Asset Classic maps the hidden economy keeping classics alive

Asset Classic has mapped the architecture of an industry that rarely finds itself under scrutiny: the sprawling network of classic car workshops that sustain the passion of collectors worldwide. Their census of 2,624 restoration facilities across 53 countries paints a portrait of a sector generating €25 to 30 billion annually, yet built almost entirely on the shoulders of small, founder led enterprises working with profound uncertainty about their own succession.

The numbers carry an urgent gravity. Seventy nine per cent of these workshops turn over less than €1 million annually. More than ninety per cent remain in the hands of their founders or family members. Yet sixty four per cent of owners expect to retire within a decade, and the industry has done little to attract and nurture younger craftspeople to replace them. Parts sourcing, labour hours and access to skilled technicians are the three pressures collectors describe most acutely, and without deliberate intervention, these strains will only intensify as knowledge holders step away.

The research, presented at The Classics Forum 2026 in St. Moritz, cuts through the romantic nostalgia that typically surrounds classic car culture to examine its actual mechanics: the workshops where engines are rebuilt with methodical precision, where bodywork is coaxed back to its original contours, where the accumulated experience of decades of hands on restoration lives in the muscle memory of aging technicians. Asset Classic’s work serves as both archive and warning, documenting the quietly essential sector that keeps collections moving forward while time remains to strengthen its foundations.

Imagery courtesy of Asset Classic (@asset.classic).