If you have had the pleasure of owning one or more classic cars for many years then you will be aware that, in the main, they have proved to be a very good investment from a financial perspective. On average, values have increased significantly with returns often outstripping many other forms of investment. We should mention that there are many people of course who do not buy a classic car for investment purposes but do so for the appeal of owning and driving around in such a vehicle- if the car does happen to rise in value then that is a bonus.

Many of you will have heard of Hagerty. Well, according to its UK Hagerty Price Guide, only 29% of classic cars saw their average values rise in 2023. The others either saw their values drop or remain unchanged. Compare that with 2022 when 86% of classic cars went up in value – a huge variance.

So, why have we seen average classic car values impacted in such ways? Well, one of the reasons is due to the recession that we have encountered here in the UK. The economy is not a good one at the present moment in time with things like high interest rates meaning people having to tighten their belts. This means that people who would have considered taking out a loan to purchase a classic car may have had second thoughts and decided to put their purchase on hold as they cannot afford the loan repayments. Equally, there will probably be some owners of classic cars who make the difficult decision to sell their classic car to raise much needed funds to help pay towards things like their mortgage repayments.

If there are more classic cars for sale but fewer buyers then this could result in classic car values falling or not rising.

Classic car owners and prospective purchasers of such vehicles will no doubt be watching what is going to happen to interest rates over the next year or two. For our part, we will periodically endeavor to keep our readers up dated about the average value of classic cars.