It’s on Us to Keep the Revs up in 2025

James Lipman

This story first appeared in the January/February 2025 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Join the club to receive our award-winning magazine and enjoy insider access to automotive events, discounts, roadside assistance, and more.

The annual Bull Market edition of the Hagerty Drivers Club magazine is a large undertaking. 

All year long, we collect data from our Automotive Intelligence team about patterns we see in the vast pool (more than 2.5 million) of cars we insure. We also examine the demographics of Hagerty’s new insurance customers (some 275,000 last year). Then we look to our media teams for trends in viewership across all our channels—did you know subscribers to our YouTube channel spent 9.4 million hours watching in 2024 and that we produce more than 3000 pieces of automotive content all year? Once we chew over the trends and select the cars that will appear on the Bull Market List, we start scouring for examples of each car for photography and video, convincing Hagerty Drivers Club members to let us borrow their treasures for a couple days.  

A bonus is hanging out with the members during the photoshoot at Lime Rock Park. This year, one member, a youthful 80-year-old named Eric, couldn’t help himself and took off for a hot lap of the track in his 1963 Jaguar E-Type before anyone could object, proving it’s always better to ask forgiveness than for permission. (We don’t blame you, Eric! Take me with you next time.)

Honda Prelude front three quarter driving action blur
The Honda Prelude represents the rising appeal of ’90s and Japanese cars.James Lipman

Many of this year’s car owners were younger than at previous shoots, affirming the results of our most recent Future of Driving Survey, which found that 60 percent of Gen Zers (born between 1997 and 2012) would like to own a collector car and 77 percent said they love or like driving.

Pretty great, right? The future is indeed bright for this shared passion of ours, and that’s saying something considering its current size: There are roughly 46 million collector cars in the U.S. alone. But good things don’t last by accident. It takes effort. Two things need to be done. First, we have to continually renew our love of cars by actively taking part in the hobby. Second, we all should be helping others grasp why we love these contraptions so much. 

With that in mind, I offer a few resolutions to help us keep the fire alive in ourselves and light it in others in 2025. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I hereby resolve to:

Take at least one road trip this year. I can’t tell you how many people I know who say “this is the year” they’re going to drive around the Great Lakes or to the top of Pikes Peak, but they don’t. Just do it. Life is short.

Involve your kids or a young person in your car life. My dad had an agreement with my sisters and me. If we picked out a car, he would help us fix it up. When I was 13, I chose a ’67 Porsche 911 S that we found in pieces in a snowbank behind a barn. I bought it for $500. Rebuilding it with Dad forged an incredible bond between us. Find a young person in your life and bring them along for a ride or a visit to a car show. Better yet, involve them in a restoration project.

“Stick it.” Understanding how to operate a manual transmission is a dying art. If you’re a manual enthusiast, pass it on to someone who isn’t. I taught two of my daughters—and many others—and the smiles on their faces when they got it were priceless.

Community, community, community. Keep your love alive by building friendships with like-minded people. Go to car shows or events like Hagerty’s Radwood. Attend a concours d’elegance like The Amelia, or Greenwich, or Pebble Beach to see the best cars ever produced. That will fire you up. Or start a local car group based on your favorite vehicle.

Start a car tour. Gather a group of car friends and drive somewhere fun for a couple days. Hagerty Media chief Larry Webster hosts a casual tour each autumn in southern Ohio where the roads are extra twisty and challenging. Attendees drive all day and recap the highlights and/or breakdowns all evening. “Everyone loves it,” he says. We will be publishing ideas on our strategies for planning a tour with some great route ideas.

I hope you adopt two or three of these resolutions. That’s how we grow the hobby. No one else is going to do it. It’s up to us.

Drop me a note if you have a resolution to share. Until next time, Happy New Year, and keep on driving.

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Comments

    Some of these are much easier said than done, but regardless of our location, economic status, work schedule, health, etc., one thing we can all do is talk up whatever topics (in the hobbies) we have love for. I love telling tales of my automotive experiences, and I’ve often written letters to the editor that thank local clubs and encourage attendance at area shows. What all of McKeel’s resolution suggestions have in common is this: participation. We all must participate in whatever ways we’re able – small to grandiose – just get involved and spread the word!

    I had planned to build a Bugatti Type 35 pedal car for my 3-year-old grandson and his baby sister, but I keep running into abandoned Power Wheels vehicles. The boy has ‘collected’ a C7 Corvette and a Mini Cooper thus far. He also ‘helps’ his daddy work on their ’76 Stingray and helps me wash the “Blue Car” (’07 Corvette). I consider it my obligation as a grandfather to encourage this type of behavior.

    Drive! I have done at least a couple long drives each year on vacation. Could be from Texas to Colorado or Chicago, but the point is I do it and we love it. It’s always fun.

    I am doing my part. I attend at least 6 or more marque specific events a year. I also own Lakeside Automotive an automotive repair business that caters to and supports sports cars and sports car related events in the Grand Traverse region. We are right now mentoring and training the next generation of automotive technicians through my in house training program. We also sponsor these young folks at the local automotive training programs available through the local community college (NMC) and career tech (CTC). I would encourage all of the automotive repair businesses finding a staffing shortfall to do the same. Without new blood in the car hobby or repair industry we will be on a path to extinction.

    What I and a few friends did is started a local car show each year. We all liked mopars so we approached a CDJR dealer, showed them our proposel and we are now on our 4th annual all mopar car show. And growing in show car numbers each year. The biggest change for us was that last year we ended up with more vintage mopars than the modern muscle mopars for the first time. The classic car community has givin us validity that we run a fair show with honest judging. Very satisfying.

    That’s good! Any thoughts about expanding to include other nameplates in your show? Sounds like you’ve got a great Mopar community, but how about giving owners of some other marques the benefit of your fair and honest judging? (not to mention letting show attendees see and learn about the other vintages out there)

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