10 Of The Worst Car Brands For Depreciation

The long-term value of a car doesn't always equate to its price. Maintenance fees and problems from age can pile up, and even paint color affects resale value way more than you might think. Some vehicles wind up only being worth half of their original cost, within not that long of a time. Sometimes, you can predict how well your ride will keep its value based on its history from previous years. Many cars are especially valuable, no matter when they were released — some are so valuable they can improve the reputation of their overall brands.

However, some brands are know for having poor long-term value overall. This includes many luxury brands that sell for absurdly high prices initially, as well as ones likely owned by the average consumer. This article will take a look at some of the worst car brands for depreciation (ranked in no particular order), based on their lowest-valued models after five years of use. While many brands might have stand-out vehicles, many of their popular choices might not even be worth reselling after just a couple of years.

Kia's Telluride is one of the best bets for a high-resale value SUV, with its depreciation hitting around 48% of its value after five years. Its other vehicles stack up decently as well, with the Soul's depreciation only amounting to 43% and the Sportage not even going above 40%. Its lowest-value vehicle is the Sorento, but even this keeps over half of its original price. At first glance, it doesn't seem like Kia should be listed among the worst brands for depreciation at all.

The problems come when you stack Kia up against other brands. While it lacks any truly bad models in terms of five-year value, it doesn't have many stand-out models in that regard, either. Jeep, Subaru, Honda, Toyota, and Mazda all manage to blow Kia out of the water with their greater retained value. Other brands might have lower lows, but they also have models with even less depreciation. Those vehicles might be more expensive at first, but you might end up losing less money with them than you would even with a Sportage.

GMC isn't a terrible brand on the used car market, but certain models represent some notable shortcomings. According to CarEdge, the Yukon XL will lose over half of its value within 5 years, which will lead to owners losing out on over $40,000 after that period of time. The regular-sized Yukon handles itself better with its depreciation at around 41%, but it's not ideal for an SUV that starts at over $66,000 today. Even without considering the GMC Yukon years you might want to avoid, avid resellers would likely prefer to avoid this model altogether.

Thankfully, other GMC models don't have nearly as much to worry about when it comes to depreciation. The Acadia still loses out on 50% of its value after 5 years, but its lower price point means you aren't losing nearly as much money. The Terrain stands out as well, priced at under $40,000 and only losing around 40% of that in the same timeframe. It might not be as large as the Yukon, but this smaller SUV will hold its value with much greater ease in the long run.

Chevrolet is in a bit of an odd spot when it comes to depreciation. The Camaro could be a Chevrolet model with outstanding resale value...or one with terrible resale value —  multiple sources offer contradicting estimates. Models like the Tahoe and Suburban also end up losing out on a lot of their original cost after a few years. These are also some particularly expensive vehicles, so their depreciation is a lot more harmful than it is to something like the Sorento.

Not every model ends up in a bad spot, though. A Corvette might lose a lot of its original price after 5 years, but it's also consistently rated as a high-value vehicle. On average, these can hold around 65% of their original value, with coupe models keeping as much as over 70%. The Spark and Colorado are also decent choices for reselling later on, and the Silverado is one of the best trucks you can find at low depreciation percentages. Just be prepared to take a hefty blow to your wallet unless you go for the surprisingly-cheap Spark.

Luxury brands tend to have worse depreciation than more popular brands on average. Audi doesn't suffer as badly from this trend as other manufacturers, but its values are all over the place. The Q7, A8, SQ5, and A7 all tend to lose around half of their value after five years, with the A8 in particular taking a very heavy hit from its $100,000-plus price point. On the other hand, the Q3 is estimated to lose less than 40% of its value in that same amount of time, making it an especially worthwhile vehicle.

Audi is a good example of the risks when looking at the secondhand market for both larger brands and luxury brands. With such a wide selection of models, you might not realize you've ended up with a far less valuable vehicle unless you research it meticulously. Meanwhile, the staggering prices of these high-end rides will lead to you missing out on the entire cost of a new low-end car no matter what. In fact, while the depreciation of some Audi models might seem like a real gut-punch to value seekers, it's actually one of the better luxury brands once you look at how expensive other options are.

Unlike Audi, Land Rover doesn't have a wide variety of models to choose from. Most of its vehicles are some different version of the Range Rover, which starts at over $107,000 for a modern model. You can cut this cost in half if you go for a lesser Evoque model, but event that will still likely lose over 50% of its value after a few years. The regular version is in an even worse spot, with its 5-year depreciation coming in at over 60% lost value — potentially enough to buy a new Evoque on its own.

Even if you look to models other than the Range Rover and its variants, Land Rover still ends up with some poor value after a while. According to iSeeCars, the Discovery is slated to lose nearly 60% of its value after five years, and its Sport model only stays better by about 5% more. Even the Defender falls around this same threshold. Luckily, all of these models are much cheaper than the Range Rover, so their depreciation won't lead to a greater loss of money.

Ford shares a few of Chevrolet's quirks when it comes to resale value, particularly with different sources disagreeing on how much its vehicles depreciate over time. The F-150 can lose as little as 40% of its original cost after five years or as much as 50%, while the F-350's depreciation ranges from 36% to 21%. Ford is among the largest and oldest car manufacturers out there, so it makes sense that its resale value would have a lot of variance. You can avoid the models that perform terribly on the secondhand market, but you've got to do your research.

The luxury division of Ford also ends up with this variance. The MKZ is estimated to lose over 67% of its value while the Navigator loses 54%, and in the latter's case, this ends up becoming much more impactful when considering its MSRP. In just about every case, depreciation is going to hit vehicles priced at $100,000 harder than it ever will for those set at around $20,000. Not every Lincoln is as expensive as the Navigator, but their resale value still falls under 50% consistently, making them tough to sell for a decent price unless you've only owned one for a year or two.

Previously, we've mentioned the Nissan Leaf as one of four used EVs with the best resale value. However, we've also reported on the Nissan Leaf's terrible resale value, because it only really manages to stack up well against EVs from more luxurious brands. Compared to cars driven by the average consumer, the Leaf falls uncomfortably short, with its depreciation ranging from 54% to 61% of its $30,000-plus original price. Other models from the brand lose out on a lot of value as well, with the Armada not even retaining half after the five-year mark.

Interestingly, a few other Nissan models end up going above and beyond when avoiding depreciation. The Versa consistently keeps over 60% of its original value, while the Frontier is able to hold on to at least 59%. Conversely, the Ariya loses over 60% of its value in a similar time frame, putting it near the bottom of the barrel. It seems that there are few Nissans that hit closer to a middle ground when it comes to depreciation, with some keeping remarkably close to their MSRP while others plummet after a few short years.

While some might see a Tesla car as a status symbol, this only really applies if the model didn't have a previous owner already. After all, Tesla is a luxury brand, and very few of its vehicles have even made it past the five-year mark. Of the ones that managed to reach past that time frame, none of them were reported to keep their value above 50%, with the Model S ending up in the worst position as it can barely hold onto 40%. Only the Model 3 and Model Y manage to stay below $80,000 when new, with the depreciation of other models often exceeding their MSRP.

Tesla only makes electric vehicles with various "smart" features, so it only makes sense that the value of older models would continue to plummet as hardware capabilities improve. Additionally, Tesla has set strict Cybertruck resale rules on the earliest buyers, making it just about impossible to even judge its retained value up until the end of 2024. It's not the only brand to make these sorts of restrictions, but with only a handful of models available, it ends up putting the resale value of other cars in its lineup into perspective.

Mercedes-Benz falls into the same trappings that other luxury brands end up in. Even the model with the highest resale value — the AMG GT, at over 55% — ends up with its MSRP over $130,000, leading to an absolutely crippling blow in a reseller's finances. It only gets worse as you go further down, with the S-Class dropping to around 35-40% while still boasting a price around $70,000-$80,000. There are a lot of extremely expensive Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and after 5 years, just about all of them will lose out on a lot of that initial pricing.

For the "cheaper" Mercedes-Benz models, things get a bit more reasonable. The Sprinter is still a relatively expensive vehicle that loses half of its value pretty quickly, but its initial cost of under $70,000 does at least lessen those downsides. This also goes for models like the EQB, which will set you back around $53,000 when new. It might lose out on over 60% of its value after five years, but that's less money than what the GLS-Class loses out on in just two.

BMW ends up on this list almost solely due to its 7 Series and 5 Series models. Across multiple sources, these are consistently among the worst-valued cars after five years, losing as much as over 70% of their original value over that period. For the 7 Series in particular, the initial price of over $100,000 only worsens that depreciation, easily rivaling Mercedes-Benz when it comes to how much money is lost over time. Models like the i7 and iX are in similar positions, sharing that greater-than-70% value drop-off which amounts to a loss of over $60,000-$80,000.

Even with these remarkably poor results, there are still some perfectly fine BMW models out there. The Z4, for example, ends up being one of the best-value luxury cars out there, keeping its overall depreciation under half while also having a more reasonable original price of a little over $50,000. It's definitely far from ideal, but it's also far from the worst examples of lessened value on this list. Despite being one of the worst brands for depreciation, that doesn't mean BMW is completely out of the question for resales.