UPDATE, July 12 2023: Just over 12 months on from our initial analysis, we’ve taken another look at how the 2017 HSV GTSR W1 market is trending, and spoiler alert: not much has changed.

It’s no secret that the COVID-induced boom we saw with the enthusiast car market in 2020-2021 is all but over, with demand starting to wane from buyers as the economy tightens. Cars that were cheap pre-pandemic have mostly fallen back to their rightful market bracket (eg. $2000 GQ Patrols are back!), but the top end of the market is being far more stubborn, and W1s are a prime example of that.

To show just how stagnant the W1 market really is, the same Sting Red example we reported with 120km that was offered on CarSales for $649,980 12 months ago is still there, now listed for $625,880.

It’s still the most expensive one up for grabs, the cheapest being a Light My Fire orange car with a smidge over 36,000km at $330,000.

Just like last year there are plenty of W1s with low or delivery kilometres to choose from, with eight up for grabs at the time of writing with less than 1000km (and two with less than 100km). You can view them all here.

So if you’re after a collector’s item you’re spoiled for choice; and that’s probably a big part of the problem for prospective sellers. When low mileage isn’t a unique defining factor of your W1 and around 10 or more are for sale at one time in a niche market, what makes yours different from the rest?

Asking prices for W1s overall range between $350,000 and $470,000. That’s still considerably higher than the average $200,000 asking rate for the non-W1 GTSR sibling (which is LSA-powered), but a long way off the record $1m+ auction records we were seeing for W1s in late 2021.

Speaking of, the auction action for W1s has gone from headlines to zilch. We couldn’t find an example that’s gone to auction this year, and ‘regular’ GTSRs at auction in the last 12-18 months are selling for around $150,000 or being passed in.

So, what does this all mean? If you’re one of the few who’s genuinely in the market for a W1, we reckon you should be able to nab one in the mid-to-low $300K range with decently low mileage. Don’t expect to make money on it any time soon, so maybe take it out and enjoy it? Critics hailed it as one of Australia’s greatest drivers when it launched, so we reckon it’s worth experiencing that if you’re lucky enough to be able to afford to.

Keep scrolling to read more about the W1 history and second-hand market.

The story to here

25 June 2022: The Gen-F HSV GTSR W1 was the swansong to Australian-made performance machines, and to many people is arguably the greatest car to ever be birthed from our now-extinct auto industry.

Three hundred sedans were officially made in total (275 for Australia, 25 for New Zealand) and all those orders were accounted for before HSV had even finished building them.

With such low build numbers, and no chance to get your hands on one when new, you’d assume any example that happened to pop up on the second-hand market wouldn’t last long and would fetch a super high price, right?

A GTSR W1 popped up on our sister site Trade Unique Cars in Son-of-a-Gun grey, boasting just 582 kilometres on the clock and the seller “accepting offers starting from $450,000”. The MSRP on a W1 was around AU$175,000 when new, but given it was already sold out at that time, and the second-hand car market allegedly still booming, the listing for this W1 seemed like a big deal at first glance.

However, some quick digging revealed that any potential W1 buyers are actually spoiled for choice, and with that comes the question of how much these Holy Grail HSVs are actually worth.

Our analytics showed this grey W1 has actually been on the market since April last year, and we also found another W1 in the exact some colour with a very similar 602km on it for AU$409,888.

A quick flick across to CarSales told much the same story. At the time of writing, there are 13 W1s listed there – the most expensive commanding an eye-watering AU$649,980 and the cheapest coming in at AU$389,990 in white with 28,000km.

Out of those 13, seven cars have less than 1000km on them, and two have less than 100 (one has only 28km!). It seems the W1 market is one of the few in the world where quoting “only has dealer kilometres” isn’t that much of a rare thing.

Unlike Falcon GTHO owners of the 1970s, we suspect most W1 buyers took their cars straight from the dealers in 2017 and shoved them into garages to one day become those elusive and hugely expensive, untouched shed-finds collectors crave.

We have covered W1s selling for exorbitant figures at auction in recent times, most notably a sedan in a super rare hue of XU3 Yellah – which fetched AU$750,000 before buyer’s premium (BP) at auction in September last year, so there is some proof of these things selling for big money.

The W1 Maloo is also worthy of a mention. Only four exist and all were custom ordered by highly exclusive HSV customers, and as a result one of them in light my fire orange did sell at auction early last year for AU$1.05million.

So we’ll leave it up to you, what do you think W1s are really worth? As they say: it’s worth whatever someone’s willing to pay for it.

And if you own a W1 and are actually using it the way the lord intended, please let us know!