Buyer Beware: The New “Nest Egg” Sales Pitch

Incurring debt for a car has been around for decades. But taking on debt for a non–blue chip collector car, pitched as an “investment”? Houston, we have a problem.

Mecum Auctions recently ran an advertorial with a clear pitch: Buy your dream car while you’re young. If you can’t afford it, financing will make it easy. One day, it could even be your nest egg.

At first glance, the message seems harmless. But beneath the glossy promise is something more troubling. As a culture, we’ve normalized debt for houses, vacations, and daily transportation. Now that same logic is seeping into hobbies.

The collector car world isn’t new to financing — many enthusiasts borrow for purchases or aftermarket parts. What’s new, and unsettling, is the packaging: marketing “hope” to young, often inexperienced buyers by framing their hobby as a smart financial move. Add the amplification of social media — a constant feed of “you deserve it” messaging — and the pressure to equate passion with investment becomes harder to resist.

Yes, some cars have yielded extraordinary returns. At Bonhams in Monterey, a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL — purchased in 1969 for just $1,500 — was expected to bring between $1.3 and $1.5 million before it was withdrawn from auction. On paper, that’s a staggering return. But what’s missing from the equation are decades of restoration costs, upkeep, and risk. The truth is, very few enthusiasts strike that kind of gold, and most cars will never be blue-chip investments.

Meanwhile, the broader market looms large. The auction segment generates billions annually, peaking at $3.57 billion in 2022, according to Hagerty, and 2025 sales are pacing in line. At the same time, Bloomberg reports that mainstream consumers are increasingly turning to seven-year loans just to afford basic transportation. If these are the terms for necessity, what happens when hobby financing becomes the norm?

Auction houses know their traditional buyers are aging out, and younger collectors are fewer in number. To sustain growth, the industry is leaning on financing — one of the highest-margin tools available. And young enthusiasts, eager but financially unseasoned, are prime targets.

Dream cars should be driven, not sold as guaranteed nest eggs. And when a sales pitch dresses debt up as destiny, the oldest advice in the book still applies: buyer beware.