Wrapping up another year of my selecting the perfect 3-car garage from Bring A Trailer each week. One is a dedicated sportscar, one off-road vehicle and a car that is suitable for road-tripping, but not too sporty or off-roady.
This year I picked only 153 cars instead of 156 which is fifty-two weeks multiplied by three. Just like last year and the year before I missed picking cars one week. And just like those 2 years it was because we were in the beginning week of a road trip vacation. The following data only includes the figures for 152 vehicles because in week 15 (11/20/2023) a 1964 Chevrolet K1405 Panel Truck 4×4 4-Speed was withdrawn from the auction because while the truck was being final detailed, the seller noticed that a big crack had appeared in the paint on the roof. They were going to have to strip the roof and have it re-painted before getting relisted. I don’t know what happened, but it was never relisted.
If I actually won all auctions of the cars I chose during the past year I would have spent a total of $11,166,283, making it an average of $73,462 per vehicle. This is up almost $3 million total and eighteen thousand dollars respectively from the last year. This year’s total is actually the highest I have “spent” on cars in all four years, beating out that first year by $38,962 or half of one of this year’s average car price.
The most expensive car I picked, as usual came from the Sport category, was a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT with a mere 601 miles on the clock for $1,781,420. The most expensive auto in the Off-Road category was a 2024 Porsche 911 Dakar for $350,000, but the reserve was not met. The highest priced auto in the Touring category was a 2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello at $260,550. There were 21 vehicles that went for over six figures. The above Carrera GT was the only one in seven figures this year or any other year for that matter.
The least expensive cars I picked were all from the same week last Augusta because that was kind of the theme I picked. The least expensive Sport vehicle was a 1997 Subaru Vivio Kei car that sold for $4,600. The Touring category’s cheapest was a 1994 Autozam Scrum, a Kei van, that went for a measly $4,200. The least expensive Off-Road vehicle was actually a motorcycle, a 1980 Suzuki TS250 ER that went for a class leading $2,500.
The oldest car I chose was a 1940 Ford Pickup that was from the Touring category and from a time before they even thought of adding an F with a number. There was one more from the 40’s a 1949 Willys-Overland Jeep from the Off-Road category. There were 10 vehicles from the 50’s and twenty-one from the 60’s. There were twenty-three vehicles selected from the 70’s, 10 came from the 80’s, 24 were from the 90’s and the 2000’s was once again the most popular decade with a total of 30. There were 25 picked from 2010-2019 and the 2020’s accounted for the last eight. Taking all the vehicles into account, the average model year car was 1990.
The cars came from 52 separate manufacturers, or 53 if you consider Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG as separate. The most popular make was again Porsche with 18. The runner-up was once again BMW with thirteen, but they had company, as Toyota also tallied 13. Volkswagen was third with ten. There were 28 different manufacturers with only one car chosen.
The most chosen model name this year was Land Cruiser with just a half dozen. Beetle was the runner-up with 5 and 3rd place was the Miata with four picks. There were 86 models chosen only once.
To wrap this up, the most popular car of this year, if it existed, would be a 2005 Porsche Land Cruiser that cost $37,000.
If you enjoy this sort of recap and I can’t understand why you wouldn’t, here are the wrap ups from last year, 2 years ago and three years ago.