Hagerty’s newsroom published its 2026 Bull Market List this year, naming eleven collector cars the insurer’s own data says are positioned to climb in value before the broader market catches on. The list runs from a $16,600 Mazda MX-5 Miata to a $1.55 million Porsche Carrera GT, and it’s built from something more concrete than enthusiasm: Hagerty’s own analysis of public and private sale results, historic pricing trends, and the insurance valuation data it collects from the collector vehicles it actually insures. Some picks are recognizable muscle, like a 1968–1970 Dodge Charger at $91,450 and a 1990–1993 Chevrolet 454 SS pickup whose insured values are up 57 percent since 2021. Others are quieter bets, like a 1969–1972 Alfa Romeo GTV at $105,000 that Hagerty says is picking up buyers priced out of better-known Italian classics.
What “Positioned to Climb” Actually Means
Every valuation on the list reflects what Hagerty calls condition #2, good enough to win a local or regional car show and drive like new, but short of concours quality, which keeps the comparison consistent across an eleven-car spread that ranges from a daily-drivable Miata to a seven-figure Porsche. What separates this from a simple price guide is the demographic layer underneath it. Hagerty tracks the age of buyers actively quoting insurance on each car, and uses that as a forward signal, on the theory that a car attracting younger money now is a car whose demand curve is about to steepen as that buyer group ages into its peak earning years. The BMW M5 on this year’s list draws 58 percent of its interest from buyers under 40; the Porsche Carrera GT draws 28 percent from collectors 40 or younger, chasing a car most of them were in grade school for. Larry Webster, Hagerty Media’s SVP, put the pitch plainly in the outlet’s own market-trends writeup: “No matter your budget, it’s never been easier to get into an enthusiast car you truly love.”
The Eleven Cars, From Daily Driver to Blue Chip
At the affordable end sits the 1999–2005 Mazda MX-5 Miata at $16,600, a car Hagerty says draws steady demand across age groups rather than one narrow buyer type. A step up, the 1995–1998 Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6 at $20,000 pairs its 2.8-liter six-cylinder with a buyer pool that’s 78 percent age 50 or younger, a hot hatch still priced like a used commuter car. The 1981–1993 Dodge Ramcharger, at $25,300, is Hagerty’s truck-and-SUV bet, riding the broader wave of interest in boxy ’80s and ’90s off-roaders. The 2006–2010 BMW M5, at $36,000, carries a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V-10 that BMW never repeated in the model. The 2006–2013 Corvette Z06, at $55,900 with a 505-horsepower 7.0-liter V-8, anchors the list’s American-performance middle. The 1990–1993 Chevrolet 454 SS pickup, at $59,800, is the strongest recent mover on the list, its insured values climbing 57 percent since 2021. The 1968–1970 Dodge Charger, including the 425-horsepower Hemi option, runs $91,450, with 52 percent of current owners falling in Gen X or younger. The 1956–1957 Continental Mark II, at $82,700, was the most expensive American car of its era and gives the list a pre-muscle-car prestige entry. The 1995–1998 Nissan Skyline GT-R, at $82,350, is the grey-market JDM pick, its American following built largely by a generation that raced it in Gran Turismo long before they could legally drive. The 1969–1972 Alfa Romeo GTV, at $105,000, is the list’s Italian value play. And the 2004–2007 Porsche Carrera GT, at $1,550,000 with only 1,270 built, closes the list as its outlier, a V-10 supercar being chased in part by buyers who weren’t yet driving when it went out of production.
Why an Insurer’s Data Reads Differently Than an Auction Recap
Most collector-car price coverage leans on auction results, which are useful but noisy. A single seven-figure hammer price at a marquee sale can be one wealthy bidder’s ego as much as it’s a market signal. Hagerty’s edge is scale: it’s pulling valuation trends from the full book of collector vehicles it insures, plus the quotes it processes from people shopping for coverage on cars they don’t own yet, which gives it a read on demand that shows up months before it hits an auction stage. That’s also why the list mixes a $16,600 Miata with a $1.55 million Carrera GT among the same eleven cars. The underlying signal isn’t price tier, it’s whether interest is broadening among buyers young enough to keep bidding for another twenty years, a distinction the release itself draws out in its wider syndicated distribution.
The thread running through all eleven picks isn’t nostalgia so much as timing. Hagerty is watching which generation is starting to show up in its quote data years before that shows up in a sale price, and betting that the rest of the market notices later than it should.