The Daily Vroom

Good morning Vroomers,

Another busy day on the auction block, especially at the higher end. A handful of six-figure cars grabbing the headlines like usual.

Zoom out though and the broader market looks pretty normal. Average transaction value across all platforms came in at $41k, basically right in that same $40–45k range we lived in most of last year.

Steady. Healthy. Nothing dramatic. One thing that stood out: Hagerty hasn’t really shown up on our market leaderboard this year.

They were a regular fixture late last year, but the volume just hasn’t been there to feature. That should change next week with the Burnyzz collection continuing, which will give them a bump.

After that, it’s the harder part. Can they, and everyone else, consistently bring a healthy amount of quality listings a day without leaning on a big event?

Because buyers don’t just appear. Platforms have to work for them. Every day. Inventory, marketing, trust, repeat sellers. It’s all connected.

The ones that keep feeding the flywheel stay relevant. The rest fade fast.

We’ll see who sticks.

MARKET LEADERBOARD

💰 The figures shared below don’t count any other sales such as car seats, memorabilia etc… All online auction sites are analyzed to put this leaderboard together.

I only include websites that have sold 5+ vehicles in the chart below.

YESTERDAY’S TOP 5 SALES

Want to dive deeper into any of these listings? Just click on the car to take you directly to the listing.

Sale of the Day

Miata’s always create the same weird divide in the comments. Half the room shrugs and says it’s slow, the other half quietly knows it’s one of the most fun cars you can buy at any price, and after watching years of auctions I’m firmly in the second camp because once you actually drive one hard, you get it.

They’re not about horsepower or flexing numbers. They’re about feel.

Light weight, hydraulic steering, a proper manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive, and just enough power to use all of it without doing something stupid. It’s one of the last affordable cars where you can wring it out on a normal road and feel like a hero without ever breaking triple digits, and that’s exactly why the formula has survived for 35 years while everything else has gotten heavier, faster, and more numb.

This one was the sweet spot spec too. A 2011 NC2 Grand Touring Special Edition with the power-folding hardtop, 6-speed manual, Bilsteins, limited-slip, heated seats, and all the grown-up comfort stuff that makes it usable every day instead of feeling like a weekend toy. On top of that it’s done just 28,000 miles, stayed basically stock, and clearly lived an easy life, which is increasingly rare with Miatas since so many end up tracked, modified, or simply driven into the ground like they were meant to be.

It hammered down at $18,500 no reserve, and all things considered I think the buyer quietly got the better side of this one, not dramatically but enough that you walk away smiling. Call it 60/40 buyer.

Because the NC sits in this funny place in the market where it’s still undervalued.

The early NA and NB cars get all the nostalgia and collector energy, the ND gets the “new and shiny” crowd, and the NC just kind of flies under the radar even though it’s arguably the most livable Miata of the bunch. You still get the old-school hydraulic steering feel everyone loves, but you also get more space, better refinement, and with the power hardtop you suddenly have a car you can actually use year-round without dealing with soft-top compromises. It’s less precious, more practical, and in real life that often makes it the better car to own.

And then there’s the math. Under twenty grand today barely buys you anything interesting, yet here you’ve got a low-mile, manual, rear-drive sports car with real character and almost zero running cost drama. Try finding another modern-ish enthusiast car that checks all those boxes at this price point. Most alternatives are either front-wheel drive, automatic, or feel like an appliance with a warranty.

This still feels like a car. The kind you take the long way home in for no reason, the kind that makes a back road fun at 45 mph, the kind that reminds you why you liked driving in the first place.

Seller did fine. Strong, fair result. But if I’m the buyer and I just snagged this spec, this mileage, at this number, I’m feeling like I made out pretty well.

Which, honestly, is exactly how buying a Miata should feel.

Auctions To Keep An Eye On

This is one of those listings that doesn’t jump off the page at first, but the deeper you go, the more interesting it gets.

At a glance it’s just a 1984 190E. Small motor. Automatic. The kind of car most people mentally file under “nice old Benz” and keep scrolling. But this one has a very different story.

It was ordered new in Stuttgart, later shipped to Hawaii with its original owner, then sat for years before ending up in Missouri, where it basically became a long-term project. When the timing chain failed, instead of doing the minimum, the owner went all in. The car came apart and stayed apart for years. Full engine rebuild with upgraded cams and exhaust, suspension, brakes, paint, interior refresh, proper BRABUS bodywork, the right wheels. Over $55k in receipts, almost all OEM or BRABUS parts.

Not a quick flip. Not a body kit. A slow, methodical, do-it-once-do-it-right build that stretched from 2010 to 2016.

That’s usually how the best cars happen. Someone just keeps refining it until there’s nothing left to fix.

Which is why the current bid feels disconnected from the effort. It’s sitting at $10k, basically used Corolla money, for a fully sorted, documented, Euro-spec BRABUS 190E with just 23k miles! That being said it’s still early in the auction and I’m sure bids will follow.

The market still treats these like old entry-level Benzes, but the people who know tuner-era Mercedes understand how rare it is to see one this complete and this well documented.

It’s also the kind of car that only really works in an online auction setting. Too niche for a normal classifieds site, too subtle for a big live auction. But put it in front of the right audience and suddenly the handful of buyers who actually get it can find it.

And that’s exactly where something like this belongs.

This BMW Alpina XB7 is just a really well-judged spec, and that’s half the battle with something like an Alpina XB7. On the surface it’s a big luxury SUV, but anyone who’s spent time around these knows they’re something else entirely. Alpina has a way of taking an already capable BMW and turning it into something that feels smaller, faster, and more special than the numbers suggest. Six hundred plus horsepower, three rows, air suspension, all the luxury you could want, and it still moves like a sports sedan when you lean on it. It’s one of those vehicles that only really makes sense once you’ve driven one.

What stands out here is how straightforward the story is. One owner. Dry-climate Arizona and Nevada life. Unmodified. No experiments, no aftermarket guesses, just a clean truck that’s been serviced properly and left alone. Tanzanite over Ivory and Night Blue is exactly how you’d want to spec one too, understated but expensive-looking, which fits the whole Alpina personality better than anything loud ever could. The service history reads the right way as well, just normal maintenance handled on time, nothing dramatic.

I also always like seeing independent voices add context in the comments. When someone local chimes in about the reputation of the shop that did the PPF and ceramic work, or another owner explains why these trucks go through rear pads quicker than expected, that kind of third-party perspective carries more weight than anything the seller could say. It’s the stuff you only really get in a strong online auction community, and it quietly builds confidence.

As you know, we’re big wagon fans over here at The Daily Vroom, and this one is exactly the kind of long-roof chaos that BaT seems to attract at its best. It’s a 1990 Buick Estate Wagon that was fully refurbished and turned into an LS3-powered restomod with a ton of engineering underneath the familiar woodgrain silhouette, and it’s being offered no reserve with the proceeds going to The Styrke Foundation for rare disease research and treatment.

That charity angle matters, and I’m always a fan of these auctions when they’re done this way. It takes something already fun and turns it into something that actually has impact. BaT is donating the buyer’s fee too, which is the right move, and it changes the tone of the whole listing. People still debate the build, the details, the taste level, because of course they do, but the end goal is bigger than whether you would have chosen the same headliner or the same screen in the dash.

What makes the car itself work is the contrast.

From ten feet away it still reads like the wagon your friend’s parents had in the driveway, but underneath it’s modern muscle: LS3 power, six-speed automatic, big brakes, upgraded suspension and steering, and the kind of custom work that takes far more time than most people want to admit. It’s not trying to be a museum piece. It’s trying to be the ultimate sleeper family truckster, the thing you take to Cars and Coffee and instantly become the guy everyone talks to.

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