5 Classic Cars From The 1950s With High Resale Value

The '50s saw a wave of major changes affect the American auto market, with U.S. carmakers branching out with a wider variety of new models as a result of the post-war carmaking boom. Towards the end of the decade, buyer tastes rapidly changed again in response to the Suez crisis, again forcing automakers to adapt in order to remain competitive. Throughout all these changes, manufacturers from both the U.S. and abroad churned out a wide range of desirable cars, many of which remain in high demand with collectors today.

Buyers looking for a '50s classic that will retain its value have plenty of options to choose from. No matter whether they're looking for an open-top sports car or a classy boulevard cruiser, there's something for everyone. We think these five classics are a particularly safe bet for holding their resale value based on their current auction sales volume, with consistently strong demand over the course of the last 12 months. Each has an average sale price of between $50,000 and $150,000, based on Classic's latest auction data.

Chevrolet's first attempt at making a dedicated sports car paved the way for American sports cars to come, but the company didn't get the formula entirely right the first time around. When the C1 first launched in 1953, it featured a six-cylinder engine rather than its now-customary V8, and it took famed engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov to convince GM bosses that the car needed two additional cylinders.

In 1955, the first V8-powered Corvette debuted, with Arkus-Duntov immediately setting out to prove its worth by entering it into national motorsports events, including the hill climb at Pikes Peak, where it set a new record. Over the following years, Chevrolet continued to tweak the C1 to appeal to changing buyer tastes, gradually giving the car more power over the course of its production run.

Everyone has their own opinion on which generation of the Corvette represents the peak of the model, but for plenty of enthusiasts, the original is still the best. Collectors looking to buy their own will need a suitably healthy bank balance, since Classic data shows the average sale price for the model has remained high over the past year. At the time of writing, the average C1 sells for $106,203. A batch of ultra-high value C1 Corvettes sold at a single Barrett-Jackson auction early in 2025, which pushed the car's average price particularly high for a short period of time. However, year-over-year, the C1 has still appreciated in value in the 12 months leading up to December 2025, according to Classic data.

It might not quite boast the sales volume of the C1 Corvette, but the '57 and '58 Cadillac Eldorado remains a similarly safe bet for retaining value based on recent auction data. According to Classic, the car sold for an average of $114,990 over the past 12 months, with two particularly pristine examples selling for more than $200,000 in 2025. Multiple variants of the car were available, with the Brougham sedan and Biarritz convertible both being particularly valuable to collectors.

GM reportedly lost money on every example of the Eldorado built, despite the fact that it costed more than a Rolls-Royce of the era. To say that the Cadillac was well-equipped was an understatement; The car came with everything a buyer could want and then some, with complimentary extras including a vanity set, a high-end stationary set, and designer perfume.

The Eldorado nameplate remains one of Cadillac's best-loved to date, and some enthusiasts have called for it to return as a range-topping luxury barge. Unfortunately, that's extremely unlikely to happen, since it would require far more investment than GM would likely ever be able to claw back from sales. As a result, buying a classic Eldorado remains the only way that collectors are able to experience what's considered by some to be the pinnacle of traditional American luxury.

Today, Buick's cars are made in a variety of global factories, with China being the brand's largest market. It remains under the ownership of American auto giant GM, but it isn't primarily a brand focused towards American buyers. The modern brand has evolved a very long way from its roots, but it was originally founded by Scottish inventor David Dunbar Buick before being bought out by GM's founder, William Crapo Durant. By the '50s, Buick already had a long, storied history of producing cars, with the '53 Skylark being designed to commemorate the brand's 50th anniversary.

The '53 Skylark was a very rare car even when it was new, with only 1,640 examples being sold for a base price of $4,596. Today, it's even rarer, and that rarity, combined with the car's special place in the brand's history, has helped keep its resale value strong. The car has sold for an average of $93,327 over the past year, according to Classic data, with two examples for sale at a fixed price of over $150,000 at the time of writing.

Forming part of Chevrolet's famous Tri-Five models, every model year of the 1955-'57 Bel Air remains popular with collectors today. Each model year was subject to incremental changes, but all formed part of the car's second generation. The exact model year and variant will play a significant role in any example's valuation, with convertibles being particularly desirable to enthusiasts. The cleanest examples of the convertible Bel Air can sell for over $100,000, but on average, the car fetches $68,884, according to Classic.

The car launched in 1955 with a choice of six-cylinder and V8 engines, with V8-powered cars also benefitting from optional air conditioning. Various tweaks were made for 1956, with the Bel Air's styling updated and its base-spec six-cylinder engine discontinued. The arrival of the 1957 model year brought another styling change, with both the exterior and interior receiving a makeover. Its engine range also saw further changes, with a new range-topping V8 available that offered 245 horsepower in roadgoing spec or up to 270 horsepower in competition spec.

The Jaguar XK120 debuted in the late '40s, but remained in production until 1954. It was available both as a coupe and a roadster, with the latter being slightly more valuable today. According to Classic, buyers looking for their own XK120 Roadster can expect to pay an average of $92,779 based on the previous 12 months' auction sales.

However, buyers on a tighter budget might still be able to get their hands on one, since several have appeared for sale over that period with varying degrees of work required. The cheapest of those sold for just $24,000 at auction, although it required a full — and undoubtedly costly — restoration to make it roadworthy.

With a 3.4-liter six-cylinder engine under the hood and timeless looks, the XK120 remains arguably one of the best Jaguars of all time. It also briefly held the record for the world's fastest production car. It retained the crown until 1953, when it was beaten by the Pegaso Z-102, a little-remembered Spanish sports car.