Photo: Porsche
Depreciation is a fact of life when it comes to buying a new car, but it definitely hits some vehicles way harder than others. A few weeks ago, we took a look at cars hit hardest by deprecation over the past five years. Now, we’re looking at the flip side of the coin.
The nice people over at iSeeCars analyzed over 1.1 million vehicles sold between November of 2022 and October of 2023. They figured out which ones have depreciated the least over that half-decade time period. Overall, the average car depreciated 38.8 percent in that window, but these bad boys faired much better. Every single vehicle on this list bested that number by at least 12 percentage points. Not too shabby.
Most of the vehicles are this list are from Asian automakers, but we’ve also got a smattering of high-end German stuff and even some American representation. We love to see it, don’t we folks!
If you were wondering about the other end of the spectrum, but didn’t feel like clicking the link to that slideshow, the three cars with the most deprecation are the Maserati Ghibli (61.3 Percent Depreciation), BMW 7 Series (61.8 Percent Depreciation) and the Maserati Quattroporte (64.5 Percent Depreciation).
Before we dig in, a few things. “XX.X Percent Deprecation” in the slide titles is the percentage of the car’s original MSRP it has lost in the past five years, and the dollar value below each photo is how much it has lost in real money. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, happy viewing!
Photo: Porsche
$42,227 Value Lost
911s are famous for holding their value, so there’s not too much of a shock here as we start our list. While the convertible holds its value in a very respectable way, they do not hold a candle to the coupe, which is coming up much later on.
Photo: Kia
$5,006 Value Lost
The Rio is one of the new cheapest vehicles you can buy, so there isn’t exactly a ton of value to lose on the used market.
Photo: Toyota
$12,588 Value Lost
Toyota trucks hold their value like very little else. They’re built to last a hell of a long time. On top of that, when something does break, it isn’t going to cost a ton to fix either. They make for some really solid used trucks, and the market seems to know that.
Photo: Porsche
$20,216 Value Lost
Again, the convertible version of a Porsche doesn’t hold its value as well as its coupe (Cayman) counterpart. Interesting.
Photo: Ford
$10,035 Value Lost
I can only assume this is the case because so many Mustangs crash at Cars and Coffee events that they are becoming endangered. Every time one dies, there is one less in the world, and the value of all the others goes up. That’s at least how I see it.
Photo: Subaru
$7,214 Value Lost
Value Retention. It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Photo: Toyota
$5,800 Value Lost
This is honestly a bit surprising to me. There are so many Corollas out there that you wouldn’t think they’d hold their value particularly well. However, much like the trucks, the regular cars are also built to last a really long time. I can see both sides of this argument, to be honest.
Photo: Toyota
$6,692 Value Lost
The C-HR is a really cool looking vehicles, and I don’t care if you feel differently! I enjoy seeing these things on the road, even if they aren’t the most exciting to drive. It would seem a lot of folks agree with me, because they are holding their value rather well.
Photo: Chevrolet
$10,161 Value Lost
Cheap speed, baby. I assume the same sort of logic for the Mustang keeping its value exists for the Camaro. It also leave just one muscle car (if you can call this a muscle car), the Dodge Challenger, off this list.
Photo: Subaru
$8,114 Value Lost
Oddly, the Toyota 86 twins of this car are not on the list. I’ve got no idea how those hold their value, but this is one of the rare times where Toyota underperforms another brand in terms of slow depreciation.
Photo: Honda
$5,817 Value Lost
The Civic is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to economy cars, so there’s not much of a surprise here. Great cars are rewarded with low depreciation, for the most part.
Photo: Jeep
$8,951 Value Lost
People (me included) love the goddamn Wrangler, man. New or used, these things sell like hot cakes. For a long time, the Wrangler, in both two and four doors, was sort of the poster child for cars with slow depreciation. In terms of real dollars, it’s still near the top. These things hold onto their value like little else.
Photo: Toyota
$8,359 Value Lost
Want a used Tacoma at a good price? Fuck you, too bad. It’s not going to happen. It’ll never happen. You’ll have a better chance of creating your own car brand than the Tacoma will have losing its value. It’s just not in the cards, bucco.
Photo: Porsche
$13,372 Value Lost
Maybe rich folk should store their money in the Cayman cars rather than the Cayman Islands. It’ll be more legal and a lot more fun. Sadly, for the rest of us, a cheap-ish Porsche sports car just is not going to be in the cards. Too damn bad.
Photo: Porsche
$18,094 Value Lost
We end our story right where we started it. From top to bottom, the 911 is the slow depreciation king, losing less than 10 percent of its value in five years. It’s wild to think about, and it goes to show how in demand Porsche’s sports cars are.
Keyword: The Cars That Have Depreciated The Least Over Five Years