Lots Of Great Cars Sold For Under $10,000 At Monterey Car Week 2026

The Story

This year.

Mecum Auctions Add Jalopnik on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover Hello fellow have-nots and gutter snipes!. Clear the coal soot from your screen-weary eyes and gaze upon the discounted fruits of another glorious Monterey Car Week!. The caviar has been consumed and the Concours-worthy cars have all shuffled off to their temperature-controlled luxury garages far larger and nicer than any of my New York–based co-worker’s apartments. So it goes.

I love going to Car Week, because I am a firm believer that we low brow should rub shoulders with such fine people of social standing. It does both sides good to get those white, seersucker suit jackets scuffed by the dirty little grabby hands of Jalopnik. Remember, kids: don’t be a class traitor, be a class infiltrator.

And it is with this spirit that I bring to you the few affordable cars that sold at action at Monterey Car Week 2026. Yes, even in Monterey you can find used enthusiast cars that won’t cost you every last penny in your bank account. Surprisingly, some can be found at the same car week as a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Special Speedster once owned by Clark Gable. Will they cost you an arm and a leg in mechanic and insurance costs?. Probably, but you will look cool the whole time you are going broke.

This year the Car Week auctions hit a record of $762 million, with an average price of $887,399 across the nearly 900 sales, but the cheap cars sold for cheaper than ever. We’ve got a bunch of entires all under $10,000, while last year the ceiling was $15,000 just to get a good spread. Per usual, I skipped the memorabilia, expensive children’s toys, bicycles and motorcycles in my reckoning. Four wheels good, two wheels bad, and all that.

A new player entered the game this year in the form of Hagerty’s Broad Arrow Auctions. The combination insurance company/publication/car auction site brought a bunch of very cool and interesting vehicles, most of which went for bigger bucks than this list allows. It offered a real wild mix of European cars with the occasional smattering of the company’s home state’s offerings. But as usual, Mecum brought most of the modest offerings to Pebble Beach this year. It is truly the people’s auction house.

Mecum Auctions Our most expensive entry is also our gosh-darn cutest. I want to pinch the cheeks of every Nash Metropolitan I see, but one in sunshine yellow?. Come on!. I get the kind of cuteness aggression normally reserved for capybaras and land seals that take over small towns in New Zealand. These cars always remind me of the ’90s show “Rocko’s Modern Life” due to their cartoony cuteness. This sweet lil 3-speed manual sold with just 33,637 miles on the odometer. You also get a super cute teal-white two-tone interior and a color-matched engine bay perfect for those lazy Cars and Coffee afternoons.

Mecum Auctions Everyone says they want a convertible packing a V8 until its time to pony up for a 28-year-old Mercedes-Benz. With only 51,125 miles on the clock, this car certainly seems like something your babushka only drove on Thursdays to see her oncologist in downtown Naples. The skin cancer eventually got her, but you can’t blame the SL500 for that. Just think long and hard about the legendary engineering chops of Benz in the ’90s before trusting your life to the “Automatic deployable roll-bar protection system.”.

Mecum Auctions If I owned this I would put a bowler hat on my bulldog and drive around town saying stuff like “chippo!” and “I say!. What!. What!” I’m bringing it back, like MG was trying to bring back that classic roadster style in the 1950s. I guess nostalgia has always been a thing. My dad loves MGs and has owned several, so I don’t mind that it drives like dog doo and probably has more electrical gremlins than mphs under the hood. And I bet its new owner won’t car either. They’re too busy having crumpets. The wheels are great and the butter cream paint with the dark green leather seat is a winning combo.

Mecum Auctions An awful lot of low-mileage convertibles from almost 30 years ago are starting to enter the chat. Hmm I wonders if that portends anything. Anyway, this yellow crotch-enhancer sold for $8,800 with just 54,054 miles on the clock. C4 Corvettes are usually put somewhere near the bottom of the list when it comes to ranking ‘Vette generations. If you were waiting for a “but” there, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It would absolutely eat at Radwood, though.

Mecum Auctions A V12 convertible with only 21,775 miles on it?. Baby we’ve hit the jackpot. I mean sure, this thing will need three weeks at an Incredibly Expensive Garage if you so much as breath on it wrong, but that’s the cost of doing business with class. The pale blue exterior on pale blue interior is like a beautiful siren song for the classic car buyer, and nothing bad ever happened to people who listened to those, right?.

Mecum Auctions I have nothing silly to say. I’d have an unhealthy relationship with this car. We’d have so much fun right up until we didn’t. Break downs would ensure on both sides. I love this car and wish it were mine.

Mecum Auctions This custom build is certainly. Something. The interior looks fairly original to the 1951 Studebaker hidden within. With only 81,378 miles, butts haven’t spent enough time in those seats to wear them out. If you want to look like a Batman villain who steals color, this is for you.

Why It Matters

Everyone in the comments can go ahead and flame me for not knowing this before today in the comments, but finding out this information sent me into a two-hour information hole.

CarMotion Daily’s Take

These cars always remind me of the ’90s show “Rocko’s Modern Life” due to their cartoony cuteness. Watch this space over the coming weeks.