The annual Bull Market edition of the Hagerty Drivers Club magazine is a large undertaking.

All year long, we collect data from our Automotive Intelligence team about patterns we see in the vast pool (more than 2.5 million) of cars we insure. We also examine the demographics of Hagerty’s new insurance customers (some 275,000 last year). Then we look to our media teams for trends in viewership across all our channels—did you know subscribers to our YouTube channel spent 9.4 million hours watching in 2024 and that we produce more than 3000 pieces of automotive content all year? Once we chew over the trends and select the cars that will appear on the Bull Market List, we start scouring for examples of each car for photography and video, convincing Hagerty Drivers Club members to let us borrow their treasures for a couple days.

A bonus is hanging out with the members during the photoshoot at Lime Rock Park. This year, one member, a youthful 80-year-old named Eric, couldn’t help himself and took off for a hot lap of the track in his 1963 Jaguar E-Type before anyone could object, proving it’s always better to ask forgiveness than for permission. (We don’t blame you, Eric! Take me with you next time.)

The Honda Prelude represents the rising appeal of ’90s and Japanese cars.James Lipman
Many of this year’s car owners were younger than at previous shoots, affirming the results of our most recent Future of Driving Survey, which found that 60 percent of Gen Zers (born between 1997 and 2012) would like to own a collector car and 77 percent said they love or like driving.

Pretty great, right? The future is indeed bright for this shared passion of ours, and that’s saying something considering its current size: There are roughly 46 million collector cars in the U.S. alone. But good things don’t last by accident. It takes effort. Two things need to be done. First, we have to continually renew our love of cars by actively taking part in the hobby. Second, we all should be helping others grasp why we love these contraptions so much.

With that in mind, I offer a few resolutions to help us keep the fire alive in ourselves and light it in others in 2025. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I hereby resolve to:

Take at least one road trip this year. I can’t tell you how many people I know who say “this is the year” they’re going to drive around the Great Lakes or to the top of Pikes Peak, but they don’t. Just do it. Life is short.

Involve your kids or a young person in your car life. My dad had an agreement with my sisters and me. If we picked out a car, he would help us fix it up. When I was 13, I chose a ’67 Porsche 911 S that we found in pieces in a snowbank behind a barn. I bought it for $500. Rebuilding it with Dad forged an incredible bond between us. Find a young person in your life and bring them along for a ride or a visit to a car show. Better yet, involve them in a restoration project.

“Stick it.” Understanding how to operate a manual transmission is a dying art. If you’re a manual enthusiast, pass it on to someone who isn’t. I taught two of my daughters—and many others—and the smiles on their faces when they got it were priceless.

Community, community, community. Keep your love alive by building friendships with like-minded people. Go to car shows or events like Hagerty’s RADwood. Attend a concours d’elegance like The Amelia, or Greenwich, or Pebble Beach to see the best cars ever produced. That will fire you up. Or start a local car group based on your favorite vehicle.

Start a car tour. Gather a group of car friends and drive somewhere fun for a couple days. Hagerty Media chief Larry Webster hosts a casual tour each autumn in southern Ohio where the roads are extra twisty and challenging. Attendees drive all day and recap the highlights and/or breakdowns all evening. “Everyone loves it,” he says. We will be publishing ideas on our strategies for planning a tour with some great route ideas.

I hope you adopt two or three of these resolutions. Or heck, all of them. That’s how we grow the hobby. No one else is going to do it. It’s up to us.

Drop me a note if you have a resolution to share. Until next time, keep on driving.