Until recently, the 1990s were just used cars, and in fact most still are if they were able to hit the road, but as millennials age, income levels rise, and nostalgia for the cars they coveted as a youth renews, many have risen in value. of those cars.
It is obvious that we find cars from brands such as “Ferrari”, “Bugatti” and “McLaren” with a high value, but some models from companies such as “Toyota”, “Mitsubishi” and “Volkswagen” also witnessed an increase in their value.
“Over the past three years, the value of cars and vehicles manufactured in the 1990s has risen to the highest levels of any era,” said Brian Rapold, vice president of automotive artificial intelligence at Haggerty, a company that closely tracks the classic car market.
"The value of '90s-era cars has risen by about 78 percent over the past three years, which is a 'massive increase'," Rapold added.
Even if their condition remains largely the same, the value of cars decreases over the years, but only to a certain extent, and then some cars that are classified as special and desirable for whatever reason begin to increase in value, as cars age with adolescence who once wanted to own those models when they first appeared.
Perhaps they wanted to buy these cars at that time, but they could not afford them, but now that they are older and have the financial capabilities to buy a “Mitsubishi 3000 GT”, for example, just for fun.
Toyota SUV
The golden age of cars
Randy Nunenberg, co-founder and head of online auto auction site Bring a Trailer, said collectors are often drawn to cars outside their age group. "We have guys who are drawn to cars that are 70 years old," he said.
The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century marked a turning point in the car market, says Eric Charnholm, who owns a 1992 Nissan Sentra SER, which he spent 15 years searching for: “Many people believe that the golden age of cars was fifties and sixties of the last century.
“There are indications that the 1990s are in fact the golden age of cars.” In that era, car companies figured out how to make small cars that met the requirements for low fuel consumption and were fun to drive at the same time. You had this combination of high-performance power coupled with lightness. weight, with minimal security systems; Which made them very interesting cars.
Even so, 1990s cars are far from vintage, unlike early-2000s models, which have declined on average in recent years, according to Haggerty.
Cars manufactured during the 1990s have many modern comfort and safety features. As for relatively low-priced cars, we find that they have distinguished strength and performance.
Cars of the 1990s have air conditioning, electric windows, and airbags.
Nissan 300ZX 1990 production
90's car prices
It's not that all cars from the '90s are going up in value; We are talking about value-for-money cars, which are usually sports or high-performance cars, with some exceptions such as Buick Roadmasters, as family cars are not valuable cars, so we find that the prices of Roadmasters have increased by 48 percent since 2019. , according to Hagerty.
Just like in the new-car market, the '90s pickup trucks and SUVs find admirers, too.
"We're selling some of these low-mileage pickups for fifty-sixty-seventy grand, and they're just regular pickups," said Frank Mecum, director of freight at Mecum Auctions.
Buyers paid about $13.37,000 between 2015 and 2018 for Ford Broncos manufactured during the 1990s, but now the value of this car has doubled.
Also during the 1990s, many attractive Japanese sports cars were introduced to the car market, thanks to the country's economic boom in the 1980s.
Robert Yeager, author of “Next Gen’s Car Ownership Guide,” who owns a 1996 Lexus SC300, said he loves the car for its design and driving pleasure. “I think the 90s are really a beautiful era for people looking for fun cars,” he added "Even the cheap Japanese cars of that era were of a quality unparalleled by American automakers at the time."
Prices of the Mitsubishi Eclipse built in the early 1990s have increased by 40 percent since 2020, while the prices of the Eagle Talon, a joint product between Mitsubishi and Chrysler, have increased by nearly 45 percent, according to Haggerty.
Egg Talon - a joint production between Mitsuishi and Chrysler - produced in 1991
