Welcome to the Hagerty Power List, which highlights the actors, musicians, members of royalty, movies, TV shows, and other celebrities that have had the biggest impact on car values. These are the real automotive movers and shakers of 2024.
For the third year running, the Hagerty team has tracked down the sale prices of cars that had once been owned by a famous person or appeared on screen, worked out the value of a standard equivalent vehicle at the time of sale, and analysed the data. The result, known as the Hagerty Power List, gives a unique perspective of how celebrity really impacts vehicle values.
This year, the Hagerty Power List has grown by nearly a quarter, analysing a total of 484 vehicles belonging to 183 different celebrities, with a list so diverse as to include everyone from former Argentine President Juan Perón and American President Joe Biden to yoga guru Bikram Choudhury and singer Cher. As usual, our team set a few boundaries: Pure racing cars are ruled out, as we don’t believe the added value created by the driver can be differentiated from the kudos of the races won in the car, and they often had more than one driver. We’ve also removed advertised values of cars, unless Hagerty knows for definite what it sold for.
There have been some interesting cars added to this year’s list. Two 1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary models used in the filming of Wolf of Wall Street were offered for sale. One, in excellent condition, was sold for $1.655M (£1.3M) in New York by RM Sotheby’s and another – the hero car damaged extensively in the movie – was offered, crash damage and all, by Bonhams. The latter failed to meet its reserve of $1.5M to $2M but bid up to $1.35M (£1.06M), a significant amount given its undrivable state and the current ‘concours’ UK Hagerty Price Guide value of £334,000. Another raging bull made the list, too: a 1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster once owned by Donald Trump. Offered by Barrett-Jackson at its Scottsdale sale in January 2024, it sold for a record $1.1M (£865K).
But the Hagerty Power List isn’t all about flashy Italian sports cars. The Paul McCartney and Wings 1972 ‘Wings over Europe’ tour bus, a 1953 Bristol KSW5G open-top double-decker, was sold on Car & Classic in April 2024 for an astonishing £186,000, 272 per cent over what Hagerty would expect for a standard example. There were some British screen stars, too, including a 1980 Ford Capri 3.0S, as driven by ‘Bodie’ in The Professionals, that was sold by Iconic Auctioneers last August for £186,750; Hagerty’s top value for a pristine example is currently just £25,600.
Some things haven’t changed though: The USA accounts for the most celebrity cars on our list, and with 44, Ferrari makes the most, closely followed by Ford with 42. The Movie/TV category gives, on average, the biggest uplift in value.
So, who or what celebrity or screen franchise made the dial move the most? In straight-out terms, with no lower limit to the number of cars per person/brand, it’s almost an identical list to the Hagerty Power List 2023, with Bullitt, Risky Business, and Freddie Mercury taking the podium positions again. All three are the result of one-off sales – extraordinary cars that sold for many, many times their ‘civilian’ equivalents. All were true outliers and all had a unique set of circumstances to the sale that pushed up the price.
When the Bullitt Mustang sold for $3.74M (£2.86M) in 2020, nearly 16,000 per cent higher than a standard 1968 Mustang GT in the same condition, it came with a story of having been lost for many years, then rediscovered in a barn. The Risky Business Porsche 928 was sold for $1.98M (£1.44M) by Barrett-Jackson in Houston in 2021, and the price surprised everyone; the same car changed hands ten years previously for under $50,000. Finally, Freddie Mercury’s 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow was sold by RM Sotheby’s in London in 2022 in support of a Ukrainian charity, something that not only was very popular at the time, but a purchase that may have come with tax benefits.
But the real stars of the Hagerty Power List are those that push up the value again and again, the icons that buyers will compete to be associated with. Once the Hagerty team set a lower limit of seven cars, which we believe is indicative of a wider trend, the list looks very different. The names on the list are those that every petrolhead will be familiar with: icons known for their extraordinary car history.
It’s fascinating that just two movie franchises are in the top ten list, but they will be of no surprise: This year, Bond is at the top, and Fast and Furious drops down to third place thanks to two rather unimpressive sales (compared to equivalents) of movie cars, a Chevrolet Camaro and a DeTomaso Pantera. Paul Walker, the franchise’s main star, benefits from the drop and moves up to second place. Hagerty also added two cars once owned by Elvis, which brought the rock ‘n’ roll icon down to 9th place, lifting Steve McQueen, Elton John, Clark Gable and the late Her Majesty the Queen up one. Older sales of ten cars once owned by Jerry Seinfeld, previously not included in the List, were added, dropping him into eighth, and pushing Sir Stirling Moss down to tenth.
So, there they are: The stage, screen, sports, and music icons who have the biggest impact on car values.
