Which Cars Depreciate The Fastest?
It’s a fact of life that vehicles depreciate—some say by almost 50%—as soon as they’re driven out of the lot. Some depreciate less, but which cars depreciate the fastest?
In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu and Pallavi Rao show the top 10 vehicles with the highest depreciation rates over five years, based on data from iSeeCars.
They analysed over 1.1 million used cars from model year 2018 sold between November 2022 and 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 in 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 and $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 a larger demand appetite, as well as a plethora of government incentives pushing people to buy 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.
