Analysis: 2025 Scottsdale Auction Results
Sean Rooks | January 27, 2025

Following hot on the heels of Mecum Kissimmee are the Scottsdale, Arizona auctions, headlined by Barrett-Jackson. While online auctions are undeniably competing with live auctions in today’s marketplace, live auctions are still a bellwether for the performance of the overall market. These sales tend to feature higher-quality consignments as well, though that is changing. In today’s Market Monday, I’ll be recapping the 2025 Scottsdale auction results and sharing my top 5 sales from this year’s events.

Barrett-Jackson is an icon in the collector car live auction world and has been holding car events in Scottsdale since 1971. Nearly 1,000 lots crossed the block over the last week, with around 870 total sales for a sell-through rate of 87%. Dollar volume reached $134 million, which is a $70 million drop compared to last year’s record-breaking event. 2024 featured over 2,000 no reserve cars, however, while this year had a mix of reserve and no-reserve lots.
Compared to Barrett-Jackson, the auctions from Bonhams Cars and RM Sotheby’s were 1/10th of the size and feature more of the European cars that Wolf and Mare specialize in. The RM Sotheby’s event sold 85 of 90 listings for a 94% sell through rate generating $31.4 million.

The tent at Bonhams hosted 77 listings, of which 48 sold for an STR of 62% and a total dollar volume of $5.2 million. Some of the higher-value consignments didn’t meet their reserves — impacting total dollar volume. Bonhams somewhat consistently has STRs in the 60’s.
Wolf and Mare’s Top 5 Sales at Scottsdale
Like Mecum, it wasn’t all doom and gloom in Arizona and some cars managed to buck the trend I’ll summarize in my “Final Thoughts” below. For Scottsdale I decided to focus my tracking on the Rad-era cars built from 1980-2000, so my top 5 sales are pulled from this generation of vehicles.

The E36 M3 is an icon of the 90s and a worthy successor to the E30 generation that preceded it. So many of these cars were used and abused in their “cheap” days that good cars are hard to find. Low miles and rare Evolution examples have been pushing into the $100K range for the last couple of years. This 1995 model year M3 is a standard US model, but it’s a manual transmission car in great condition with just 4,832 miles. While a high price, this feels like a good long-term investment.

With a sale price like this, you’d expect extremely low miles on this 80s rally icon, but no – this car has covered over 20,000 miles. Where it shines is its provenance — it was originally ordered new by the Audi Club of North American president and campaigned in various competitions. For a car with its racing history, it appears to be in lovely condition.

An unmodified military Gelandewagen wouldn’t bring nearly this money, though they are asking hefty prices these days on the European market. This particular ex-serving “Wolf” has been treated to an extensive (and tasteful, in my opinion) nut and bolt restoration. The modifications make this war-fighting four-wheeler much more comfortable as a fun weekend toy, and bidders were impressed.

While this isn’t a standout result for a Porsche 993-generation Carrera S, it’s impressive given the mileage is unknown (and not mentioned by the auction house) and the fact it is equipped with a Tiptronic automatic transmission. Average prices for these cars hover around $100,000. This result is closer to manual transmission money, perhaps due to it being a final year example.

This is my standout sale from all of Scottsdale. Only a custom build can bring this kind of money, and in this case we’re apparently looking at a 1981 Land Rover Santana 109 that’s been modified with custom paint, external roll bar, lighting, interior and more. It interestingly boasts a rebuilt 300TDi rather than some exotic engine swap. The very impressive custom camping trailer was included, but even so this package is exceptionally well-sold.
Final Thoughts
Sadly, I don’t have the technical resources to scrape multiple auction sites and over 1,000 listings to generate my insights (something I hope to soon change), so my analysis is the product of much manual labor. As a result, I choose a cross-section of cars or sometimes a focus area to study. In the case of the 2025 Scottsdale auction results, I selected Rad-era cars from 1980-2000, as they are the next generation of hot collectibles.
Based on my reading of the data, the results from Scottsdale are not inspiring. Most European car sales fell squarely within their market averages from the last 3-6 months. In fact, some Rad icons, like the 1989 Porsche 959 Komfort and 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E Evo II struggled to meet market averages for comparable vehicles.

Looking ahead to the Miami and Amelia Island auctions in March, I am not optimistic that we’re going to see a turnaround in the collector car market for 2025. While the stock market appears to be responding pretty well after this year’s Presidential election, overall economic conditions remain pretty volatile heading into this rest of this year.
Despite this assessment, I’m excited to attend this year’s Spring auctions which have already consigned amazing machinery that’s a cut above what we’ve seen cross the block so far in January.
Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisals, and auction services for buyers and sellers of collector European cars. If you’re interested in acquiring an overseas car, give us a call or drop a line!