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Ranked: Which Cars Depreciate the Fastest?

Ranked: Which Cars Depreciate the Fastest?

It’s a fact of life that vehicles depreciate—some say by almost 50% as soon they’re driven out of the lot. But which cars depreciate the fastest?

We visualize the top 10 vehicles with the highest depreciation rates over five years, based on data from iSeeCars.

They analyzed over 1.1 million used cars from model year 2018, sold between November 2022 to October 2023. Models no longer in production as of the 2022 model year were excluded.

Luxury Cars Struggle to Hold Their Value

At the top of the list, the Maserati Quattroporte loses nearly two-thirds of its value after five years. First introduced in 1963, the car is Maserati’s flagship, and is on its sixth iteration as a four-door luxury sedan, with a high performance Ferrari–made V6 or V8 engine.

The 2018 version of the car retailed anywhere between $109,000–$140,000, depending on the model.

Here’s a look at the full list of fastest depreciating cars in the U.S.

Rank Model Average 5-Yr
Depreciation
Average Difference
from MSRP
1 Maserati Quattroporte 65% $90,588
2 BMW 7 Series 62% $72,444
3 Maserati Ghibli 61% $58,623
4 BMW 5 Series
(Hybrid)
59% $37,975
5 Cadillac Escalade ESV 59% $63,885
6 BMW X5 58% $44,828
7 INFINITI QX80 58% $47,399
8 Maserati Levante 58% $55,858
9 Jaguar XF 58% $39,720
10 Audi A7 57% $48,917
11 Audi Q7 57% $41,731
12 Cadillac Escalade 57% $59,093
13 Audi A6 56% $38,252
14 Volvo S90 56% $35,365
15 Nissan Armada 56% $36,875
16 Mercedes-Benz
S-Class
56% $70,563
17 Lincoln Navigator L 56% $57,224
18 Mercedes-Benz
GLS
56% $54,523
19 Tesla Model S 56% $60,145
20 BMW 5 Series 55% $39,856
21 BMW X5 55% $39,992
22 Lincoln Navigator 55% $53,582
23 BMW X5 M 54% $66,277
24 Land Rover
Range Rover
54% $68,874
25 Cadillac XT5 54% $31,737
N/A Overall 39% $17,221

Note: MSRP stands for Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price, the price recommended by a product’s producer to retailers. Furthermore, MSRPs from 2018 were inflation-adjusted to 2023 dollars.

BMW’s 7-series and 5-series also lose value quickly (nearly 60% of their retail price), ranking second and fourth respectively.

Another Maserati car, the Ghibli comes in third (-61%), and the Cadillac Escalade ESV (-59%) rounds out the top five fastest depreciating vehicles.

From a quick glance through the ranks, the cars that depreciate the fastest are luxury vehicles, specifically luxury sedans. These types of cars are often leased, and supply increases dramatically once the lease period expires. Meanwhile, most owners who can afford a luxury car would prefer to buy a new model, while used-car owners would prefer not to pay a high premium on an already outdated model.

However, there’s another segment of the market that also drops in value quickly—electric vehicles. Analysis found that EVs lose roughly 49% of their value on the resale market, the worst amongst the categories specified.

Rank Segment Average 5-Yr
Depreciation (%)
1 EVs 49%
2 SUVs 41%
3 Hybrids 37%
4 Trucks 35%
N/A Overall 39%

A lack of larger demand appetite, as well as a plethora of government incentives pushing people to buying new electric vehicles could explain their faster than average depreciation rate. Trucks on the other hand are the slowest depreciating segment of all vehicles in the U.S.

The post Ranked: Which Cars Depreciate the Fastest? appeared first on Visual Capitalist.