The 2000s Classic Cars
The first wave of true 21st-century collectibles.
Cars from the 2000s are only now entering serious collector territory. Limited-production performance models from this decade — early Z06 Corvettes, the first-generation Nissan 350Z, the Dodge Viper SRT-10 — are appreciating as the generation that grew up wanting them starts buying, following the same pattern that made 1980s and 1990s cars collectible a decade or two after they were new.
Notable Models
Cadillac Eldorado
1953–2002Introduced in 1953 as a limited-production, hand-finished convertible flagship, the Eldorado spent nearly fifty years as Cadillac's most prestigious nameplate. It's best known for the 1959 model — home to the tallest tailfins ever fitted to a production car — and for the 1967 switch to a front-wheel-drive personal luxury coupe platform that redefined what the name meant for the next three decades.
Dodge Viper
1992–2017The Viper was conceived by Bob Lutz and Carroll Shelby as a spiritual successor to the Cobra — brutal, analog, and unapologetically extreme. Its 8.0-liter V10 produced 400 hp at launch and grew to 645 hp by the final generation. The ACR (American Club Racer) variants set production car lap records at tracks worldwide. No car captures the raw American performance ethos more directly.
Land Rover Defender
1983–2016Introduced in 1983 as the One Ten and 1984 as the Ninety (named for their wheelbase in inches), the range adopted the "Defender" name in 1990 to distinguish it from the new Discovery. It carried the Series III's basic formula into the modern era with coil-spring suspension and permanent four-wheel drive.
Mazda Miata / MX-5
1989–2005Launched for 1990, the Miata (badged MX-5 outside North America) was Mazda's modern take on the classic British roadster — light, simple, and rear-wheel drive, but built with Japanese reliability the old British sports cars never offered. It single-handedly revived the small roadster segment and remains the best-selling two-seat convertible in history.
Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32/R33/R34)
1989–2002Revived after a long hiatus, the R32 GT-R returned Nissan's performance flagship with a sophisticated twin-turbo inline-six and ATTESA all-wheel-drive system, dominating Group A touring car racing so thoroughly it earned the nickname "Godzilla" from Australian motoring journalists.
Toyota Supra
1993–2002The fourth-generation Supra (chassis code A80) abandoned the shared-platform approach of earlier Supras for a dedicated sports car chassis, wrapped around Toyota's legendary 2JZ-GTE twin-turbo inline-six — an engine renowned for its ability to handle dramatically more power than its stock output with minimal internal modification. Its combination of genuine factory performance and near-legendary engine durability has made it one of the most sought-after and rapidly appreciating Japanese performance cars of its era.
Buying Tips
- 1.These are still largely "used cars" mechanically — a proper pre-purchase inspection matters more here than provenance or documentation debates that dominate older-classic shopping.
- 2.Verify recall and factory service campaign history is up to date, since many 2000s models had well-documented manufacturer recalls that are worth confirming were actually completed.
- 3.Low-mileage examples carry a real premium for this era specifically, since most 2000s cars were driven as daily transportation rather than preserved from new.
- 4.Check for accident history and prior modifications through a vehicle history report — these cars are recent enough that this kind of documentation actually exists and is worth checking.