These Are The Classic Cars To Buy In 2026
Annotations will appear as you listen
0:00
71:55
Concept
Hagerty Bull List
The Hagerty Bull List is a list that shows which classic cars are likely to become more valuable in the future. It's created by a company that knows a lot about classic cars and their prices.
Concept
NASCAR
NASCAR is a type of car racing that happens mostly on oval tracks in the United States. It's known for fast cars and exciting races, and many fans love to watch it.
Company
eBay Motors
eBay Motors is a part of eBay where you can buy and sell cars and trucks. It helps make sure that the buying process is safe and secure.
Term
MSRP
MSRP is the price that the car maker suggests you should pay for a new car. It's like a starting point for negotiations when buying a car.
Term
windshield washer fluid
Windshield washer fluid is a special liquid that you put in your car to clean the front window. It helps you see better when it's dirty or when there's rain or snow.
Part
windshield washer pump
The windshield washer pump is a small motor that pushes cleaning fluid from the reservoir to the windshield. When you press the button to clean your windshield, this pump sends the fluid out.
Part
windshield washer hose
The windshield washer hose is a tube that carries fluid to clean your car's windshield. If it comes loose, the fluid won't reach the windshield, and you won't be able to clean it properly.
Part
windshield washer reservoir
The windshield washer reservoir is a tank that holds the fluid used to clean your windshield. It's usually found under the hood and is filled with a special cleaning liquid.
Car
Mercedes-Benz EQE
The Mercedes-Benz EQE is a fancy electric car that is part of a new line of eco-friendly vehicles from Mercedes. People talk about it because it combines luxury with being good for the environment.
Term
headlight cleaning system
A headlight cleaning system sprays a special fluid on your car's headlights to keep them clean. This helps you see better at night or in bad weather.
Car
Jeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a tough, off-road vehicle that can handle rough terrains like mountains and trails. It's popular with people who love adventure and outdoor activities, making it a favorite topic among car enthusiasts.
Car
Ford Aerostar
The Ford Aerostar is a type of minivan that Ford made years ago. It was designed to be roomy and practical for families.
Term
rear wiper
The rear wiper is like a smaller version of the front windshield wiper, used to keep the back window clear so you can see better when driving.
Concept
secure purchase
A secure purchase is a safe way to buy a car online. It makes sure that both the buyer and seller are real people and that the payment is safe, so you don't have to worry about scams.
Term
DMV
The DMV is a government office where you go to get your driver's license and register your car. Sometimes, it can take a long time to get things done there.
Term
title
A title is a paper that shows who owns a car. You need it when you buy or sell a car to prove that it's yours.
Term
gearheads
Gearheads are people who really love cars and know a lot about them. They often work on cars themselves or enjoy learning about different models and how they work.
Concept
Hagerty bull market list
The Hagerty bull market list is a list of cars that experts think will become more valuable in the future. It's like a guide for people who want to invest in classic cars.
Car
Dodge Charger
The Dodge Charger is a famous car that many people love, especially for its speed and cool looks. The versions made between 1968 and 1970 are especially popular among car collectors.
Car
Mazda Miata
Mazda is a car company from Japan that makes different types of cars, including sporty ones like the Miata. People talk about Mazda because they are known for making fun-to-drive cars that are also good on gas.
Car
Chevrolet C6
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car made in America. It's famous for being powerful and fun to drive, which is why many car fans love to talk about it.
Car
Alfa Romeo Gtv
The Alfa Romeo GTV is a stylish sports car that was made a long time ago. It's known for being fun to drive and looking good.
Car
BMW M5
Car
Nissan Skyline GTR
The Nissan Skyline GTR is a famous sports car that is known for being very fast and having cool technology. Many car fans really love it.
Car
Porsche Carrera GT
The Porsche Carrera GT is a very fast and expensive sports car made by Porsche. It has a powerful engine and is designed for top performance.
Car
Nissan Skyline
The Nissan Skyline is a high-performance car that many car lovers admire, especially the GT-R version. It's famous for being really fast and high-tech, and it's often talked about because it's hard to find in some places.
Term
Z06
The Z06 is a special version of the Chevrolet Corvette that is designed for better performance. It usually has a stronger engine and is made for racing or sporty driving.
Concept
NB generation
The NB generation is the second version of the Mazda Miata, made from 1999 to 2005. It has some updates and changes that make it different from the first version.
Concept
NA generation
The NA generation is the first version of the Mazda Miata, made from 1989 to 1997. Many people remember it fondly because it started the Miata's popularity.
Car
Ford Mustang
Car
Chevrolet Camaro
The Chevrolet Camaro is a popular car that is similar to the Ford Mustang. It's known for being powerful and having a sporty look.
Term
malaise era
The malaise era was a time in the 1970s when cars in America weren't very exciting or powerful. They had to follow new rules about pollution and fuel, which made them less fun to drive.
Car
Porsche Carrera
The Porsche Carrera RS is a special, fast version of the Porsche 911 sports car that is built for racing. Car fans love to talk about it because it's lightweight and has a rich history in racing.
Car
Ford Bronco
The Ford Bronco is a tough SUV that can go off-road and handle rough conditions. It's popular because it has a long history and was recently brought back with new features that many people love.
Car
BMW E60
The BMW 5 Series is a high-end car that is comfortable and fun to drive. The E60 model from 2006 to 2010 is especially known for having a powerful engine, making it a popular choice among luxury car buyers.
LIVE
Hello, and welcome to the True Thought Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy, the Managing Editor,
and this week we're discussing classic cars that will go up in value, the NASCAR schedule
and more. We discussed the Hagerty Bull List with Brian Rable from Hagerty, and TTAC contributor
Matthew Guy and I discussed Windschild Wash Your Food. Mr. Guy and I also go over NASCAR's
2026 schedule. But first, a word from our sponsor, eBay Motors.
Buying a car should feel secure. Start to finish. That's why you should buy your next ride on eBay.
See, eBay has got everything, from classics to trucks and imports. Now with secure purchase,
sellers and titles are verified. And financing, delivery, and insurance options are built right
in. Plus, eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection. So buy your next car
in eBay. eBay, things people love. Secure purchase is powered by Carmel Dealer Services LLC in eBay
subsidiary. Just about every week here on the TTAC podcast, we have TTAC contributor Matthew Guy on
with us to discuss the stuff that we use in our homes, in our cars, and you know, on our cars,
on and as the case may be, whether it's a cleaning product or something for the inside. So anyway,
we're going to talk about the stuff that we use this week with Matthew Guy. Matthew, how are you
doing today? Pretty good, Tim. How are you doing? I'm doing well. So we're discussing windshield
washer fluid, which is a perfect topic for this time of year. So walk us through what you want to
talk about with windshield washer fluid today. Yeah, of course. And this time of year, in most
parts, in the Northern states, at least, you know, you've got all Canada, all kinds of road spray
coming back at you. And the easiest thing to do for safe driving is simply to be able to see.
And we've talked about different elements of this on the podcast in the past, right? You know,
making sure your headlights are clean. We talked about those types of products that you can get to
shine up your headlights to get the planters out of them. We talked about winter wiper blades.
And one of the easiest things in the world is just simply topping off your windshield wash. And
there's a couple of different types for any of our listeners who might be a bit unfamiliar with it.
Generally, there's a winter one, quote unquote winter, and one that is more targeted at summer
use. And the difference of them is the summer one generally has more detergents in it. So it's
really good for getting bugs and stuff like that off your windshield, you know, stuff that's really
sticky. But it doesn't work very well below freezing temperatures. So if you fill up your
windshield washer reservoir in your in your vehicle with summer based stuff, it's probably going to
freeze. And then you'll have the unfortunate experience of pulling the, you know, pulling the
windshield washer stick on your steering column, and just hearing that motor down in the bowels of
your engine, trying to spray out some windshield wash, but not doing anything because it's all
frozen up the motor is working, but the lines are frozen. So actually, it's also a good tip
that as you get towards winter, it might seem wasteful to just sit there with the windshield
washer, you know, just running, but to use it up. But it's important to do that for that exact
reason, because if you fill it up, and there's a little bit of filled up with winter stuff,
and there's a little bit of summer stuff still in the bottom of it, that's going to freeze.
And it's not switching. That's very fun. So that's just a bit of backward, you know,
compatibility for other months when you're getting towards actual freezing, but always make sure
to just buy the stuff is getting expensive. So I've turned to place like eBay, where you can really
get, you know, some gallon jugs for a really decent price. And they're clearly labeled right
if they're all season or if they're winter, so make sure to get the winter or all season ones.
And I've not really associated eBay with these types of products before just because my brain
says, Oh, no, you can't ship that sort of liquid stuff. But you can, right? It's heavy. But if
there's free shipping, then give her go for it, right? Especially if it's a good price. And I have
found some some really good prices on eBay for this type of product for my car. So just, you know,
over the weekend, you know, with lots of people coming around with holidays and stuff like that,
you know, I just end up being the being the car guy and out there tending to this type of stuff.
So as people have been visiting family and, you know, friends and stuff like that, we just end
up, Hey, do you need some windshield wash? I got a whole bunch here now from, from, from
just top of reservoirs and people's cars. And one of the cars in our fleet, actually,
and it was a pretty simple fix. A lot of cars have a rubber hose that goes from the pump,
which is on the little plastic reservoir that holds all of your windshield wash. Usually,
it's just a rubber hose that goes from that all the way up to wherever it's dispensed.
Some cars have it on the, on the underside of the hood. Some cars have it kind of down by
the wipers. Some cars have it on the wipers, but it's not hard to trace to where it goes.
And yeah, and this person was complaining, they were like, I got no, I got windshield wash,
but where's it going? And one of these rubber hoses had just popped off.
Oh no. Yeah, it just popped off one of its hat, one of its little, little housings,
one of its little clips. So it was like just dumping all over the ground. And it was
the type of thing that is really, really easy to fix if you know what you're looking for. So I
just encourage, I mean, our listeners, if you're new at wrenching or things like that,
just still open the hood. If there's something obvious, right? Like, I mean,
this was just a rubber hose hanging down. It was very clear as to where it was supposed to hook
back up to, you know, have a look yourself. And adding windshield wash is one of the easiest
things you can do to maintain your car and make sure you can see in the winter. Just every car
I've ever driven, it's always been clearly marked either with a bright yellow or bright blue cap
that says windshield wash. You might say it with those words or might have the icon, right?
Of the windshield washer and wipers. So I just encourage all our listeners, even if you're
brand new to wrenching on your own car, this is a great place to start. And it's something that
can keep you safe on the road. Yeah, and I would say just to add to that, even if you're not going
to wrench on what you were talking about, at the very least, keep the fluid filled, you know.
And it's not just wintertime. Obviously, we think about it more, especially like those days where
it's kind of not really snowing and not really raining. You just get a little bit of just a
little bit of mist on your windshield and it starts to get dirty and you can't see after
a few minutes. Obviously, wintertime matters, but I would also, summer, spring, fall, always,
always, always, whether it's, of course, obviously adjusts for the wintertime formula.
But I would always, always have that windshield washer fluid full and, you know, maybe buy,
maybe buy a gallon or tend to get gas. Yeah. And that stuff is always around at the,
you know, I mean, gas stations are going to charge a little bit more because it's, you know,
sure. That's their problem. Convenience. Yeah. Yeah, the convenience. But, and some places up
here in Canada too, there's one brand of gasoline in particular, what they've done is they've
installed pumps right next to the gas pump. You just take the little wand, I mean, it just looks
like a little miniature gas pump and you can fill up your windshield washer reservoir right from
that little pump and you just, it's really cool. And then you pay for it. It ends up being probably
about 25% more expensive than buying a jog off eBay. But for someone who doesn't want to carry
around spare or is completely out and there's none available, it's really cool. And it just,
you know, if you buy half a gallon, you're only charged for half a gallon. And it ends up being
a little bit more expensive, but the convenience is there too. So,
and it's really easy to do this. And I'm thinking about one of the Mercedes models,
when they were doing the EQE and EQS, those electric ones, they really didn't want people
opening the hood. So they went through the trouble of putting a little door on the driver's side
front fender, just for filling up windshield wash. Interesting. Yeah. All right. So anything else?
Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I was just, you know, that's a, it's a universal problem,
no matter where you work, no matter where you live in the world. Yeah. And speaking of Mercedes,
they also, some of Mercedes models also have windshield washer fluid that cleans headlights.
And sometimes it automatically hits it when we're, when we, when you hit the, the trigger,
you know, the stock usually to do the windshield washer fluid. Yeah. Sometimes I don't,
sometimes I'm Mercedes it also the headlights. So they run through windshield washer fluid a little
more quickly, but at the same time, you get a clean headlight. So yeah, that's a good, that's
a good point going through it a bit more quickly because some jeeps like Wranglers and stuff,
they've got little washers for the cameras that are around. Yeah, that too. You're right, the vehicles.
And there's been, it's been a very long time since I've seen a separate reservoir for the
wiper in the back. Probably 20 years or more since I've seen, it was an old Ford,
old Aero Star actually, that you, that had a separate reservoir for the rear wiper.
But yeah, you will go through it more quickly if you use the reservoir, you know, your main one
for the rear wiper too. That's a good point. I was going to say rear wiper as well as cameras.
Yeah. Okay, cool. If there's anything else on windshield washer fluid, I think,
I think we covered it pretty well. So we're going to go ahead and wrap this
segment here on this week's Truth of Our Cars podcast. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, Tim.
eBay has reinvented vehicle buying from click to curb. Everything's covered. It's all thanks to
their new secure purchase. Ever try to buy a car and end up in a parking lot with a stranger and
some blind trust? Or spend half the day at a dealership talking to pushy salespeople and
signing paperwork? Or maybe worst of all, wait for hours at the DMV, just a chance for the title.
That air is over. For years, eBay has been the go-to for gearheads, collectors and DIYers.
Because whatever you're into from classics to SUVs and trucks to imports, eBay's got it.
And now with secure purchase, eBay isn't just where you find your next ride. It's where you can buy
it, start to finish. Sellers and titles are verified, paperwork is handled by experts,
and payments are traceable and digital. So you know exactly who you're dealing with and exactly
what you're getting. Plus, you can finance, insure and register your vehicle all in one place.
No more hours at the dealership. No more trips to the DMV. Get your vehicle, plates and paperwork,
ship to your door, ready to drive. And it's all part of one seamless process designed to feel as
easy as buying anything else online. And eligible vehicles purchased on eBay are backed up by up
to $100,000 in purchase protection. Thinking about selling your ride, secure purchase being
said simple too, because you know your buyer and their funds are verified. If you still own your
car, the financing payoff is fully integrated, so you're not chasing paperwork or waiting
intros to clear. And with secure purchase, you get paid fast. And you're not going to be stuck
chasing no shows or answering the fifth still available message. This is what modern car buying
looks like. Skip the DMV, skip the sketchy meetups, buy it on eBay. eBay, things people love.
Secure purchase is powered by Carmo Dealer Services LLC in eBay subsidiary.
This week on the Truth About Cars podcast, we were talking with Brian Rable from Haggerty
about the 2026, gosh, it's 2026 already, the bull list, which basically is a list that Haggerty
has put together of cars that will increase in value. So Brian, how are you doing today to start?
I'm doing great, Tim. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, so let's talk about this list. Did I get
that right? When I said that these are vehicles that will increase in value?
Yeah, that's right. This is the Haggerty bull market list. It's a list we've been putting
together for the last eight years, and it's intended to highlight some cars that are appreciating.
So the ones that we feel are the best position to grow in value over the next 12 months.
The reason we do that isn't to create a tip sheet so that people can get rich flipping cars.
It really is intended to highlight some opportunities for buying for cars that are
on the way up. The idea is you might be able to buy one of these cars after a little bit of research
and a little bit of luck, and then you sell it maybe three, four years later,
and you've made enough money in the profit to cover all the running expenses you might have
of the car, or you could roll some of the gains into your next fun car purchase. So that's the
whole idea behind it. Cool. Yeah, so let's go over the list. I'll just read real quick the 2026 bulls.
We're not going to have time to get into all the cars, but we'll highlight a few here. So
for those who are not familiar, you can go to Haggerty.com, backslash media, backslash market
dash trends, backslash bull dash market dash 2026, or just Google of course, probably it's
probably easier than typing it all up. You can just Google Haggerty 2026 bulls list, bulls,
like running the bulls, bulls list. So anyway, the cars are 1968, 1970 Dodge Charger,
99 through 2005, Miata, the 56 and 57 Continental Mark II, early 90s, so 90 through 93, Chevrolet
454 SS, the 2016, 2013, so I believe that it's C6, I want to say, Chevrolet Corvette 06,
correct me if I'm wrong, I think that it's C6, and then. Yep, that's a C6. Yeah, and then 1969,
1972, Alfa Romeo GTV, 2006 through 2010, BMW M5, sorry got a bit tongue tied there,
1981 through 1993 Dodge Ram Charger, 1995 through 1998, Nissan Skyline GTR, 1995 through 1998,
Volkswagen Golf GTI VR6, and the 2004 through 2007 Porsche Carrera GT. So Brian, the cars that I
folks, which might be the older Charger, the Miata for sure, even though we're talking about
a few generations old now, I think the C6 is very easy to find, probably pretty easy to find,
even in the 06 trim, and the M5 is pretty recent as well. And then of course, for people in their
30s and 40s, especially, the Nissan Skyline GTR was kind of the first like forbidden fruit and
also got popular in some movies, I believe, I have not seen less of the Brass and Furious,
I believe the Skyline GTR is in a few of those. So so we can highlight those and maybe even the
Golf GTI for your time, but there's a whole lot to talk about here. Yeah, a ton of fun cars
all across the range. So that's one of the fun things that we have putting this list together
is highlighting some opportunities across decades, across budgets, and different kind of design
briefs. So whether you want an SUV, a pickup truck, or a fun sports car, there is an opportunity
all around. So maybe we start with Corvette, that's one of my sure my favorites. And Tim,
I think you're a big Corvette fan. So this is the 06, the C6 06 built 2006 to 2013.
These cars are probably the best performance value per dollar on the market today. Just really
seven liter engine, high horsepower, high revving, a ton of fun to drive. So I'm told I haven't had
the good fortune to drive one yet. But just really one of those really excellent, excellent Corvettes.
One of the things that stood out to us as we were looking at the numbers and trying to figure out,
you know, which cars to make to make the list this year was that this Corvette is actually really
youthful for a Corvette. So Corvettes tend to be a little bit on the older side in terms of owners,
but the 06 from this generation has a lot younger buyer profile. And so that's really
interesting. When we think about the market changing, a lot of times we're looking at,
you know, increasing buying power and who's going to be wielding it and what are they going to be
purchasing and the Corvette's one of those cars. And so we think that there's a lot of upside on
this car in particular over the next year or so.
Yeah, so I'm not, I wouldn't say when I come to me and Corvette's Corvette fan is
I like the car a lot, but I don't have a ton of experience with the C6 generation. Most of my
experience has been with the C7s and a little bit with the current generation. And I had a few
friends growing up with C5. So I spent a lot of time around the C5s. I like Corvettes a lot.
Before I came to TTAC, I did work on a book that was going to be C1 Corvettes. Unfortunately,
that book never made it to publication for business reasons. They just didn't think it was
going to sell very well. So I got about halfway through and then was asked to not finish because
it would have been a waste of time. So I got to know a lot of the C1s. But yeah, Corvette's,
I think, even with the C6, which is obviously a much more rare trimmer, I think Corvette's
is just a lot of them out there. And I think that's a huge thing. And the C6s aren't that old,
so it shouldn't be, it could be in really good shape, especially if they're owned by owners who
take good care of them and are parked in garages and parked in warm other areas. And they shouldn't
be too hard to work on. Yeah, you can definitely find support to maintain them. So that's a concern
as we get to some of the other cars on the list, maintenance and that type of thing is a bigger
concern. So they're a very livable car. They are on the newer side. So MSRP on these was about $65,000.
They're in top condition. We have them pegged at about $80,000 now. So they're selling above MSRP
relatively shortly after their production, which is interesting. And that also means
that they haven't really ever sunk to the point where they were really cheap speed, which tends to
be used, I guess, enthusiastically, you could say, without having a lot of maintenance. And so
there are a lot that are still in really good shape. Production numbers, although the Z06 is a
rarer trim, it's still relatively easy to find. So that's one of the things that helps make this
car affordable, helps make it easy to live with, and then they're still upside on the buy side. So
you should be able to have your fun and then recoup some of that cost or a lot of that cost
when it's time to move on and experience something else. Sure, sure. Let's switch gears a little
and speak about the Miata. So you couldn't see it were audio only, but I did roll my eyes a little
just because the Miata is so popular. And I understand why I like the Miata. I'm not begging
on it at all. And the older Miatas are probably a little more elemental in terms of sports car feel,
lightweight, slow car fast, drive a slow car fast kind of experience. Just fun to drive,
looks cool, they look cool, all that sort of stuff. We always joke about Miata is always the answer.
That's the Mazda thing. The other thing they say is of course Zoom Zoom. So the Miata, obviously
very popular and probably really easy to find as well. It is. Although one of the things that
works against I mentioned that cheap speed, the Miata is such a joy to drive and it gets
tracked quite often and modified quite often. So finding a really great example, it's still
possible for sure, but it's becoming a little bit harder. So Atrician's kind of taking its effect
on, we're talking about the NB generation. So this is the second generation, 99 to 05.
These are great. Like you said, everybody loves a Miata and that is sort of like an eye rolling
choice just because they're everywhere and everybody kind of knows about them. So they're
a secret. But at the same time, the cliche is well deserved. Everybody loves them because they're
great fun to drive. They're affordable. They're easy to work on. They're easy to maintain very
livable cars. The NB generation is the one that we picked. Although a lot of people think of the
NA when they think of Miata, the first version. But the NB has sort of lagged in value as the
NA has gone up in price over the last couple of years. So that makes it a relative bargain.
And then the other thing that people kind of overlook is that it's got a little bit more
evolved engineering. So it's got better braking. It's a little bit more powerful.
It loses the pop-up headlights of the NA in a little bit of the purity of design,
but it's still a blast to drive. And so that's why this one landed on our list.
Well, without pop-up headlights, that's one less thing to repair.
That is true. Absolutely. The less there is to move, the less parts there are to replace.
Yeah. So looking at the other cars on the list, again, we're only going to touch on four or five
because that's all we have time for. And if we have time at the end, we can maybe
talk about any high-level stuff you guys have learned that we didn't already cover in the
introduction. The Dodge Charger, 68 through 70 Chargers, that's going to be a little harder to
find because it's obviously a much older vehicle. And muscle cars, I think the ones that remain have
been well-maintained and are a little pricey. But why is the Charger on this list?
The Charger is one of those cars that when we look at the demographics of who's buying,
so Hagerty as an insurance company has the good fortune of having a lot of just massive amounts
of data on vehicles that people own, as well as the people themselves. So how old are they?
Where do they live? What else is in their garage? All that great stuff. And one of the interesting
things about the Chargers, when you think about muscle cars, a lot of times you're thinking
of older owners, sort of baby boomers, which is true. Which is true. But the Charger, because
it's had such a great revival of late with the more modern interpretation of it that Dodge
introduced a few years ago, it has relevance. And we see a lot of younger buyers going after them.
So it's got a bigger youth appeal. Millennials are actually the fastest growing cohort of
buyers for the Charger, which is really interesting to me. So because of that, it kind of has this
universal appeal that makes it stand out among muscle cars. And that's one of the reasons why
we feel like this is a good buy at the moment. I think I can answer being an elder millennial
myself. Well, depending on which demographic you read, I'm either baby Gen X or elder millennial.
I consider myself part of the Oregon Trail generation, because we played Oregon Trail
in fourth grade, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think being the
child of baby boomers, muscle cars for a lot of us were the introduction to cars. Because that's
what our parents loved was the cars from the late 60s and early 70s, the Mustangs, Camaros,
GTOs, and in this case, Chargers. And also, I think there was the way the industry went.
There was a generation of cars kind of skipped in terms of enthusiasm because you had the 70s
malaise, and we didn't really get strong performance again to the mid 80s. And that really didn't
even take off to the late 80s and early 90s. So there's a kind of a gap there. And when I was a
little kid, the best cars were the muscle cars. The newer cars, most of them weren't performance
cars, or they weren't very good. And there's exceptions. We don't have time to get into all
that. But growing up, when I first became a car enthusiast, it was kind of two things. It was the
new cars in the early and mid 90s that were kind of bringing back that performance and starting
to really adjust to the emissions regulations and adjust to different market forces, regulation
sort of thing. And it was the muscle cars. And a lot of the car books that I had growing up in my
bookshelf and a lot of the posters I had in my bedroom wall were first generation Mustang,
second generation, Boss 302s, Chargers, stuff like that. So I'm not speaking for all millennials,
obviously. But I would imagine that a lot of car enthusiasts that are in their mid 40s now,
probably grew up with their parents telling them how great muscle cars were. And maybe their
dad or mom had one when they were young enough to remember it, or maybe they were restoring one.
So that's probably why there is an interest among elder millennials on cars that were
produced a decade or more before they were born. Yeah, that's a common story. And I think that's
one of the differences. I think, you know, as I think about the the concept of enthusiast cars
and how that's changed over the years. So, you know, the general rule of thumb is that people
when they turn about 45 or 50, go after the cars that they really liked when they were 16.
And so that used to be when you were a baby boomer, that would be the car that was really cool,
that was in the high school parking lot, or, you know, which ended up being muscle cars
for the generation before that is tri-five Chevys, the cars that maybe they rode around in,
and maybe getting the souped up version of that. And then for kind of our generation, it's 90s.
But also, this is where you start to see a lot of people being exposed to cars that are outside of
kind of the the era that they grew up in. And so exactly the same thing, neighbors with with
muscle cars riding around would be exciting. You might turn on, you know, cable and see
Barry Jackson and watch a bunch of muscle cars cross the block and get excited about that.
So a lot of different ways to become aware of some of these cars rather than what was on the
cover of the magazine at the time. And so chargers are one of those things and they're visceral. I
mean, they're they're muscle in the best possible way. The sound of that V8 is amazing, depending
on which which spec you get. They're they're on the bigger side. The charger is for a muscle car,
but you know, it's not about size necessarily. It's all about the power. And there are, I don't
know, there's very few cars where you can get into and you just step on the gas and you can light
up in a smile just just from the sound and experience you get. So the charger is definitely
one of those types of cars. Well, I think we'll move on to the next car soon. But I think that's
also part of the appeal of the muscle car is the simplicity of them. And by the time that
performance really kind of picked back up in the 80s and 90s, there was more turbocharging,
more supercharging, more electronics. And a lot of it was good. It made the cars better. I'm not
complaining. I'm not trying to say that that we had a stop in 1972. But there's just a simplicity
in muscle cars that that later cars don't have. And of course, there's more regulations in terms
of safety stuff. And again, it's mostly a good thing. I'm not saying it's bad. We needed seat belt
regulations, airbags are generally not good, despite some of the problems they've had. ABS brakes
have been a godsend in most cases. So I'm not saying I'm not trying to say, oh, it has to be
a simple car with no electronic nannies and all this. A lot of that stuff was either good or
neutral. But there is a simplicity to the muscle car that I think was probably the last time that
cars really like that, especially performance cars. So I think that plays part of it too,
like you said, is visceral. So with that, we'll move on to the the skyline. So,
you know, that's the first for me. And again, I can't speak for anyone else my age, but
and I never really got into the Fast and Furious franchise. I think I've only seen the first
movie in Tokyo Drift. That was one of the first for me forbidden fruit cars as I became a car
enthusiast in the 90s, like one of the first. Oh, my gosh, we can't get that here and it looks so
cool. And everything I read in car and driver and road and track, whenever they tested one, it's
like, oh, my gosh, we want one of these to be sold here. And eventually, of course, we had the
later generation come come to the States. But yeah, this car, I want to hear from you guys why
it's raising a value. Yeah, well, exactly like you're talking about it, it due to the 25 year rule
that limited what cars could be imported into the United States, the skyline. The R32 was the
kind of the first revival of the the name that Nissan did in 1989. That was followed by the R33
generation, which is the one that made our list the 95 to 98. And then there's the R34 that was
famously featured in Fast and Furious. So that trio of cars is really very high tech, you know,
all wheel drive, you know, four wheel steering, twin turbo, all sorts of tech that was wrapped
into it. And it made it legendary. Sorry, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And you know, a lot of people read
about it, or they played it, video games got to experience it, there was a lot of hype around
it, but you couldn't have one. And then that changed a few years ago when the R32 was able
to be introduced and imported. And we saw values just go wild for that. The R33 had a quick blip
when it became eligible to import. And then a lot of people were waiting for the R34,
which is usually regarded among enthusiasts as the best of those of that trio. But what's happened
is the R33 has sort of been left behind a little bit, which when we think about the just the delta
value between the R34 and the R32 and the R33, the R33 is in that sweet spot.
If I check my numbers here, it's about worth less than half of the R34 right now. It offers a lot
of the same experience. It's just as powerful. It's a lot easier to find because it's been
eligible to import for longer. So for all those reasons, it's a nice buy. You get most of the,
if not all of the benefit of driving a Skyline GT-R at a discount. And so we don't think that's
going to last for long. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we've kind of covered all the different vehicles that
we thought our readers would really be interested in. We're not going to get into some of the more
rare stuff like the Lincoln Continental or the Super High End, price-wise, Porsche Carrera.
We could talk a little bit about the Volkswagen VR6 because I know that's probably accessible
to a lot of people too. But with the time we have remaining, unless you really want to get into one
of the other vehicles we haven't touched upon, I would love to see, love to know what high level
views have you taken away from this list, putting it together this year. I know it's a list you do
every year, so things can change from year to year or might stay the same. But I want to know
kind of like what high level things you've taken away from this list as you put it together,
trends you've spotted, things you learned, things that surprised you, that sort of thing.
Yeah. I think there are a handful of themes that emerge with this list and they're consistent with
previous years that we've put together too. So just kind of overarching modern cars. When I
say modern, I don't mean like brand new, but kind of more 90s, 2000s and newer machinery is really
having a moment. So a lot of people, I mentioned people buying the cars from their youth.
What's also happening is there have been so many great cars that have been produced from
an enthusiast standpoint over the last 20 years. They're really reliable. They're really usable.
They're very performant. There are so many choices that we're seeing a lot of interest in the market
right there. So that's one thing that stands out. This year, seven of our picks are from the 90s
or 2000s. Yeah, I noticed. So that's kind of a thing. And we do make an effort to kind of look
outside of the same decade just so that it doesn't become a one-note list. But there were so many
choices of cars that stood out in this regard from these decades that we couldn't avoid it.
Is that a function? Oh, good. I'm sorry. I was going to say, is that a function of millennials
getting, I know millennials have been beaten up economically. A lot of millennials say I can't
get a house. I can't afford a house. I can't start a family because it's hard to get, you know,
not paid enough. But there are some millennials who probably are doing well, even if the
generation overall is struggling. So is that a function of maybe some millennials who have,
do have good jobs or got an inheritance or whatever who maybe have come into a little bit
of money in their late 30s, early 40s? Is that a function of them sort of going back buying cars
with their youth? It goes both directions. So yes, that's part of it. And even millennials who
maybe, you know, haven't, haven't hit a financial windfall are still going out and looking for that
fun NB Miata, for example. So something that's affordable. Exactly. But these cars are also,
because they're so usable and practical. And when you compare them to older cars,
that we see a lot of older buyers also getting into them. So somebody might have that charger,
or they might have an older Corvette and they're looking for something that is going to be faster,
maybe a little bit safer because it has more safety features. And so they'll buy that Z06,
for example. So it's got youth appeal, but it also extends beyond that. So a lot of enthusiasts
are kind of targeting this era just because of the practicality, the fun factor and the cost
that these options represent. Makes sense. And I do apologize for talking over to you.
Now, I do want you to go ahead and you were about to talk about the next theme you saw.
So please, please let us know about that. Yeah. So two other themes. One of those themes is that
overshadowed successors don't stay down for long. We call this the principle of substitution a lot
of times. But, you know, if you look at a car that's gone up in value, it might price out some
enthusiasts. And so what that does is those enthusiasts don't start, stop shopping. It's
not like they are solely fixated on a single model. They're going to go and look for something else
that gets close to what they want, but maybe is still within their budget. So that R33 Skyline
GTR is a good example of that. The NV Miata is a good example of that. Some of the other ones on
the list that we didn't talk about, the Ram Charger. That's a 1980s two-door SUV that Dodge offered.
If you look for another kind of mid-size, full-size two-door SUV from that era,
they're all much, much more expensive. So, you know, that's the principle of substitution
in effect. If you couldn't afford that Bronco, what's your next best choice? And so
that's always that play in the market, but we can really see that shining through in this list
this year. And then the last one we kind of highlighted is that big displacement in naturally
aspirated cars, they're not really being made anymore, which makes the old crop stand out.
So, we see a lot of cars on this list that kind of fit that description. Big displacement,
seven-liter, 7.4-liter, 7.2-liter on some of these cars. No turbo charging for a lot of them,
like the BMW M5 or the Golf GTI, for example. So, a lot of those things that kind of are
more basic in design and less tech laden that people get a kick out of because of the engagement
that those cars offer. Yeah, yeah. Speaking of the M5, that was one we kind of talked about at the
beginning too. Do you have anything on that real briefly? Yeah, the M5. So, this is the
2006 to 2010 model, the E60 is what they call it. It's got a V10, 500 horsepower, super quick,
zero to 60 miles in 4.1 seconds. The engine is, this car is all about the engine, they sound amazing.
You could still actually get them in a manual transmission, so not just CSMG. Very few people
did that, but huge premium paper that. So, really great car from that standpoint. I will say,
it is a complicated car and this is one of those cars where, when we talk about the
charger being easy to live with, the M5 may be a little bit more challenging. And so, service
records, ownership history, really, really important with these cars, but a ton of fun
if you can find one and that's in good order. Cool, yeah. So, is there anything else you want to
go over? We have a little bit more time than we thought we were going to have. So, is there
anything else you want to go over with this list or maybe a vehicle we didn't talk about
that you kind of wanted to highlight? We can talk about the Golf. I think that's a great car.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. 95-98, this is the Mark III. So, really, really fun car to drive.
This is, again, before the turbocharging took hold. So, great option there. It's a lot less
expensive than a newer R32, so that's one of the reasons why this car stood out. My personal
favorite, I've actually got two favorites on this list. I love the 69-72 Alfa Romeo. It's a little
bit less known, so this is the GTV, but they're really beautiful cars. Yeah, they're good looking
Italian design, you know. Yeah, Giorgetto Giugiaro designed them. So, world-class designer,
really understated and really kind of clean, usable backseat, really well balanced, so not
a particularly fast car, but one that's really, really fun to drive. These cars are actually
pretty easy to live with too, even though some listeners might hear Alfa Romeo and get a little
bit nervous. Yeah, so these are fun ones. I've always loved these cars, so it was kind of nice
to see this one land on the list. And then the Continental Mark II. That's a surprise for a lot
of people. I was surprised to see it on the list, but the numbers backed it up when we looked at it.
A lot of people assume that the 50s market is dying, and it's definitely slow, and not a lot of
people that are younger folks who are getting interested in those cars, but the Continental
Mark II stood out a little bit. It's a little bit more youthful, and just a really, really cool car.
A lot of people, when they hear 50s, they're thinking fins and chrome. The Continental Mark II
is kind of Ford's top of the line. It's often referred to as the American Rolls Royce. It's a
lot more European in design, so very muted as far as fins and chrome goes. It's not really adorned,
which gives it a little bit more of a modern feel to it. So when you look at it, it is 50s
elegance and grace, but not over the top, which is a nice sweet spot. Those cars have always been
desirable, so it's very easy to find them in good condition, which I do recommend on those,
because trying to restore them is a colossal proposition.
Yeah, I would imagine. So is there anything else you want to share with us in terms of
the way the list is put together in terms of the methodology?
Yeah, so in my role at Hagerty, I lead the team that's called the Automotive Intelligence Team.
It's a team of 13 people. We're responsible for all the market and vehicle data Hagerty collects,
as well as the reporting and analysis we run on those data. And when we put together this list,
it's always a fun exercise, but we try and remove opinion from it as much as possible,
and we're looking at all the data that Hagerty has access to. So it's public auction data,
it's private sales data, it's what people are changing their insured values to,
it's what cars people are buying. We even go to the extremes of looking at import and export data,
so that we can see which cars are coming into the market because people want to purchase them,
or people from Europe who are maybe importing cars from the US, like they are with the M5,
for example. So we're looking at all these signals, and then we basically are trying to figure out
which cars look like they have the best chances of going up in value, and then that team will sit
down with Hagerty's media team, and we do a data-driven presentation. It's basically walking
through about 20 or so cars, 20 to 25 cars, and we just present the argument for why each of these
cars deserves a spot on the list, purely driven by the data that we have access to. And then the
media team will look at that, and they'll say that car is terrible, or we love that car, and
we'll kind of have an argument about it, and that's where the opinion kind of comes in. But at the
end of the day, we slim it down to about a list of 10 or 11. We have a couple of alternates,
because we have to source these cars. We do a photo shoot at a track, so that's another aspect
of it, trying to wrangle the cars. But at the end of the day, that's where we get 11 cars,
they're always fun to talk about. And then we also publish our report card every year. So
we believe that if we're going to go tell you which cars we think are going to go up in value,
you deserve to know how our past picks have done. We've had 85 picks over the years. 60% of those
have had annual gains of 5% or more, which is pretty good when you think about a fun luxury
repurchase. So that's the gist of it. And like you said, Tim, you can go to Hagerty.com
and look at our media site. And we've got that article, the bull market article, as well as
the past report cards there that are available to check out.
Awesome. With that, Brian, we do need to wrap up. So Brian, thank you so much for your time. We've
been with Brian Rabel from Hagerty. What's your exact title, Brian?
I'm the vice president of automotive intelligence, Tim.
There we go. There we go. So Brian Rabel from Hagerty, thank you so much for your time talking
about the 2026 Hagerty Bull List. And that'll go ahead and wrap this second here on the
EBay Motors is here for the ride, the parts you need at the prices you want. And with EBay
guaranteed fit, they're guaranteed to fit your ride the first time, every time, or your money back.
Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply.
Here on the Truth About Cars podcast, we are always talking about NASCAR just about each and
every week. And this week, we have the NASCAR schedule. We're starting a new year with the NASCAR
schedule out. So we could talk about that. We have T-Tech contributor back to Guy with us
to do so. Matthew, how are you today? Not bad. How are you doing, Tim?
I am well. So we have Daytona is just over a month away. Oh my gosh, time is flying. And then
we have some NASCAR schedule news which we can get into today. So we
know that the NASCAR schedule is out. And I'm going to take a quick peek at it here. I don't
know if I'm going to go through all 38 or whatever races, but we'll hit the highlights. Then you
can talk about what your thoughts are. But let me just kind of run through a few highlights here.
So the cookout clash goes back to Bobman Gray. That's February 1st. It is a Sunday night race,
8 o'clock Eastern. And then Daytona is February 15th. So that would be a 230 Eastern time.
That's obviously the flagship race. And the duels are a couple days ahead on Thursday the 12th.
And then February closes out with the Auto Trader 400 and Hampton, Georgia, the Atlanta Motor
Speedway or Echo Park as they call it now. And then we move into March road course. People want
to take a peek the first day of March. They'll be in Cota, circuit of the Americas in Austin,
Texas. Our first intermediate mile and a half races follow right away. Actually,
we'll go through the whole thing real quick. They follow Phoenix in Las Vegas. And then
Darlington is our first kind of Southeast race outside of Daytona. And well, I guess we have
one in Georgia. So I take that back. My geography failed me for a moment there.
But so we go out to Darlington on March 22nd and then we're in Martinsville on the short track
at the end of March on the 29th. And we have an April Bristol Motor Speedway followed by Kansas
and then Talladega. So three races in April. May we go to Texas. Watkins Glen moves to May 10th.
So you again, road course, people pay attention to that. And then Dover has the All Star races
here on the 17th of May. Of course, Charlotte following the 1,500 on Memorial Day weekend,
Sunday May 24th this year. And then we go to Nashville for the Cracker Barrel 400 to finish
off the month of May and the 31st. If you're a midwesterner, Michigan International Speedway
is always a popular race. And that'll be June 7th. We head back to classic track of Pocono on the
June 14th. And then the first San Diego Street race, which replaced the Chicago Street Race,
is the Angel Rule 250 on June 21st. And then we are in Sonoma for another classic road course,
one of my favorite tracks, both to watch a race and to drive. That is the Toyota Savemark 350
in June 28th. And then we're back in Chicago Land. Chicago Land Speedway first time in a long time.
No Chicago Street Race this year. So we're moving out of the city about an hour southwest to Joliet,
Illinois. The Chicago Land Speedway is another intermediate track mile on a half type track.
That race is going to be the same weekend, however, as the Chicago Street Race. So it'll be
July 4th weekend. Sunday, July 5th, and it is a night race. It is 6pm Eastern, so five o'clock
central. So it's really kind of a dinner time race. It'll probably be Sony most of that race
because of that time of year. And then we're back in Georgia, back at Echo Park for the
Quaker State 400, down in North Carolina for the Window Road 400 after that. And then the famous
Prikii 400, another one of my favorite personal favorite races, Indianapolis, July 26th. Then
we're back in Iowa. So kind of bouncing back to the Midwest here, August 9th, Iowa Speedway.
Cookout 400, Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia on August 15th. And New Hampshire is
August 23rd, back to Daytona for the Coke Zero Sugar 400, August 29th. Cookout Southern 500,
Darlington, September 6th. So I believe it's Labor Day weekend. The Enjoy Illinois 300.
Very far from July in Illinois. The Illinois is a very long state north to south. This is more in
the St. Louis area in Metis in Illinois. A world watch analogy raceway. That is Sunday, September
13th. We have a night race in Bristol following that on a Saturday, the 19th of September. And then
Hollywood Casino, Kansas, Hollywood Casino 400 in Kansas on 27th of September. Excuse me. And then
the South Point 400 in Las Vegas on October 4th. Back to Charlotte for the Bank of America
Roval. So they're on the Roval. That's the Bank of America Roval 400. And Phoenix on October 18th.
Talladega, the Yellowwood 500, closing off the regular season, October 25th. And then actually,
I take that back. I have two more races in front of me. We have Martinsville and
actually, you know what? I take that back. So I think this is going into the playoffs. They don't
have the demarcation when the playoffs start here. They have two races in November listed.
Martinsville on November 1st in NASCAR cups. They may not have the playoffs finalized. That threw
me off a little. But the NASCAR Cup goes back to Miami this year. Matthew, what do you think of
that? Like you said, with Homestead Miami playing the finale once again. I mean, after
being in Phoenix for the last little while. And I think that it's NASCAR, the all about
tradition, et cetera, et cetera. But having that change really mixes up the, really mixes things
up, you know, compared to some of the drivers who are such strong competitors at Phoenix.
And from what we're looking at here, Phoenix is going to be the beginning of the playoff
round of eight for this year. Yeah, I messed that up. So thank you for clerking me on that.
But here's the thing. I mean, I'm not sure any of this is completely set in stone because I'm
looking at the J. Ski here with a lot, which is always an excellent source. And there's always
some speculation about changing off the, changing off how the points are going to work. I would
love to see, you know, we've talked a lot about points and how they're going to work. So there
will probably be some changes. We shall see what they are going to be. But as we're looking at it
here now, Miami is going to be the finale with Martinsville leading into that. So if NASCAR,
if NASCAR does stick with a one race format to decide the champion, Martinsville is going to be,
Martinsville is going to be the last race to kick anybody out. And that's, that's a good way to do
it, right? I mean, just with that short, short little paper clip, that's, that's a pretty good
way to do it. Because I think before that we had, we still had Martinsville anyways being the last
one. It's no good. I don't feel to have like Talladega because that's such a crapshoot.
Being the last race is going to kick anybody out of these so-called playoffs.
One thing I do want to check, hang on. So the end of the round of 12 before...
Yeah, I had to count backwards.
Yeah. And so the end of the round of 12 is still the roval. Okay. So you're still going to end that
with someone who's probably going to do pretty well on, on roval types on road course surfaces.
So SVG in that example. So I do think, I mean, there's been some pretty good changes for this
year. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of opportunity here. There's going to be five road
courses on schedule dropping from six. San Diego and Sonoma are going to run back to back.
And yeah, that's going to be interesting because it was Sonoma in Chicago last year.
Yeah. And Watkins Glen has been moved out of the summer months and into early May.
I caught that too. Yeah. I hope that works. Right. There's other in upstate New York and
in the upper Midwest, in upper, in this case, mid-Atlantic states can be tricky in May.
They really can. And they're going to Darlington May, March 22nd, which was always the Mother's Day
deal, right? Or around that, but not always, but you know, it has been, but Darlington,
you know, on March 22nd, that's really early. That's really early. I think last year it was
definitely into April. I'm not sure when. I'm pretty sure it was in the first week of April,
but moving that two weeks. We've seen snow in Bristol before, but that way, right?
I hope they don't always need to advertise that type of stuff. But it's the same, you know,
we often think about these places as just being warm. And F1, for example, the first time they
went to Vegas, they said, oh, yes, they're going to be great. We'll have this in November. It's
going to be warm. It's not warm sometimes in the middle of, you know, in November, when it's dark,
right? When all the heat has gone away, when the sun has gone down, and they did have some cold
weather challenges there. And I, I argue, well, there's going to be some cold weather challenges
here too. Daytona 500, like you said, February 15th, day after Valentine's Day. And Echo Park
Speedway, correct me, that's Atlanta, right? That's Atlanta. I'll drill that into my brain
eventually. So I'm looking forward to 2026. There are some good changes here. The brain
trust that is NASCAR has listened, dare I say, to some of the things for which fans have been
clamoring for, including a return to Homestead Miami for the final race of the
2026 season. And we'll see if it's a one and done type deal for the so-called playoffs again this
year. Yeah. And so speaking of playoffs, this is what threw me off and I messed up. I was looking
forward on the schedule. I was just reading the schedule and I didn't even think to myself that,
you know, and I get to November 8th, I'm like, wait a minute, they need playoffs. So you count
back and it starts, I believe last year started early the mid-September. So you have to count back
and then, so it looks like the playoffs are going to start with Darlington Cookout Southern 500.
If I'm reading, if I'm doing the math correctly based on what we, you and I just talked about,
it sounds like the new New Hampshire race, which is out of the playoffs,
and it does not have a sponsor as of yet either. I'm sure it will by the time we get to the late
August. Yeah. It sounds like the Coke 0400 at Daytona will be the final regular season.
That's the cutoff at Daytona, yes. Yeah. If I'm doing my math right, which is always
questionable when it comes to me in math, even basic math. But so that sounds like Darlington
and the St. Louis area, Bristol, Kansas, Vegas, as you talked about just a few minutes ago,
Charlotte Phoenix, of course, Talladega, Martinsville, and obviously Manning. So that's our playoff run
as of right now. The reason why I'm being kind of vague about this and NASCAR is vague itself is
I don't think they have finalized the playoff format for 2026 yet. We're a month out from the
season beginning and I have not heard anything to suggest that there's going to be changes or not.
My guess is there'll be some minor tweaks to what the format is after some of the complaints we had
last year. And I know you've talked about it a ton on the podcast. I can't imagine a major overhaul
happening this close to the beginning of the season. And obviously the lawsuit
and the legal wrangling may have put that on hold as well. Any changes may have had to wait
till they figured out what was going to happen with the suit. Because if they had ruling had
gone a different way, it would have really changed things around. So we'll have to kind of keep an
eye on what's going to happen with the playoffs. Obviously the schedule changed. The schedule
changed. We moved New Hampshire away and moved the championship back to Miami which we hit upon
a few minutes ago. So I won't belabor that point. But that's the only real change we can kind of
track right now. And of course there's the other track changes like going to San Diego and again
as someone who lives in Chicago and I like the street race although I'm far enough away from it
that I'm not directly affected by it. I live a few miles away. So any of the road closures
and all sorts of inconveniences don't bother me too much. And of course covering the race,
it's different. You just deal with it. But that being said, as I said this before on the podcast
we announced the move to San Diego. So I'll keep it short. But I am excited to see that race. It
will have a good scenic background. I wish they could keep the Chicago street race and do San
Diego. And I think possibly in the future they will. I know as we've talked about before,
if the Chicago street race returns it'll probably be a different weekend than July 4th just to
minimize inconvenience in downtown Chicago. I'm laughing at Nascar Presley saying that the
Chicago end race will be in the windy city. It's like no, well it says windy city market.
That's more appropriate because Joliet is about as far. Joliet is one of the last suburbs before
you get to the cornfields before you then before you leave the metro area. And Joliet's a big
population-wise, a big suburb. It has a casino in a nice downtown. It's not a small town whatsoever.
It's right off the freeway. The speedway is just a short drive from Interstate 80. So
going back to Chicago land will be interesting. I'm curious how it affects things in terms of
bringing in new fans by moving out to the suburbs and away from the city where part of the whole
reason to have the street race was to bring in new fans to Nascar people who wouldn't really think
about it. Otherwise people who live in the city don't go out to Joliet too often. So we'll see
how that happens. I'm looking at other changes here. Moving Watkins Glen to May, just I worry
about rain out with that. Other than that, I don't have any issues with that. I like having the
road course races and it's a bummer. I think we lose, like you said, I think we lose one. So
yeah, it's an okay schedule. I'm just really kind of curious what's going to happen at the
playoffs because they don't have, I have not seen like you said, or I don't think you have either,
I've not seen an announcement that would finalize the playoffs for 2026. Have you?
No. And in terms of anyone coming out and saying, Hey, this is 100% exactly what we're doing. There's
always the asterisk on there. Everything's always subject to change. Yeah. Right. As we saw, I know
2020 was a completely different deal. You know, once the lockdowns and stuff happened after the
season had started, and you know, things were, things were, things were moved around a lot then,
but I believe that the schedule we have in terms of the tracks and when the races are going to happen
at those tracks is final. I firmly believe that's final, that you know, Kansas is going to be on
September 27th, Phoenix is going to be at October 18th. Yeah, the dates, the dates wouldn't change.
I don't think. The point structure might. So we're looking at here, still says round of 16,
round of 12. That's open for interpretation right now. So I don't know what site you're looking
at. I'm looking at NASCAR official schedule. It doesn't say anything about round of. Yeah. So
are you looking at JSCI or? No, I'm just using those terms, Kaloku. Yeah. NASCAR official website
link does not say, and it did last year. Last year, did say round of 12 round. So that's what
threw me off on the schedule. I was expecting to see that and I didn't even click in my head until I
got down to the end of it. I'm like, wait a minute, you can't start the playoffs on November 8th
because you wouldn't finish till January. So yeah, it's really intriguing. And we're just doing the
math counting backwards, you know, counting based on last year. So assuming it's like last year,
then Daytona ends the regular season, Saturday, August 29th. So Labor Day weekend will either be,
it's the first Saturday, first Sunday in September, or first Monday, excuse me.
So I'm looking at the calendar, kind of scrolling ahead here. So the first Monday would be the seventh,
so because the 31st of August was on a Monday. So Labor Day weekend would be to cook out Southern
500, September 6th, that would probably be, that sounds like it'd be the playoffs,
as we said a few minutes ago. So yeah, again, I really am curious about San Diego. I do like,
they did this with Chicago and Sonoma last year. I like the road course, although it's,
I can't remember if last year was the same order where Chicago then Sonoma, I think it was.
I think Sonoma first, I can't recall. But either way, having two road courses back to back,
I think is easier on the teams in terms of car setup. And I know they're different,
I know street course is going to be flatter and bumpier than a road course,
and less predictable because it just is, it's something you can't really practice on and probably,
and regular cars are driving on it all the time. But I still think it's easier on car setup. And
then having, having those two races in California the same week back to back makes travel a little
easier. And they roll, yeah, and they roll their way east through Chicago to the east coast over
the next few weeks. So I'm, I'm sure if you're a NASCAR employee for a team, the travel looks a
little bit less intense. I didn't count the amount of races, but it does seem like there's not a
ton of time off, but there never is a NASCAR. So I don't know, Matthew, we have just a few minutes
left. I don't know if you have anything else you want to add on the, we do have a break again,
July 26, August 9th. I don't think there's an Olympics this year, because we had summer last
year, I believe, or the year before. I know we have winter Olympics coming up, I know they're
every two years now, I think. So it's summer, I want to say was last year. Everything blurs
together for a while as you get older. But yeah, so we have, we do have a slight break.
I think we have one week off between the brickyard and the Iowa corn. So there is a little bit
of a break there. That might just be kind of a, you know, give everyone a reset after the year,
kind of deal. But Matthew, we only have a couple minutes left. So I want to hear
your thoughts on the schedule. And we'll talk more about this one. This topic is going to be,
especially at the playoffs, not being settled. There may be some changes. We may have to hit
this one again in the future. So it's not, this is not a one and done topic, but Matthew, I want to
hear your opinions before we log off. Of course, yeah. And then, I mean, with some of the other,
some of the other series that are associated with NASCAR, like trucks, right? Just as a footnote,
trucks are going to race on the street circuit for the first time. Oh yeah, that's true.
Right. So that's kind of cool. But with the schedule, like for all three of its national
series, I think we're in for a pretty good 2026 with those major changes that we mentioned,
you know, Watkins Glen moving up to May from up to Mother's Day will be interesting in terms of
weather. But the big return of Homestead at the end, the elimination of the Chicago street race
in favor of, you still got one in that, in that market, which is important, that 1.5 mile oval.
Yeah. It's the third largest city in the United States. So we have to keep something in the market
for sure. Got to, got to. So looking forward to it. It's going to be, I think, a really good year.
Yeah. And on a personal note, I don't know for sure if T-Tac will cover
Chicago lane races way too far in advance to think that far ahead. But if we do cover it,
it would be kind of fun. And I might go as a fan if we don't cover it. Just kind of fun to check
it out, check out that speedway. I've driven it as a part of the Richard Petty experience. I've
it's right next to the NHRA drag strip where I have seen in a couple races,
a couple NHRA events. So I'm excited to see Chicago lane. But yeah, and I'm also excited
just to see Brickyard 400 is always a fun race to watch on TV. So having that remaining in the
schedule is great. And excited to, I'm a little bummed or not going to Mexico. That was a kind
of a fun race. I had to, that one, I think I had to miss due to some family commitments. So I had
to watch that later on the DVR, but it was, it was a fun race to watch. And that's kind of a
bummer that we're not going international this year. But yeah, I'm excited to see what happens
with the playoffs. And on that note, we'll, we'll, we'll keep it, keep an open mind and we'll reserve
some time to discuss the playoff format once it's announced. And with that, we'll go ahead and close
out our next NASCAR segment here on the Fifth Valley Cars podcast. Thank you for your time,
Matthew. Thank you, Tim.
That's all for this week's The Truth About Cars podcast. I am Tim Healy, the managing editor,
and you can find us wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find us online at
tthc.com. That's ttech.com of The Truth About Cars, all spelled out dot com. We thank Brian
Raibald and Matthew Guy for their time. And we thank Matt Poskey for editing. Most of all,
we thank you for listening. We'll see you next time.
About this episode
A deep dive into the classic cars predicted to appreciate in value by 2026, featuring insights from Brian Rable of Hagerty. The discussion highlights the Hagerty Bull List, covering iconic models like the Dodge Charger, Miata, and Nissan Skyline GT-R. The episode also touches on the upcoming NASCAR schedule, including key races and potential playoff changes. With a mix of market analysis and automotive enthusiasm, this episode offers valuable insights for collectors and fans alike.
Original notes
Hello and welcome to The Truth About Cars podcast! This week we're looking at the best classic cars to buy this year, NASCAR's 2026 schedule, and windshield-washer fluid.
Brian Rabold from Hagerty talks about the Bull List, which tracks classic cars with rising values. TTAC contributor Matthew Guy and I discuss windshield-washer fluid, and we also look at the 2026 NASCAR schedule.
We thank Brian and Matthew for their time, and Matt Posky for editing. Most of all, we thank you for listening!
We'll see you next time!
The Truth About Cars
TheTruthAboutCars.com
0:00
71:55