Every generation of car enthusiasts seems to gravitate to a specific era and kind of car to collect and enjoy. Maybe you want one of the cars you grew up with, or one of the cars that you had on your wall. Or maybe you’re just picking up the coolest car that you can afford. Hagerty just took a look at its insurance quote data to see what Generation Z car enthusiasts are into, and it turns out they have rather awesome and unexpected taste in cars. There’s a pretty good chance that you won’t guess what cars these younger enthusiasts are into. Somehow, the forgotten Chevrolet Cobalt SS makes an appearance on this list!
The folks of Hagerty have powerful tools at their disposal to examine trends in the collector car market. Since Hagerty is primarily a classic car insurance company, it knows the demographics of the people who get insurance quotes and what cars they are getting quotes for. While insurance quote data might not necessarily mean that these are the cars that these people are buying, it at the very least means that these are the cars that these people are interested in owning.
What Hagerty has found is that Millennials (born from 1982 to 1996) and Generation Zers (born from 1997 to 2012) have often vastly different tastes in collector cars than their parents do. That isn’t incredibly surprising, as we grew up in a different world with different automotive influences than our parents did. It’s even more surprising that, according to Hagerty, younger enthusiasts like tuner cars and cars from Japan. What is interesting is exactly which classic tuner cars and Japanese cars that younger enthusiasts keep getting insurance quotes for.
What Your Parents Probably Liked
Let’s start with a baseline. If you’re one of our younger readers, you probably have a good idea of the kinds of cars that your parents adored. I know my mother, who is in her early 70s, was head over heels for the Chevrolet Monza Towne Coupe that she had back in the 1970s. My dad is like the stereotypical Boomer and loves a good old V8 muscle car. But those are anecdotes; what’s exciting is cold, hard data.
Back in 2022, Hagerty pulled insurance quote data and found that folks born between 1920 and 1945, or what Hagerty calls Pre-Baby Boomers. The data suggested that those folks really loved 1920s Ford Model As, 1950s Chevrolet Bel Airs, Chevrolet Corvette C4s, Chevy Corvette C5s, and mid-1960s Ford Mustangs. That list is in order, with the Model A leading the pack in insurance quotes.
To me, the surprise there is the Corvette C4. I’m a fan of the C4, but it seems most Corvette fans are not. Well, maybe your grandpa really likes a C4!
When Hagerty pulled this data in 2022, it also decided to calculate the vehicles that the Pre-Baby Boomers represent the highest share of interest in. Pre-Baby Boomers represented 22 percent of all insurance quotes for 1950s MG TDs, 22 percent of insurance quotes on the 2002 to 2005 Ford Thunderbird, and 21 percent of the quotes on the Cadillac Allante.
The list of what Baby Boomers (1946–1964) like isn’t all that surprising. Hagerty says that the top five cars quoted by Boomers in 2022 were the Chevy Corvette C3, late-1960s Chevy Camaro, the Chevy Corvette C4, the mid-1960s Ford Mustang, and the Chevy Corvette C5. Hagerty noted that there is overlap between the interests of one generation and the generation immediately before it. In this case, your parents and the parents of your parents probably like an old Corvette.
In 2022, Boomers represented 70 percent of the insurance quotes on 1970s Triumph TR6s, Chevrolet SSRs, and mid-1960s Sunbeam Tigers. They then represented 68 percent of the quotes on 1965 to 1970 Shelby GT350s, and 67 percent of the quotes on 2000 to 2006 Jaguar XKRs. To prevent myself from getting too repetitive, I’ll drop a link to Hagerty’s graphs for Pre-Baby Boomers, Boomers, and Generation X (1965–1981). Note that there seem to be cars that transcend generations, like the Ford Mustang.
Things start to get weird in the 2022 data with Millennials. According to Hagerty’s data, we (yes, I’m a Millennial) really liked calling them up for quotes on Chevy Squarebody pickup trucks and classic Ford Mustangs. But when it came down to the share of interest, it was nothing but tuner cars.
Gen Z enthusiasts take it further. The collector car that Gen Zers got the most insurance quotes on by a wide margin was the Mazda MX-5 Miata NA. What’s so neat about that is that while Gen Z isn’t going for classic British roadsters, Corvettes, and other old sporty cars like their parents and grandparents, they’re instead going for an affordable classic that emulates the British roadsters of old.
Also, the Gen Zers of 2022 had a huge shared interest in Nissan Silvia and Skylines.
That year was also a weird one for who dominated the collector market. Hagerty notes that Boomers and Gen X dominate the collector car market, with Boomers usually making up the majority of collector car interest. However, in 2022, Gen X took the top spot as the collector car market’s largest cohort.
What Young Adults Are Into In 2026
This year’s Hagerty data has brought on some fascinating changes. Boomers are back in their top spot after taking back the crown last year. As of publishing, Boomers have a 34.44 percent share of collector car insurance quotes, followed by Gen X with 30.81 percent. On the other end of the scale is Gen Z, which Hagerty says is the smallest group with only 9.96 percent of the market. Then there are Millennials, who have 20.35 percent of the market.
Technically, Hagerty interpreted its own data incorrectly. The actual smallest car collector cohort in 2026 is Pre-Boomers, who make up only 4.44 percent of the insurance quotes this year.
Anyway, the biggest change in 2026 versus just four years ago is the cars that Gen Zers are getting insurance quotes on. According to Hagerty, the top five cars that Gen Z has been getting insurance quotes on are the 1991-1996 Honda Beat, the 2005–2010 Chevrolet Cobalt SS, the 1989–2000 Toyota Celsior, the 2001–2006 Acura RSX, and the 1999–2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, in that order.
Some of these make a lot of sense to my Millennial brain. A lot of us grew up watching The Fast And The Furious and playing games like Gran Turismo. We fell in love with the weird cars from the video games and movies that were never officially imported into America. These are the cars we grew up with.
I think what also makes the Honda Beat stand out is its affordability. You can get a Honda Beat for under $10,000 at a JDM car dealer here in America, or maybe under $5,000 if you buy a well-used example in a Japanese auction, as I did. The Suzuki Cappuccino and the Autozam AZ-1 might be more iconic cars, but the days of finding a decent example of one of those for under 10 large are behind us. Also, in my experience, the Beat fits the average American far better than those other two.
I also understand the Toyota Celsior. Sure, that car was sold in America as the Lexus LS, but it’s getting harder to find a nice old Lexus LS in America that doesn’t have a ton of miles or undesirable body damage. There were some clean Celsiors that recently sold in Japanese auctions for under $4,000, and some rougher examples for under $2,500 that still look nicer than an LS 400 here in the Midwest. This is a large imported car that you can get in America for under $10,000 landed. Even the ones that have sold on Cars & Bids rarely exceed $10,000.
Yet, this is also a JDM import that shares many major components with the Lexus LS. There’s no understating how much stress that relieves. Whenever I needed a part for my Honda Beat or my Honda Life, I always had to import a part from Japan. So I get it. This is an affordable JDM ride that will still get some attention, but also not be as much of a headache.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI and the Acura RSX are not at all surprising to me. Like the Honda Beat, these were the cars that young folks grew up either driving in video games, seeing in movies, or, in the case of the RSX, perhaps even seeing on the street. That said, the Chevrolet Cobalt SS threw me for a loop.
I have a deep appreciation for the Cobalt SS because it’s a bit of a sleeper. It’s a mid-2000s GM economy car with a funny wing and an optional boosted engine. The supercharged version of the Cobalt SS sports a 2.0-liter GM LSJ supercharged straight-four with 205 HP and 200 lb-ft of torque on deck. The even faster version has an Ecotec LNF turbo four with 260 HP and 260 lb-ft of torque on tap. That’s the same engine that’s in my Saturn Sky Red Line, and it’s an absolute joy.
A Cobalt SS turbo looks like a rental car that crashed through a body kit catalog, but hits 60 mph in only 5.5 seconds! The best part is that it seems nobody is collecting these, so they’re dirt cheap. The most expensive Cobalt SS I could find sold for only $16,000 on Bring a Trailer despite having only 400 miles. Most of these are well under $10,000 any day of the week.
The Cobalt SS is another car I remember from the video games of my youth, too. Honestly, that’s how I’ve ended up falling in love with a lot of the cars in my fleet today, from the Volkswagen Touareg V10 TDI to my Saturn Sky Red Line. While I’m a Millennial, it seems I like a lot of the same cars as Gen Zers. These were just the cars I grew up with. They were cars I said I was going to buy when I grew up and finally had some money to play with. Then, I made it happen. I suspect something similar is happening with Gen Z car enthusiasts right now.
Car Tastes Change, And That’s Fine!
Something else that’s interesting from the data is that while Gen Z seems to love these cars, they’re not the largest demographic for each vehicle. For example, 47 percent of the quotes on Honda Beats came from Millennials, and more than half of the quotes on all of the other top five cars were from Millennials as well.
Hagerty notes that, as Gen Z gets older, the list will probably change again, and the generation’s picks will get bigger and pricier. I can see that. As it is, the top car for Gen Z in 2022 was the Mazda Miata NA; now it’s the Honda Beat. It’s going to be exciting to see what comes next. Maybe we’ll come back here some years from now and find out that the Gen Z cohort is scooping up Nissan Skylines or something.
That gets me thinking about our own site’s demographics. Statistically, a good chunk of you reading this are Gen Z or Millennials. If so, does the list accurately reflect the classic cars that you want? If you’re one of our older readers, are you clamoring for that hot Corvette C4?
Top graphic images: Chevrolet; DepositPhotos.com
I own a C4. A 92 ZR1 tuned by Lingenfelter to 530 HP. It was not on my list. And if I didn’t own it it would still not be on my list. But, it is alot of fun. Don’t let dreams get in the way of fun. Lists are great beer chat fodder but it comes down to what you can find/afford.
Late Boomer here (Generation Jones per some), never wanted a C4 Corvette. Like the looks of C1 & C2, but no big desire to actually own one.
My tastes run more towards old German cars, esp. VWs. BMWs, I have had several and miss them all to some extent. But the 1972 BMW 2002 and the 1986 GTI are the only ones I’d actually want to own again. And 2002s that aren’t a project are way out of my budget.
My son and his friends are outliers, they are from the 97-99 cohort and between them have a 76 Chevy Nova, a 79 Corolla, several Square Body pickups, a 91 Camaro and a 99 Toyota HiAce. My son’s Gen X friend from Japan is into Nissan Cedric and Gloria models
Does not matter whether it is young generation or old everyone loves an open top 2 seater.
– Melanoma enters the chat
Top down on a summer night is a wonderful feeling.
Once again feeling like an outlier
In this case it’s the best possible thing. You’re the only person I (electronically) and I suspect most here, know who actually owns a one of one fantasy car from our youth.
Why is there barely a mention of GenX in here? We’re way more important than Millennials or GenZ! ????
My choice is Z32 300zx Twin Turbo all day long. It was my dream car from the day it came out. Bought one about 10 years ago that was wasting away in someone’s driveway as my side project/obsession. My Z is what got my GenZ son into cars. He’s all about the 90’s Japanese sports cars but Skyline R34 is what he’d like as his fun car and a Toyota GT86 as his daily.
That’s what makes Gen-X so badass. Totally forgotten and guess how little we care? As it was memorably said once, oh well whatever never mind.
Best review line I ever heard about the Z32 in its heyday was “like Joe Montana…full of ageless grace”
“That’s what makes Gen-X so badass.”
Plus our taste for hose water.
Because we’re used to it. No problem. We got this.
Idc anyway, whatever
Yup.
In a hundred years, people will wonder why the birth rate from 1965-1981 was zero.
Because?
Too busy whining?
Poor neglected Gen X!
As a Millennial, I’m really surprised to any classic muscle cars on the list at all. I get the appeal of K series trucks like the K5 Blazer, but nobody I know my age is in the Venn diagram of “interested in classic muscle” and “can afford to buy a classic muscle car”. Anyone I know with enough cash to get a nice ’68 Camaro is getting a BMW M2 or a cheaper NSX.
I wonder if that’s data bias simply because people mentally associate Hagerty with vintage cars, and wouldn’t naturally think to insure their more modern tuner car there?
I use them for two of my cars, but both are well over 35 years old.
This is the same rationale I have for not seeing much 80’s iron. I was expecting a large showing for the Fox body.
I am right in the middle of the Millennial generation but don’t think my preferences align with the data. I historically I have owned euro cars, 80s-90s BMW & Mercedes, and a Porsche. Right now I think the two cars that capture my imagination the most are 1965+ Corvair Coupes, and Ford Focus STs, I have driven a lot of FoSTs, and owned a FiST so I probably won’t wind up with another but they are really livable, fun cars and I think the Corvairs are just really, really, ridiculously good-looking.
Someday I would like to own a square-body suburban, and after driving my friends 69 Mustang I admit it was pretty cool, but otherwise a lot of the American stuff doesn’t appeal to me. I want to love British roadsters but most that I have driven are actually really bad.
“If you’re one of our older readers, are you clamoring for that hot Corvette C4?”
Over the next year, I might need a 2nd car. And being 52, many might think I’d want a Corvette. But it’s not really my thing. And I’d also want something that gets better fuel economy. Plus I live in the city… so a smaller car is a benefit.
The older cars I’m interested in something like a Suzuki Cappuccino, Honda Beat, Toyota Sera, Diahatsu Copen, Diahatsu Mira Gino, Miata, Fit, Civic, RSX and maybe even the Fiat 500 and other small and fun manual cars.
Some may say these small cars are deathtraps. But then again, all of them are way safer than a motorcycle.
But for my 2nd car, I also may decide to go full-EV… like a used Bolt, Mach-E, Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 or something like that… but not a Tesla for image reasons alone.
I hope you’re a small person if you’re hoping to fit in any of those kei cars. I’m 6’3″ and can barely fit in a contemporary Miata
I’m only 5-feet and 7.5 inches. I have no problem fitting in smaller cars. I have previously owned a Ford Festiva and fit fine in other small cars like Chevettes, Miatas, Geo Metros, the VW Polo and the odd Go Kart.
I’m surprised at the lack of 80s/90s japanese cars for Gen-X. I like old Chevelles and Camaros as much as the next guy but my teenage years were the peak Rx-7, Supra, 300ZX, 3000GT/DSM era.
Those are great choices. I guiltily prefer a 1986 Dodge Charger 2.2 (non-Shelby).
The list seems perfectly logical to me and it fits my experience as a boomer who likes cars in general and has had everything from 50’s through current gen cars and trucks including domestic, Japanese and European marques. My kid is big time into JDM and euro products and has owned a smattering of domestics including Foci and a couple of GM tuner adjacent models.
Gen Z doesn’t need back seats yet. Millenials with kids need to be able to throw the munchkins into the back seat of a WRX or Evo, whereas an MR2 has no backseat and an Integra is small AF and mostly 2-door.
Elder Millenials/Xennials have kids finishing/finished highschool and are looking at a future without kids again. These are the most likely to have fun-money.
I weep for these generations.
Brought up in an American world where Wagons were dying, shuttled around by parents in faceless Minivans* & SUVs, and where Hatchbacks were derided as “cheap” (and you should “upgrade” to something better).
*sure the Previa-egg, and MazdaMPV might stand out against the dustbusters, they didn’t survive winters with salt.
I don’t think it was that bad for cars growing up in the 90s.
There was certainly a big gap in interesting/cool cars. Old muscle cars were cool and many already becoming expensive because the late 70s and the 80s mostly offered a sea of bland. They were also mostly trash and didn’t stay on the road very long – what was left was the boxy panther-platform cars our grandparents still had around.
But when we went to the Dodge dealership with our parents to check our Caravans, there were turbo Eclipses and Stealths and 3000GTs and the like. Camaros and Mustangs started getting fast again. Things were starting to get exciting again, and the general trend was better cars that lasted longer.
If it’s anything like my kids: they were more concerned with why we didn’t get a minivan with TVs in the back.
Don’t feel too bad – b/c of this and absolutely not wanting to drive their parents’ cars, they’re the reason why sedans may be starting to come back. Like Buick of all makes even, a brand they’ve really only known as making crossovers.
I love the top graphic! Go look up “The” Z Machine. I used to work there. Not auto related but any mechanical person should appreciate it.
Regardless of generation I seem to be doing this car thing all wrong.
Every car is an enthusiast car as long as someone is enthused about it.
That should be on the Autopian T-Shirt!
Seconded!
They’re free to use it. I’m not even sure I made it up. It sounds like something I might have heard here at some point.
I’m a Gen X’er and I grew up infatuated with muscle car-era vehicles, mostly because my first memories are from my father’s 1970 Skylark convertible. I bought my 1968 Olds in 1995 when I was in college, using money I earned working part time to make my dream come true. It’s been way too weird watching the passage of time. A couple of strange things happened over the years:
I also have my NA Miata, which makes more sense for me as my first-hand experience with the debut of the NA is something worth honoring, and my Subaru GL since that was my first car.
In short, I feel like Gen X is in a weird place. Hopefully history will show we dig all kinds of enthusiast cars.
From outside looking in, Gen X really seems to dig the Euro stuff. But I honestly think at the individual level none of that matters.
I’ll say my late boomer/early Xer dad has a ’27 Model T and my Millenial brother has a ’51 Chrysler, though. Inherited from my Grandfather, both cars. I have a ’71 Bug, which I did buy myself, but we also have family history with old VWs. Our generations shouldn’t define us so much as our experiences.
We do dig Euro, as over the course of our childhoods, when we form our general automotive attachments, it went from pretty exotic to pretty common. Every generation after it was just there already.
Top Gear gets 100% of the credit for my taste in euro cars.
I’ll agree, as early Gen X my parents’ pivot to European and Japanese cars shaped my tastes and so did their R&T subscription. I’ve actually had more Fords and A1 VWs than anything else, and reliving my youth would involve a modified Scirocco.
We like Euro and Japanese because have you looked at domestics from the 70s and 80s?
We’re also a small cohort compared to the Boomers and Millennials on either side of us. Temporary classrooms were a thing of the ’50s and ’90s while ’70s and ’80s kids grew up with the last two rows of desks empty.
Gen X here as well, and I have a perverse, unexplainable, and unironic love for 70’s Bro-ham era cars.
I think part of the issue is that the cars our generation grew up with were dominated by the tail end of US barges and a glut of malaise garbage. Many of those have been crushed or rusted away.
Part of the problem, and “overlap” is that generations are not hard cutoffs. Someone born in 1982 has more in common with someone born in 1981 than someone in 2000, but one is a “Millennial”, and one is “Gen X”. Generation labels are just made by social commentators who don’t want to look at actual statistics and probability distributions, and instead want to make broad lazy generalizations.
The percentages of the insurance market by generation is obvious. As people get older, they have more money for cars. Until they die and newer generations replace them.
So, the common and obvious (lazy generalizations) are:
1) People want cars that were cool when they were young and didn’t have money.
2) Older people are more likely to have money to spend on a car hobby.
EDIT: 3) Death eventually comes for everyone, and your cars won’t be cool anymore.
That’s why the Xennial generation exists.
As an elder millennial that list looks pretty legit, I’d love to have many of those cars. Though I went for the Focus RS over the Evos and WRX’s. My boomer dad drives a Corvette so that also tracks.
I’m an older site member and it pains me to see that my cohort is such a cliché. For the record, I can’t stand Corvettes, with the notable exception of late C1 models. And I still don’t want one of those either, but I guess my tastes are stuck out on Route 66.
Honestly, boomer has become more of an attitude than an age range.
As a millennial with a squarebody pickup and an Evo this data checks out.
It’s skewed if not extremely skewed data. But agreed upon value insurance for those models listed does make sense. Especially the 2 JDM models. Regular insurance would probably value them at about 3% of their replacement value. Clean lancer, rsx, and colbolt ss probably not much better maybe 10% to 20%.
Tail end of Gen X and I still love a hatch. I’m also weird. Rock a Mirage at the moment.
Gen X here: ‘Vette, schmette, I got an ’80s Ferrari. I don’t attribute that to Out Run, but it would fit the developing narrative.
that rules.
We need pics!!!
I’m no expert, but those lists seem to be dominated by cars from influential video games. Which makes sense.
And most of these are obtainable! Budgets can theoretically stretch to afford Kei cars while in a K-shaped economy. Well, the stock of affordable, clean NA Miatas might have dried up during the pandemic, but other than that, an early 2000s Impreza is in a very different socioeconomic bracket than those who can pony up the greens for a classic Mustang.
These all pretty much track. The Cobalt might be a bit strange until you realize XBOX and Forza were a thing.
The timing versus age groups makes sense too.
SRT Neons were the affordable pocket rockets for 20-somethings when I was in highschool, so those were super cool normal looking cars with turbos and spoilers and something for a 16 year old to lust after.
The Cobalt SS came around right as the middle millenials were getting into college age. So to younger millenials (like Mercedes) and elder gen-Z, these were cars that their older siblings and cool 20-somethings were driving. Something exciting but also attainable.
What’s interesting, and also stereotypically GM-sad, is that this is also when Pontiac, once the king of exciting but obtainable, was on its way out.