3 Trends to watch in 2019 that will drive your business

by Hagerty // February 15, 2019


 
Plenty happened in the collector car world last year that will have a lasting impact on the insurance market. For the first time, younger generations became the largest group of people interested in acquiring collector vehicles, and their influence became evident in some surprising ways.
 
Unlike Baby Boomers, younger collectors—Gen-X and millennials—don’t collect the cars of their youth. The vehicles they do collect, the ones they don’t, their budgets, and their shopping habits impacted not only Hagerty insurance quotes but overall collector car markets and auction results. To help you stay ahead of the competition, we analyze these critical insights to provide you with three trends to watch in the year ahead.

 
01 | Move over, Baby Boomers

For years, Baby Boomers have dominated the collector car market, but their children are edging in. At the end of 2017, the majority of collector car quotes that Hagerty received tipped toward Gen-X and younger enthusiasts. That trend continued in 2018, with 53 percent of quotes coming from Gen-X and younger collectors.
Quotes by Generation
02 | Reliving their youth?

One of the Golden Rules of car collecting is that people buy the cars they wanted (or had) as youths. Now that Gen-X and millennial buyers are moving into the market, logic suggests they will buy newer cars, but it turns out that cars from the 1960s and 1970s are just as compelling to these younger collectors. And who can blame them? Those cars were at their unregulated best — raucous, stylish, purely analog machines — and they are antidotes to today’s computerized cars.

That said, the trend lines are clear: Later-model cars are gaining in popularity, not only in our data but in new events catering to the 1980s, such as the series of RADwood car shows.

Another interesting facet that our data revealed: While Baby Boomers tend to have cars that are on average 14 years younger than they are, millennials tend to own cars that are on average seven years older than them. Among Hagerty policy-holders, the median model year for Pre-Boomers is 1964, Boomers 1968, Gen-X 1970, and millennials 1970.
03 | The Rise of Newer Vehicles

Hagerty clients added a lot of vehicles to their insurance policies in 2018, but some models saw a big increase when compared with 2017.

The most popular new car was the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon followed by the only slightly less powerful Hellcat. The Challenger R/T Plus, T/A 392, and SRT 392 versions were not far behind. Lots of Ford Mustang GT and Chevrolet Camaro 1SS and 2SS cars were also added in large numbers. Finally, the Porsche 911 GT2 RS and GT3 were popular buys. All of these models were added to policies at a faster rate than the 35 percent average annual growth rate.

Among late model cars that were frequently added to policies are the Corvette ZR1 (C6-generation, 2005-2013), Bentley Continental GT (2003-2010), Porsche 911 GT2 (996-generation, 1995-2005), Aston Martin V8 Vantage (2007), and Mercedes-Benz SLK 230 (1998-1999).


To meet the needs of this changing market, speak with your insureds about a collector car policy tailored to protect a vehicle’s collectible value.

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