2 weeks Ago By Nicholas Maronese
Article content It’s no longer news: since at least five years ago, when classic-car insurance giant Hagerty dropped its stats on what Millennial customers were calling its agents to get a quote for , the internet’s known that as much as they like the cars of their childhood, those born between roughly 1980 and 1995 also get a kick out of the American muscle cars, trucks, and Corvettes their parents did. Look down our top nine list of Millennials’ fave classics from 2019 , and you’ll find but one late ’80s icon, way down in the #8 spot, the R32-gen Nissan Skyline and GT-R. That vintage of Godzilla was also the only import on the list, outside of the classic Volkswagen Beetle in the #5 spot.
The thing Millennials were most often ringing Hagerty up about, curious to insure? The 1973 through 1987 Chevrolet pickup, with the 1980 model year being the one getting singled out above all others. But that was five years ago, and Millennials’ influence in the collector-car market has grown considerably, a change you can track via skyrocketing values on 30- and 40-year-old classic cars that barely ever cross Boomers’ or Gen-Xers’ radars. What’s more, there’s a new generation of enthusiast entering the classic-car scene: Generation Z, a.
k.a. those currently aged 27 down through 12.
Have Millennials’ tastes changed in the past half-decade? And is Gen Z as big into American classics as their Millennial cohorts were? To find out, we hit up Hagerty once again for the latest data (as of August 2024) on what younger enthusiasts were looking to insure. We’ll run down the list of Millennial faves from bottom to top, then do the same for Generation Z. Millennials Generation Z But if you want a summary now, prepare yourself for a pair of lists crammed with Mustangs, Corvettes, and pickups.
(Some things never change, huh?) Millennials Back in 2019, the venerable Chevy Chevelle sat at #3 on the Millennials’-faves list; its new position at the bottom of the totem pole suggests the iconic muscle car has been supplanted by new darlings. It was the ’69 and ’70 models – spanning a significant facelift for Chevelle – that drew the most attention back then, not only among Millennials, but among Boomers and Gen Xers, too. We get it.
It’s indisputably one of the most widely respected muscle cars of the era, and per Hagerty data, a ’70 with the base 307-cube V8 averages about CDN$18,600 for a driver-condition example, making it easy on Millennial wallets. Did we mention Hagerty insures all years of enthusiast machinery and not strictly just classics? Yes, it may be unsurprising to find out that this top 10 includes some modern muscle in the form of the much-loved current-gen (well, recently departed) Dodge Challenger . Since the model’s relaunch in 2008, the draw has been apparent: classic muscle-car looks with all the modern amenities you could ask for .
You’re looking at the only foreign make and model in American Millennials’ top 10 fave classics, and isn’t it exactly the one you’d expect? The Beetle was, of course, one of the most popular cars ever made, which means plenty of supply to meet cross-generational demand. That in turn means a low cost of entry, a healthy aftermarket for spare parts, and a broad network of support. Roughly CDN$17,400 gets you a driver ’71 Bug these days.
If you’re in the older half of the Millennial cohort, the Fox-body Mustang is the generation of pony car you grew up with—odds are decent you pined for one as a kid. But that’s not to understate the growing appeal these ’Stangs have been slowly cultivating for decades across several generations of enthusiast. While perhaps derided by some as a rolling-in-my-five-point-oh punchline some 20 years ago, the Fox-body Ford Mustang has long been a favourite of drag-racing nuts, tuners, and those in the know generally.
Add in nostalgia for the period seeing its upswing, and it just makes sense Millennials are seeking these things out in bigger numbers than ever. For Boomers, trucks of the ’70s were workhorses built to get jobs done; oh, Lord, how our view of pickups has changed in the half-century since . We’re sure many of the Millennials collecting old Ford F-150s use them for work, too, but you can’t discount how much trucks have been mainstreamed over the past two decades, something we’re sure plays a role in their desirability as enthusiast toys.
In 2019, Millennials were particularly asking about ’76 models in the US$8,500 range; these days a short-bed half-ton 1976 F-100 will run you about CDN$23,800 for a decent-condition example. Everything we just said about the Ford F-Series above? Much of it tracks to the old Chev C/K, too, even if the preferred model years are a generation behind the Blue Oval trugs. These second-gen Chevy trucks, like the C10 or Cheyenne, are admittedly a handsome bunch, while plenty capable, too.
The third generation of America’s sports car was on this list back in 2019, too, except the earlier chrome-bumper cars weren’t included, then. We surmised the affordability of the disco-era ’Vette explained the appeal of this particular vintage – Millennials were most often asking for quotes on ’77 models, not quite a peak year for Corvette – but maybe these enthusiasts’ now-slightly-fatter wallets are better able to afford the pricier and more desirable ’68-through-’73 Corvettes that Gen X-ers, Boomers, and basically every age of enthusiast seems to be ga-ga over. Is that another modern Mustang on this list? It sure is.
Yes, more popular among Millennials than a Fox-body is a good ol’ SN95 Mustang. This is, again, a generation of Mustang many Millennials might have grown up with, and today these cars represent one of the most affordable ways to get into a proper V8 pony car. A daily-driver 1994 GT Coupe, for example, runs you about CDN$12,000 these days, says Hagerty, cheaper even than the CDN$22,400 5.
0-litre Fox-body equivalent from the year prior, even though they share the same engine. You thought you’d seen the last of the vintage pickups on this list? Think again. This generation of the classic square-body Chevrolet truck was actually the #1 vehicle on the 2019 list of Millennial faves—it’s just traded places with the then-runner-up, is all.
It also makes for another notch in the Millennials-love-modern-cars tally—four out of our top 10 now hail from the 1980s or newer. Even if it’s the second-place fave for now, it still feels like a pickup from the ’80s perhaps best defines Millennial enthusiasts’ tastes in classic cars. The long-lasting appeal of the very first Ford Mustangs is simply undeniable.
Ford truly captured lightning in a bottle with its OG pony car, even if underneath the skin its bones were mostly modest Falcon compact. Lee Iacocca is often named as the Blue Oval exec who put together exactly what the budding Boomer generation wanted in an automobile in the mid-’60s, but there’s no way he could have predicted that that very same Mustang would still hold such a draw today, across basically every generation of enthusiast. The ’65 Ford Mustang has practically ingrained itself in North American car culture, becoming the default collector car most people think of when they think “classic.
” Like the Beetle, it doesn’t hurt that a healthy production run means they’re still found in just about every corner of the country and at every price point. Generation Z If there’s one thing this top-10 list taught us, it’s that those born after about 1997 really, really dig the Ford Mustang . New, old, it hardly matters—there’s plenty of pony cars out there, and there’s plenty of enthusiasts under 30 looking to buy them.
This newer-gen ‘Stang actually sits closer to the bottom of the list in terms of Gen-Z preference – though admittedly above any Mustangs from the ’70s – but note, of course, that this version, like the one before it, leaned heavy into nostalgia for a time long before Z-ers were born. Like the ’08-and-up Dodge Challenger that Millennials pine for, maybe this Mustang’s appeal lies in its blending classic styling and modern amenities. Like their Millennial counterparts, Generation Z has inherited a love affair with the classic VW Bug .
We won’t repeat ourselves regarding the model’s low cost of entry and broad support, but instead note that Hagerty first made note of this turn around 2015, when the number of Boomer inquiries into Beetles started its decline and their share began being taken up by, at the time, Millennials. The Beetle’s not the only old Volkswagen that younger enthusiasts dig—Hagerty has seen them demonstrate interest in Rabbits, GTIs, and Sciroccos, too. But it’s the Bug that’s fair and away got the most charm for the next generation of car nuts.
And we’re back to that Gen-Z darling, the Mustang , this time the Fox-body iteration that was already a few years out of production when the first Gen-Zers were born. This can likely be attributed again to bleed-over from older enthusiasts who’ve been hyping Fox-bodys for a few decades now (but we could also be completely off on that—Gen-Zers, let us know in the comments!) Boom! Second Mustang in a row. The very first pony cars may be Millennials’ faves, but they fall in the back half of the top 10 for Generation Z.
Makes us wonder if we’re going to have to start running out of first-gen Mustangs before we run out of younger and younger enthusiasts who really dig them. Though to a lesser extent that their Millennial forebears, Generation Z enthusiasts are also big into classic trucks. It seems they’re even into the same types of classic trucks, particularly old Fords and Chevies – can’t a Dodge pickup get some love? – from the same eras.
All that increasing demand is slowly driving prices up, but for now, plenty of deals can still be hard on these old Blue-Oval-badged workhorses. And then it’s back to Mustangs once again. (Don’t worry, this is the last one on the list.
) SN95-gen ‘Stangs were mostly used cars when Generation Z was growing up, but that still lines it up roughly to the era many of them may be starting to feel nostalgia for, if you can feel nostalgia at so young an age. In the past, Hagerty has surmised that Gen Z is more into practical classics than older generations and so may lean toward slightly more modern vintage vehicles for that reason—the entries on this list generally bear that out. Well, isn’t this kismet? Millennials love old Chevrolet trucks, especially the second-generation ones (1967 through 1972) and, even more so, those from the back half of the third generation (particularly 1981 through 1987).
Generation Z? Their favourite old Bowties are the pre-facelift early third-gen C/K trucks right in between the two gens that Millennials love. Remember when we said above, in the Millennial top 10, that it seems every generation of American car enthusiast seems to be in love with the swoopy C3-gen Corvette ? Well, we didn’t say it so as not to spoil the surprise, but that applies to Gen Z-ers, too. We don’t have Hagerty data this time around on specifically which model years are getting Generation Z’s attention, but we’d assume it’s the ’74s and up that make for some of the cheapest Corvettes on the market.
That’s not to say the Disco-era Stingray is not without its charms. The styling is still absolutely wild, and while horsepower was down, enthusiasts generally don’t get into these things to go racing. But if there’s anything Generation Z loves more than a curvy C3 , it’s a squared-off C4.
Hagerty informs us roughly 40% of both Millennials and Gen Z car nuts say they got into enthusiast vehicles by attending shows, and the ones with the most draw among this younger cohort seem to be ones focusing on the ’80s and ’90s like Radwood, or, in Canada, Oblivion. The C4-gen Corvette is apparently toward the bottom of the most popular cars at these events, per Hagerty data, but, still, they’re on the list; if you ask us, they perhaps have some of the coolest retro vibes of that era. There’s once again the draw of V8 power for minimal spend, not to mention that a 15-year-plus production run means these cars are readily available.
Think around CDN$11,900 for a daily-driver-spec base ’85 ‘Vette . Sure, this list is full of American trucks and sports cars, but what Generation Z enthusiasts are calling up Hagerty to possibly insure more than anything else is a newer Japanese classic: the iconic first-gen Mazda Miata . This Millennial recalls growing up and hearing hair-dresser’s-car jokes unfairly tossed around about the NA, but in the two decades since, the meme that defines this adorable roadster is that “Miata” stands for “Miata Is Always The Answer.
” (But what’s that ‘M’ stand for?) While they only offer up two seats, a small-ish trunk, and don’t come with a fixed roof, the MX-5 Miata is still a relatively practical convertible , all things considered. Beyond that, enthusiasts seem to love to modify them – sometimes to make them easier to live with, but just as often, to make them less tame. These days there’s a massive aftermarket supporting the Mazda Miata, and the haters all seem to have been replaced by cross-generational fans who understand the MX-5 offers what enthusiasts of all ages want most: a classic that’s just plain fun to drive.
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