At $1.9 Million, Porsche Carrera GT Sets Online Sale Record

(Bloomberg) -- A 2005 Porsche Carrera GT has sold for $1.9 million on the car auction website Bring a Trailer. 

The $1,902,000 final sale on Jan. 5 set a world record for the highest amount of money paid at auction for the V10 supercar. It also set the record for the highest amount of money ever spent on any vehicle at BAT. The second-highest-selling vehicle at BAT was a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster that sold for $1,430,356 last July. 

“We knew that this was a special car,” says Randy Nonnenberg, the co-founder and president of BAT. “A lot of people think it is one of the best ones out there, and there is a lot of heat around that model right now. A lot of appreciation for the model has built in the last year or two, so it was just right in the cross hairs of the right vehicle at the right time in front of the right audience.”

The sale of the car comes in quick succession to the previous world-record-holding Carrera GT, a silver one which sold for $1.3 million on BAT last September. That car broke a $1.21 million sale record that had been set just a month earlier at a Mecum auction in Monterey. “Driver-focused analog exotic cars are in higher than ever demand everywhere,” Hagerty’s Andrew Newton said, by way of explanation. 

Values of the Carrera GT have risen drastically in recent years, with the highest values hovering around $900,000 in 2019 and 2020. Insurer Hagerty lists the current average value of a 2005 Carrera GT at $1 million. Those examples in concours-level condition can be expected to take $1.5 million.

Brian Rabold, the vice president of Automotive Intelligence at Hagerty, says the Carrera GT has basically doubled in value over the past five years, “so a special car like the CGT—in a great color like Guards Red and in great condition—surpassing our current top value isn’t surprising.” Likely fewer than 50 examples in Guards Red were built for North America, compared to more than 400 cars in silver, and at least 100 in black, Rabold continues.

The ultra-low mileage of just 780 miles driven on the red Carrera GT proved its most alluring feature. Originally delivered to an importer in Littleton, Colo., it is one of just 1,270 examples built during a four-year production run of the sportscar, and among the lowest-milage of any still existing.

Another point of allure was the structure of the sale; unlike established auction houses that require double-digit buyers’ and sellers’ premiums, BAT required only a $5,000 fee paid by the buyer. BAT’s online structure requires sellers to pay a single $99 listing fee no matter the price of the car, with the option to add special photo services for an additional $250. Buyers pay a 5% fee on top of the final sale price to BAT,  capped at $5,000.

“The fact that you can sell an almost $2 million car with a $5,000 fee, that is good for everybody,” Nonnenberg says. “We think it’s great. The buyer thinks it’s great. The seller thinks it’s great. And it establishes the real value of the car. So everybody is happy with that.”

Eli Kogan, the owner of Otto Car Club, represented the vehicle on behalf of its owner, who preferred to remain anonymous. 

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