Arizona Car Week 2026 By The Numbers
Hi Friends!
I’ve said it before in this newsletter and I’ll probably continue to say it (over and over again) as long as I keep doing it: I love to be wrong. A lot of what I do here is make sweeping predictions about things, so it does happen pretty regularly. With this said, I was definitely wrong about Arizona Car Week in 2026.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote in detail about the sophomore slump that a lot of events tend to suffer from. I was pretty convinced that was going to happen here too. Although a little stressful down the home stretch leading in, it definitely didn’t. From the elegance of the Arizona Concours to the pure insanity of Mr. Z’s Euro Night there was not a single event that failed during car week 2026. In fact, nearly all of them exceeded expectations significantly. Every night there was something to be excited about and the energy on the ground was fantastic as a result. Every genre from young timers and import tuners, to supercars, to European classics, to muscle cars, to art, motorcycles and everything in between, there was something for everybody and each event was an unforgettable experience. The highlights of the week for me were really the Arizona Concours d’Elegance, Arthouse Collective, Wood and Wheels, Mr. Z’s Euro Night (basically a block party takeover with a punk rock band – 100% up my alley) and of course the auctions.
Although, there’s still a lot of data floating around out there, our initial in house numbers (taken between January 16-25) speak volumes:
1,145,000 views on social media
310,000 views to the website
43 public events over 10 days
The overall auction results are no joke either (with 2025 results for context):
2026 Arizona car week overall results:
Cumulative total: $269,200,000
Lots offered vs sold: 2,056 offered / 2,044 sold
Average sale price (overall): $131,703
2025 Arizona car week overall results:
Cumulative total: $229,634,160
Lots offered vs sold: 2,180 offered / 2,150 sold
Average sale price (overall): $106,807
Top 10 sales:
- 2003 Ferrari Enzo — $9,300,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 1995 Ferrari F50 — $8,805,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari — $5,477,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 2024 Bugatti Chiron Super Sport ‘Éléphant Blanc’ — $5,065,000 (Bonhams)
- 2005 Porsche Carrera GT — $3,085,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 2026 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X Stars & Steel Limited Edition — $2,600,000 (Barrett-Jackson)
- 1988 Porsche 959 — $2,535,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupe — $2,530,000 (Barrett-Jackson)
- 1993 Porsche 911 Turbo S Lightweight — $2,480,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
- 2012 Ferrari LaFerrari Prototype P2 — $2,425,000 (RM Sotheby’s)
Here’s the house by house breakdown:
RM Sotheby’s
2026 Cumulative Total: $63,000,000
90/84 lots sold: 93% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $750,000
2025 Cumulative Total: $31,634,160
90/85 lots sold: 94% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $369,280
I got to hand it to RM. More so than anyone else, I think they got the message at the end of January 2025. When speaking to staff members before the Arizona sale last year, there was a lot of feet dragging and a lot of staring at the ground. Last year’s docket primarily consisted of leftover cars from Hershey and like virtually everyone else, they sort of assumed that Arizona Car Week was probably dead and quite honestly seemed really surprised by the results they achieved (which were up about 30% from what they got in 2024). This said, they took notice and came to play in 2026 and the results showed. Once again, they were back to their more traditional setup at the wonderful, Frank Lloyd Wright designed Arizona Biltmore, they brought outstanding cars and delivered serious results. In fact, this is the best Arizona showing that RM Sotheby’s has ever had in their 26 years in the desert in January.
Bonhams Cars
2026 Cumulative Total: $11,000,000
55/49 lots sold: 89% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $223,904
2025 Cumulative Total: $5,200,000
77/52 lots sold: 68% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $104,843
Bonham’s Cars is another one who I think learned a lot from 2025. Let’s be perfectly honest here, their 2025 showing was pretty dismal and there were definitely concerns coming into 2026. Although, there was a lot that was unclear leading up to the event from my perspective and I think some questions regarding the venue set up, as well as a little bit shorter in consignment numbers, Bonham’s came with better cars, a beautifully rebranded block and much better lay out. Additionally, I think sliding into that afternoon slot on Friday worked really well for them as the room seemed enthusiastic and the cars that they had on offer were largely doing what they were supposed to be doing on the block. This said, I do think that there still is quite a bit of room for improvement with Bonham’s, but they’ve shown a clear commitment to Arizona and the community will most assuredly reward them for that long-term. This was a good sale, really great preview days and the results were solid.
Barrett-Jackson
2026 Cumulative Total: $195,200,000
1,911/1,911 lots sold: 100% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $102,157
2025 Cumulative Total: $192,800,000
2,013/2,013 lots sold: 100% sell-through rate
Average Sale Price: $95,770
The story at Barrett-Jackson was the same, but just a little different. Big crowds, lots of commerce and extremely busy during weekend one and early on during the week, but it slowed down a lot towards the second weekend (for which there was a very clear explanation that will get to down below). Additionally, there was a lot of grumblings on the streets and at events around the valley of what a poor idea the fall auction continues to be. It was difficult to deny this reality when deep diving into their January 2026 docket. Overall, the catalog definitely looked weaker than last year and almost all of the notable cars showed up in machine gun fashion towards the beginning of January or later. Overall, they were down a total of 102 cars. I think the easy scapegoat for this from their perspective would be Mecum in Kissimmee. There’s no doubt that was an impressive number of cars with exceptional high quality across the top especially. However again, industry chatter continues to question the impact of the fall auction. Many on the ground felt the catalog appeared less, leading to a debate on whether the market can support two Arizona shows from the same house in such close proximity.
All of this aside however, this auction was a successful one. Less cars, bigger numbers, better averages. Barrett-Jackson still remains a force, a significant lifestyle destination experience and it would be foolish to think otherwise. They once again absolutely accomplished what they needed to here and once again, did it in a manner that continues to reinforce the ecosystem that they have created within the walls of Westworld of Scottsdale. Simply put, things that happen at Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale in January don’t happen anywhere else and it’s because of this.
Ice, Ice Baby
Although this didn’t really seem to affect RM Sotheby’s and Bonham’s much and it definitely didn’t affect event attendance on the ground around the valley, ice storms in Texas, parts of the Midwest and on the East Coast probably did real damage to the overall sales numbers at Barrett-Jackson. Observed attendance thinned out towards the end of the week and on and around Super Saturday and this pretty universally seemed to be the culprit from follow up I received too. People were afraid they weren’t going to be able to get home due to the mass number of flight cancellations that were occurring, so people left early. At this point, I think we all need to sort of come to expect that there’s going to be a weather challenge somewhere around all these automotive events during this month, but it’s still difficult not to ask what if? Barrett-Jackson’s all-time sales result occurred in 2024 (on 2,016 cars) and they were only $5 million away from that on 1,911 this year. If we would have had a little bit more favorable weather across the larger parts of the country, would they have beaten this? I think the answer to this is probably yes. Not quite a foul ball of course, but also not the grand slam that it maybe could have been.
Overall takeaway
Calling Arizona Car Week anything other than exceptionally successful in 2026 I think would be an understatement. 43 packed events, tons of auction records, an all-time best overall for RM Sotheby’s, a really solid redemption arc for Bonham’s, a week long highlight reel for Barrett-Jackson and most importantly, a ton of happy people, all who were having a great time, running around everywhere, Despite being sandwiched by a significant auction in Florida and an expanding footprint in Paris, there is still clearly an appetite for a broader type of event series (IE something more than just an auction or a single entity controlled environment) in the United States (aside from Monterey of course) and Arizona ultimately still serves that purpose better than anyone.
Additionally, it was once again made crystal clear that the average age of the Arizona Car Week enthusiast has dropped considerably. Supercars have replaced muscle cars and mid-century classics as the central component of the week and this has become a playground for Gen X and Millennials who are passionate about cars as a result. The generational shift that we’ve been talking about for so long has clearly occurred and is now safely in the rear view. Not only the auction results, but the events on the ground spoke to this and the market is now listening without a doubt. This is a very good thing for the market and for Arizona Car Week overall.
For me personally however, the most important takeaway remains the same. It’s all about community. The reason we’re able to have what we have in Arizona has nothing to do with weather, logistics or anything else. The exceptional car community here makes all this possible. Whereas events like Monterey are more about individual prestige, Arizona really is more of a party and that’s a good thing. Having bookend gatherings with individual identities, keeps the car community viable and enjoyable and at the end of the day, that’s really what matters most. This is supposed to be fun and last week was a really, really good time.
That’s it for this week……
Darin Roberge