This will come as no surprise to enthusiasts who are interested in this sort of thing, but in case you haven’t been paying attention, first-generation Ford Broncos have become bona fide collector’s items in recent years, and values have exploded accordingly. At the top end of the market, three restomod Broncos crossed the Barrett-Jackson auction block in Scottsdale last year, trading for $257,000, $340,000 and $400,000, with the latter two finishing in the top six highest-grossing lots of the entire event. Even before the move away from high-dollar restomods, and before the new one reintroduced the name for a whole new generation, the first-generation Bronco has been appreciated for years.
hagerty In 2020 the average “good” condition price was reported to be around $40,100, while most later generations had an average used price of $10,000. And indeed, a cursory look at the nice first-generation Broncos sold bring a trailer The past two years have rarely seen prices drop below brand new, while clean, desirable, restored examples regularly trade for six figures.
The old Bronco has the newest accessory
Furthermore, the Bronco craze has recently reached a new peak, especially among a specific demographic of women. wall street journal A feature ran in June titled “The Expensive Accessory Every ‘Hot Girl’ Wants: An Old, Loud SUV”, nodding to the hero image of a green 1976 Bronco that was acquired by its young, affluent female owner for approximately $125,000. Naturally, Kim Kardashian made car website headlines a few weeks ago after spending $285,000 on a Velocity restomod ’73 Bronco with a Coyote V8, and she’s hardly the first or only celebrity to have a vintage Bronco in her collection.
The appeal of the first generation Ford Bronco is similar to the appeal of any other classic car. That simple, boxy, timeless shape is so iconic that Ford couldn’t help but take heavy inspiration from it when designing the current one. It’s nostalgic, it’s simple, and – it must be said – an antidote to modern cars that have long since become a little bulky, insulated, and connected to the Internet.
Bronco value is simple economics
The simple fact is that OG Broncos are relatively rare, Ford is apparently no longer building them, and an increase in resale value was inevitable. Supply is low, and demand has increased, so prices naturally rise. There is also the notion that collectibility begets collectibility. Once something is flagged as a potential investment, values rise even higher as word spreads and people who might not otherwise be interested in a 60-year-old Ford try to snag one for their retirement funds and have something to tell everyone about it at dinner parties.
Then again, an old Ford Bronco has become to off-roading what the air-cooled Porsche 911 is to performance (or demonstrative) driving. You’d be hard-pressed to find one in the extreme environments it was originally built for, but it has become a standard-issue classic car for those who want to relive simpler, more analog times. And like all good things in life it feels like it’s becoming harder to get into unless you have enough money.
