General: my numbers come from KBB.com.
I chose 8 sedans that I might be interested in buying. For all used prices, I selected “purchased in excellent condition from private party”. New prices are MSRP. Trim lines and options: I selected the highest available trim line, with no additional options. This occasioned some, er, hiccups over time, because the same trim line was not always available over the 5 years of data.
I calculated “Depreciation by Age” – comparing the same model with the same mileage for years 2012-2016, each year depreciated from the previous year.
I calculated “Depreciation by Mileage” – comparing the same model and the same year with the mile benchmarks of 100 – 50,000 – 100,000 – 150,000 – 200,000. Each bench benchmark depreciated from the earlier one.
So in addition to the new MSRP, I have 25 values for each vehicle, each model year at each mile benchmark.
I also calculated “Depreciation from New” – the depreciation calculated from the new car MSRP rather then the previous model year or mileage benchmark.
Here are some results:
Depreciation “right off the lot” 2016 new compared to 2016 with 100 miles
Mazda6 – 17.0%
Mazda3 – 37.2
Honda Accord – 12.0
Honda Civic – 14.2
Toyota Camry – 27.3
Toyota Corolla – 16.8
Hyundai Sonata – 28.9
Hyundai Elantra – 15.0
I thought it interesting that vehicle size (mid-size vs compact) was not at all a reliable indicator of retaining value,
Depreciation from New to 5 years Like New (that is, assuming you can actually find a 5 year old model with 100 miles on it):
Mazda6 – 50.5%
Mazda3 – 51.4
Honda Accord – 45.7
Honda Civic – 32.9
Toyota Camry – 43.5
Toyota Corolla – 39.6
Hyundai Sonata – 39.4
Hyundai Elantra – 33.1
Depreciation from New to 5 years AND 200,000 miles:
Mazda6 – 82.5%
Mazda3 – 81.3
Honda Accord – 72.5
Honda Civic – 71.5
Toyota Camry – 75.3
Toyota Corolla – 68.2
Hyundai Sonata – 76.8
Hyundai Elantra – 75.6
A few other generalities:
When depreciating by age, the greatest depreciation is pretty uniformly between year 2 and year 3. The exceptions were models where the same trim line was not available to compare between those years.
When depreciating by miles, the greatest depreciation was from 50,000 to 100,000 miles. The rate from 100,000 to 150,000 stayed relatively the same. The rate from 150,000 to 200,000 dropped significantly, suggesting that if you have a car with 150k on it, all other things being equal you’re not going to lose much more holding onto it for another 50K.
I have all these numbers in an Open Office spreadsheet, should anyone care to look in more detail.
Or if you have more specific questions that I haven’t covered by the data I’ve posted, please ask.