AudiIn a first drive of the 2025 Audi RS3, Jalopnik praised its powerplant as "one of the most entertaining and characterful engines on sale." Fast forward a year, and the privilege of driving this 401-horsepower subcompact rocketship will set you back over $67,000 when buying new from the dealer. That amount may not be in everyone's budget, so the obvious alternative is to shop used. The five-year mark tends to be the sweet spot, because the car is still relatively new but has often experienced enough depreciation to satisfy a slimmer wallet. However, Audi didn't offer the RS3 for the 2021 model year, so we'll need to dial it back to 2020, which was the last year of the previous 8V generation.The 2020 RS3 held on to most of its value, but even a conservative six-year depreciation estimate of 18% means a five-figure difference between a 2020 RS3 and one from 2026. To get a better idea of the number crunching, we'll look at valuations from CarEdge and Kelley Blue Book (KBB). More importantly, we'll examine what a 2020 Audi RS3 sells for in today's market — arguably a more accurate look at depreciation. The RS3 doesn't have a lot of direct competition, but it's always a good idea to see how rivals like the BMW M2 and Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 compare, especially with valuations and real-world pricing. Any MSRPs mentioned in this article include factory destination charges.Read more: These V6 Engines Put The LS1 V8 To ShameThe 2020 Audi RS3 has solid resale valueAudiDepreciation estimates for the RS3 are inconsistent. CarEdge estimates that this Audi drops in value by 17.8% over six years. Notably, this projection is based on the site's current market pricing for the 2020 model year, and it contrasts the site's generalized estimate for six-year-old models at 49% — even higher than KBB's already generous 37.6%. If the latter were accurate, you could expect the original MSRP of $57,195 to translate into a used car selling for about $36,000. Good luck with that. The actual answer lies closer in the middle, based on dealer asking prices.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe challenge with looking at the marketplace is that there aren't many 2020 RS3s for sale. As of this writing, Autotrader shows just six examples for sale nationwide. Audi didn't publish model-level sales for the 2020 model year, but a 2021 recall notice shows the company sold 4,147 RS3 sedans in the U.S. for the 2017 through 2020 model years, averaging slightly more than 1,000 per year. That explains the RS3's rarity, which is never a good thing if you're looking for a used car bargain. The middle of this limited market is priced between $42,000 and $45,000, focusing on models without an adverse history or extremely high or low mileage. In practical terms, that works out to a realistic depreciation rate of 21.3% to 26.6%. If you take joy in much higher depreciation rates, check out the top 10 luxury vehicles with terrible resale values.Comparing the Audi RS3's depreciation against its rivalsMercedes-BenzWith rear-wheel drive and a coupe body style, the 2020 BMW M2 isn't the perfect replacement for the RS3's all-wheel drive and four doors. Nonetheless, both vehicles follow a similar formula: abundant turbocharged power in a small luxury sedan. To get an idea of the M2's depreciation, we'll turn to KBB, which estimates that the base Competition edition, which had an original MSRP of $59,895, is now worth $41,700. This drop in value translates to a 30.3% depreciation rate — about 7 percentage points better than KBB's estimate for the Audi. However, like the RS3, the marketplace isn't oversaturated with M2 Competitions. Ignoring listings with accident or branded title history and target options with 60,000 to 80,000 miles, the few available listings hover around $47,000. That's an equivalent depreciation rate of 21.5%, which syncs with real-world valuations for the 2020 Audi RS3.The Mercedes-AMG CLA 45's all-wheel-drive and four-door configuration matches the RS3's, but depreciation takes a very different turn. With an original MSRP of $57,245, this car now has a KBB resale value of $25,700, thanks to 55.1% depreciation over 6 years. Like the RS3, there aren't many 2020 CLA 45s on the second-hand market, but one example with 76,000 miles and a clean history is listed at $30,000, reflecting a 47.6% devaluation over the same period or about double the market-based depreciation of the 2020 RS3. So, if you're a used shopper motivated more by the bottom line than the badge, the CLA 45 is clearly the better buy than the RS3 or M2. However, Mercedes' dependability is worth considering. The CLA was among Consumer Reports' lowest-ranked cars.Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and follow us or add us as a preferred search source on Google.Read the original article on Jalopnik.
+66 others
