Welcome to the ‘gist

Hi this is Anthony, Co-Founder of Garagist. To keep the inner sanctum in the loop, we’ve decided to start a newsletter. We’ll periodically highlight updates from our world as well as insights on the collector car market at large.

The Bridge VIII

For this first edition, we’re still thinking about our weekend in The Hamptons at the eighth edition of The Bridge. The Bridge is now widely considered one of the marquis events on the East Coast car calendar, if not all of North America. Some folks even said it was up there with The Quail, but we’ll reserve further judgment until we make it out to Monterey next year!

Here are a few takeaways from this year’s event:

• Conversations about value & cars as investments are impossible to escape — Everyone is talking about what’s a hold, buy, or sell. Most discussions are led in this manner. That’s just the new normal.

• Everyone is starting a car fund — You can be Drift Capital. You can be the billionaire I spoke to getting some friends together to throw in $25M each. Everyone is looking for diversification.

• “Experiential investments” — Investors are of course interested in buying cars for their significant upside. But they’re also validating these purchases because of what they represent “experientially”. They consider them as something they can also behold as rolling art, not just a line item in a portfolio.

• Demographics are changing — We are in the midst of the biggest generational wealth transfer in history. Interest in cars is booming amongst Gen-Zs & Millenials. Gen-Xers are entering peak earning years. The average age of new collector car buyers is now in their 40s and it shows at events like The Bridge.

• A lot of these folks are financing their cars in big ways — One dealer I spoke to said that it wasn’t uncommon for a client to call them up and say: “I just accessed a $10M line of credit, what cars should I buy for my collection?”. Others told us of $200K/month financing on a fleet of vehicles customers were holding as investments. These buyers are savvy and open to exploring novel ways of purchasing & financing their cars.

• The nature of taste-making in the industry is changing — Traditionally, auction houses, dealers, and collectors have dictated the narratives of what is in or out. Now, Gen-Z & Millennial content creators are having a huge impact on what is in fashion. An E36 M3 and Integra Type R on the show-field of a private member’s club in The Hamptons? This is an obvious sign of the young generation’s impact, and it’s just the beginning. Creators will continue to build visibility for their preferred vehicles of interest. Visibility attracts attention, and attention builds value & power.

When someone like Doug DeMuro reviews one of these cars, comments like “oh now I’ll never be able to afford one”, quickly pile up. It's an obvious example of the bump in visibility and value that comes along with this newfound coverage.

^{_{Lastly, here are our three favourite picks from The Bridge VIII:}}

Moment of Zen

Meanwhile, while I was busy hobnobbing at The Bridge, Co-Founder Amit was keeping things sideways instructing for the BMW club at Calabogie Motorsports Park…

Until next!