The Most Expensive Cars Ever Sold at Auction (2026 Update) — The Record Has Changed Twice Since 2018

If you've seen a "most expensive cars sold at auction" list that tops out with a Ferrari 250 GTO at $48.4 million, you're looking at data from 2018 — and the record has actually moved twice since then, most dramatically by nearly triple. Here's where things actually stand.

A Quick Note on What Counts as "Auction"

One thing worth clarifying up front, because it trips up a lot of these lists: there's a difference between a public auction (multiple registered bidders, open house auctioneer, published results) and a private treaty sale (one buyer, one seller, no public bidding, sometimes brokered quietly). The current all-time record holder was technically a single-lot, invitation-only sale conducted by an auctioneer — Guinness World Records and most major outlets classify it as an auction sale rather than a private sale, and we're following that convention here, but it's a genuinely different format from a standard Monterey Car Week auction.

The Current Top 5

1. 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé — $142 million (2022)

This is, by a wide margin, the most expensive car ever sold at auction. Mercedes-Benz built only two Uhlenhaut Coupés, road-legal versions of the dominant 300 SLR race car, and kept both in its own collection for nearly seven decades. In May 2022, Mercedes sold one through a Sotheby's-run, invitation-only sale in Stuttgart to fund a scholarship program, deliberately limiting the bidder pool to serious, vetted collectors. It sold for €135 million ($142 million), more than triple the previous public-auction record. The second Uhlenhaut Coupé is still owned by Mercedes-Benz and remains on permanent display at its museum — it is not for sale.

2. 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 R — $53.9 million (2025)

Driven by five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio and Sir Stirling Moss, this Formula 1 car sold for €51,155,000 ($53.9 million) at a dedicated RM Sotheby's sale held at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in 2025 — making it the most expensive Formula 1 car ever sold and the second most expensive car at public auction, period. It's a different individual chassis from the W196 R that sold for $29.6 million back in 2013, which is the sale most older "top 5" lists still reference.

3. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO / 330 LM — $51.7 million (2023)

RM Sotheby's sold this GTO at a special New York sale in November 2023, making it the most expensive Ferrari and the most expensive Italian car ever sold at public auction. It broke the record set by the other250 GTO below — the two cars are frequently confused because Ferrari built 36 GTOs total, and several individual chassis have each set records at different points.

4. 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO (chassis 3413 GT) — $48.4 million (2018)

This is the car that topped most "most expensive" lists for years, sold at RM Sotheby's Monterey auction in 2018. It was owned for two decades by collector Dr. Gregory Whitten and driven to the auction site by five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell. It's still the fourth most expensive car ever sold at public auction — a genuinely remarkable result, just no longer the headline number.

5. 1964 Ferrari 250 LM by Scaglietti — $36.3 million (2025)

Sold at RM Sotheby's Paris Rétromobile sale in February 2025, this particular 250 LM — chassis 5893 — won the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours outright, and its price set a new record specifically for a Le Mans-winning race car. It edges out the 1956 Ferrari 290 MM ($28.05 million, 2015) and the 1956 Aston Martin DBR1 ($22.55 million, 2017), both of which held top-5 spots on older versions of this list but have since been pushed further down.

What Happened to the "$70 Million Ferrari"?

Older articles on this topic often mention a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO that reportedly sold privately for around $70 million in 2018 to WeatherTech founder David MacNeil. That sale, even if accurate, was a private transaction, not a public auction — so it was never actually eligible for a "most expensive at auction" ranking in the first place, despite frequently being tacked onto these lists as if it were.

Why the Record Keeps Climbing

Every car on this list shares three traits: extreme rarity (often fewer than 40 units made, sometimes as few as two), a direct connection to a famous driver or race win, and unbroken, well-documented ownership history. That combination is what separates a $2 million classic Ferrari from a $50 million one — provenance, not just age or horsepower, is what collectors are actually paying for.