Index of 1960s American muscle cars
On the heels of a 1 percent loss to Hagerty’s Muscle Car Index in 2022, results from Scottsdale and Kissimmee in January pushed the index up by 2 percent to a new all-time high. That said, not everything in the muscle car segment is looking up. While some top tier muscle cars posted truly impressive increases this past quarter, the broader market is far more mixed with some models only regaining value they lost late in 2022 and others continuing to trend downward.
The biggest surprise was the 23 percent increase by the Buick GS 455. These cars have been lagging behind sister cars like the GTO and Olds 4-4-2, but have finally caught up. Another big surprise was the 1969 Dodge Charger 500, which increased by 20 percent. Other notable gainers were the 1970 LS6 Chevelle, which climbed 12 percent after a weak showing at the end of 2022, and the Hemi Superbird, which posted a 6 percent increase. A large amount of Superbirds came to market in January at the risk of oversaturating the market, but the risk paid off with strong prices almost across the board. Meanwhile, the 1965 Pontiac GTOs continued its slide, losing another 14 percent. The 1970 4-4-2 also lost 6 percent even as its Buick GS sibling surged upward. The takeaway with the muscle car market is that is that there is still steam in the market, but the increasingly mixed results could point toward a rapidly approaching ceiling.
-Greg Ingold, April 2023
The Hagerty Price Guide Index of American Muscle Cars is a stock market style index that averages the values of the rarest and most sought-after muscle cars. The list below shows the cars that make up the index, while the graph to the left shows this index’s average value over the years. Values are for #2 condition, or “excellent” cars.