Sotheby’s Wants You to Buy Classic Cars, and They’ll Lend You Millions to Make It Happen

The wealthy have been splashing out large amounts of cash on flamboyant sports cars and elegant saloons since the early 1900s. For decades, buyers have also been borrowing to get classic cars, using specialty lenders like Greenwich, Conn.-based Putnam Leasing, whose CEO, Steven Posner, told Robb Report that the company’s open-end leases are, “just an alternate way of obtaining a collector car that you want to own, using our money to buy the car and to make payments on it.”

Another specialty lender, Sotheby’s Financial Services (SFS) offers similar services but with a new twist, lending money for classic cars based on collateral that a collector is already deeply familiar with: their existing car collection. Started in 2023, the program lets owners leverage their collection to buy that Le Mans-winning Ferrari race car they’ve been eying, pursue a business opportunity, or simply pay off other debt. SFS’s financing comes quicker than more traditional loans, and also requires less paperwork. SFS’s program also underscores a truth about what classic cars have become: an asset class all on their own.

“How do you know something’s a bona fide asset class?” Andrew Goldberg, the head of collectible cars at SFS, recently told Robb Report. “One of the definitions, in my opinion, is, is there somebody out there who’s willing to accept it as collateral on an institutional scale?”

Sotheby’s has been lending in other arenas since the division launched in 1989, originating over $10 billion in loans and having a current loan book of $1.6 billion as of last month. The art lending business has grown to over $34 billion this decade, according to Artnews. SFS is one of four companies—along with Bank of America, Citibank, and J.P. Morgan—with an art lending portfolio of over $1 billion. SFS offers financing across over 70 categories, including fine art, whisky, and jewelry.

Now that includes automobiles, too, with the collector market having grown to become a multi-billion dollar industry—live and online auctions brought in $3.56 billion in the U.S. alone last year, according to Hagerty. Sotheby’s got into cars in 2015 when it purchased a 25 percent stake in Ontario-based RM Auctions, which changed its name to RM Sotheby’s as a result of the deal.

RM knows cars as well as Sotheby’s knows art, having overseen the sale of the three most expensive auction cars—the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR “Uhlenhaut Coupe” ($142 million in 2022), a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W 196 R Stromlinienwagen ($53 million in 2025), and a 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO ($52 million in 2023). Sotheby’s increased its stake in RM to 75 percent earlier this decade.

And, indeed, SFS’s car lending program is tailored for those in the upper echelons of the collecting world. This small pool of potential clients—which the service has previously estimated to include around 2,000 people in the U.S.—is made up of individuals who have the collateral to back an eight- or even nine-figure loan and are in need of money quickly. Those who fit the criteria are eligible for floating-rate loans of between $5 million and $250 million. Each transaction is evaluated on its own merits but new loans are being issued at an interest rate of 8 to 11 percent, based on where current base rates stand today, according to Goldberg. Terms, which can run from 12 to 36 months, are renewable at maturity.

The program has also been designed to make tapping into the value of a collection as easy as possible. The service doesn’t require any arduous personal financial disclosure or financial covenants. Unlike a bank, SFS isn’t looking into the loanee, they’re looking into the collection they’re leveraging.

“We only underwrite the collateral,” Bryon Madsen, RM Sotheby’s chief strategy officer, told Robb Report. “I don’t look at your personal financial statements. I don’t look at your tax returns. I don’t have income tests or covenants. I’m only underwriting the assets.”

There are other boxes that need to be checked, too. A comprehensive lien check is carried out and the team makes sure that all titles are in order (questions of provenance arise from time to time in the car collecting world). Then RM Sotheby’s valuation team uses the trove of market data it has compiled over the past 34 years to figure out how much a car or collection is worth. Clients can borrow up to 50 percent of the low auction estimate of their collection. Funds can be delivered within 45 days or, in some cases, even faster, which, Madsen points out, is quicker than a bank “ever would be.”

Another part of the program likely to appeal to collectors is that a majority of clients will be able to hold onto their cars during the life of their loan. It helps that many of these collectors already have access to the kind of storage facility to keep their vehicles safe. There are restrictions, but many activities covered by insurance, like driving or taking the car to a show, can also be arranged.

“There was a lot of consideration into tailoring a program that works for car collectors and how they use their cars,” Goldberg said.

It’s early still, but interest in SFS’s car lending program has been strong. The service told Robb Report that it originated $210 million worth of loans in 2024, with the first having closed last March. That puts the average loan at around $22 million. Goldberg and Madsen believe this number could serve as a floor for the program going forward. But SFS is also prepared for the program to grow quickly. It has the capacity, within the next couple years, to bring its car loan book to $500 million or $600 million. SFS is also already thinking about geographical expansion.  The program is currently exclusive to those living in North America, but the U.K. and Switzerland, and even further abroad, are being considered in the years to come.

“I think there’s a multi-billion-dollar loan book potential here in this marketplace,” Goldberg said.