Car Buyer Getting Poor Returns

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Fri, 15 Aug 2008

Car buyers are finding that their new cars are losing a great deal of value just a few years after purchase. Certain cars lose 75% of their value after just three years on the road, so says recent research by the Consumers' Association's Which? magazine.

Even those cars that hold their value well are likely to be worth 50% of their original price after just 36 months on the road, states this survey .

The worst 4x4 for depreciation is the Suzuki Jimmy JLX Estate, which lost 63% of its value in three years, or £6,290. The Honda CR-V 2.0 VTEC SE lost 49% of value, or £8,245.

On the whole, big cars depreciate faster than small ones, with luxury car manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes holding their values pretty well, as per this survey of 140 models.

Coupes and convertibles depreciate more slowly than mainstream models. However, apart from air conditioning, optional extras do not recover a great deal of their cost at resale.

The Mercedes Kompressor and Mini Cooper were amongst the best performers, with the Suzuki Alto and Proton Wira being amongst the worst for holding value.

The worst depreciation for 'Large' cars was for the Daewoo Leganza 2.0 CDX-E, which lost 76% of its value or £11,395. The Lexus IS200 2.0 SE lost 47% of its value, or £9,710 over three years

The Lexus GS300 3.0 (A) and Mercedes S-class 280 (A) fared best in terms of retaining their value in the "luxury" class, both still losing 50% of their value over three years.