You’ll Never Guess The Cars That Gen Z Car Enthusiasts Keep Buying

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