 Thunderbird in t _ _ _y pink with a 6 stick and no radio and no A/C.
He said, if you are serious, yes, I can get you one but you will have to give me about 1/2 down on it in case you change your mind. Just think, I could have had a ONE of ONE car. so that advertisment to sell it starts off with the 10,000 dollar plus word “RARE”
The percentage of price increase is based on what, the sale of three cars each?
Hi Roger, Editor of Hagerty’s Price Guide here. For a bit of context, here is how we determine price changes for our valuations, it is a nuanced process best explained in an article I wrote a while back. I linked it at the start of the article, but I’ll put it here for easier access.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/how-the-hagerty-price-guide-is-made/
Based on the research and changes applied to the vehicles in our guide, the percentage change is the average across all condition ratings. If there is more context relating to those percentage changes, I do discuss them in the featured vehicles.
Yawn, yawn, small yawn, yawn, Edsel.
Just sayin
Agreed
I AGREE WITH DANNO.
The only classic is the Edsel. The others are just modern cars.
I take these articles for what they are. Information on recent trends in the collector car market. Not every one in the market is looking for Ferrari’s. I find them useful.
I agree. I’m not so much into the Ferraris and Lamborghinis. I tend to lean toward the classical North American, European and Asian every man’s car, Ford, GM, Chryco, VW, Toyota, Datsun, Volvo, Saab, Beemer, British sport and Jags.
I had to comment about the Dodge pickups. There are very few good examples left because they rusted to oblivion in two less than two years here in upstate New York. Even the steel inner portion of the roof would rust away leaving large quantities of rust on the dash every time you went over a bump.
A previous employer ordered one of the early diesels, without the package that would give you hood insulation. Nobody wanted to drive it for all the noise. Then the rust started to roll in…
I have a 1989 Dodge LE-150 PU , 72,500 k , no rust , still like new. , 318 ,Drives like a new truck , Canada
My family picked two D150s . We had a Ford station wagon. Square body Chevy a family favorite. Just looking for something different. The article is correct about no aftermarket support.
In ref to the rusting Dodges, does N.Y. use road salt like IL ?
That’s why we can’t have nice things either……
I agree with all your choices except the Toyota. Toyota is synonymous with rot, engine sludge, and unintentional acceleration cover ups. Even back then Toyota couldn’t design something pleasing to the eye (sort of like every fake luxury Lexota/toyota now).
Riiiiiight.
When I think of Toyota first thing that comes to mind is “unreliable piece of junk that won’t last “🙄.
Both comments sound like they’ve never actually owned one. Toyotas don’t have the reputation for excellent reliability for nothing.
Ever owned one? We have an ES350, and it is an outstanding vehicle – even better than our 2015 Impala was, and it was great (except for the seats). My bro-in-law has had 2 Corollas with the 5-speed, and they have proven to be excellent cars for him; the 2009 that he has now is not rusty, and has been thru every Midwest winter since 2009.
It’s great we have people like you Dave! If not we’d probably all be stuck driving Toyotas or Hondas. As long as there are people willing to buy Land Rovers and Jaguars and other highly reliable cars like that, we’ll always have variety. Which one do you recommend?
Unfortunately, the only cars that I found reliable were my Toyota’s and Honda’s. I really wanted to support American made however, every American car I purchased was lacking in the build/quality control department requiring way too many visits to the dealer for warranty work. Even my 1970 Nova that was all original prior to restoring it was found to have issues that were clearly stemming from the factory. I wish we could return to the days when made in America was a sign of quality and dependability.