The classic car market is one of the most impenetrable when it comes to expanding your investment portfolio. With gold, wine and fine art having an independent market which makes tracking your investment possible, classic cars were, until now, a mystery to most of the world.
In 2007 Dietrich Hatlapa, a classic car lover and banker, decided to increase his classic car collection only to find that there was no distinguishable price-performance data to help with his investment decisions and compare proposed acquisitions with other assets.
The HAGI (Historic Automobile Group International) was born. With the aid of former ING Baring Securities colleagues, among others, he sought out top flight expertise and began to analyse the market in microscopic detail.
The findings were remarkable, with patterns in the classic car market becoming clear, similarly to other investment tracking indicators. Traditional market investors armed themselves with an abundance of information but classic car investors and collectors seemed to base their buying decisions on opinion and hunches.
The HAGI index allows potential buyers to quantify the financial element of buying a classic vehicle, whilst enjoying the car for its more obvious merits.
It took years for the initial thirty eight models to be identified, compiled by going back to 1980 and using available historical data, which represent the top segment of the car market for collectors.
To qualify for inclusion in the index, now encompassing 50 cars, the vehicle in question must meet specific criteria such as having an individual value of no less than £100,000, be established amongst its own community of collectors and cannot have had more than 1000 models built, to name but a few.