Worst cars for depreciation: used motors that have lost the most value

While some used cars have actually increased in value, others have seen their value plummet. Here are the 10 models that have been worst affected in recent months

If you’re looking to sell your old motor, then you’ll be hoping to get a good price for it.

And while the way that you go about selling your car will have a big impact on the price you get, the biggest driver will be the car itself.

After all, while some cars do a great job of retaining their value, others will see their price fall sharply.

What’s more, some cars can see their desirability fall off sharply. 

Thankfully there are plenty of regular studies into the pricing of used cars, that can give us a good indication of which are most in demand and which are seeing their value drop most sharply.

The worst used cars for depreciation

For example, a new study from Cap HPI looked into how the average value of three-year-old car models, with an average of 30,000 miles on the clock, have changed since May.

These are the 10 models they reckon have dropped by price the most substantially over the last few months:

Here are the 10 used cars that have lost the most value in November, compared with the same point in 2022, according to AutoTrader:

Electric vehicles for example lost a whopping 21.1% of value in November, while low-emission vehicles were down by 11.9%.

By contrast, traditionally fuelled counterparts dropped by only 1.8% year on year.

It’s worth noting not only the scale of the drops, but also the rise range in values.

There are vehicles for many budgets on this table, but they are all suffering from the same trend, namely a level of supply that dwarfs the level of demand for these particular motors.

It’s no coincidence that hybrid and electric vehicles have performed so poorly of late.

While demand has stayed at respectable levels, there’s far more supply as early adopters look to sell off their existing models and trade up.

And that is hitting the value of those used cars, since vendors are having to price more competitively in order to attract a buyer.

A strange time for used cars

There can be no denying the fact that the last few years have been an odd time for the used car market, and it largely comes down to the pandemic.

Covid affected all sorts of different industries in a variety of ways, but one sector that was particularly affected was the new car market.

Modern cars are technological marvels, with all sorts of gadgetry and software involved, but that technology relies on semiconductor chips.

The trouble is that the production of these chips was badly hit by the pandemic, with the factories ‒ which tend to be located in China ‒ suffering extensive closures.

The resulting shortage of semiconductor chips has had the knock-on effect of leading to delays in the production of new cars.

However, just because the new cars are not being produced at the same rate, the demand from buyers has not gone anywhere.

Motorists will still want a new set of wheels to meet their needs, and if they can’t get that from a brand-new motor then, inevitably, they will have to turn their attention to used cars.

That’s why we have seen the value of certain used cars increase, to the point that in some cases used models were going for more than they would have fetched when brand new, which is little short of extraordinary.

Fighting back against depreciation

One of the inevitabilities of buying a new car is that it will lose a significant chunk of its value from the moment you leave the dealership.

And while depreciation is not necessarily quite so sharp with subsequent sales, the reality is that, unlike other assets, a car will almost certainly lose value over time.

As a result, picking up a car that depreciates more slowly than rivals is always an appealing prospect ‒ that way you will be in a more positive position when the time comes to trade up yourself.

So what do you need to bear in mind? Check out our guide to the factors that impact the rate of depreciation, as well as the cars which retain their value the best.