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Cars are the second biggest expense in most people’s lives. But will the car you’re buying hold its resale value?
Read more: 6 speeding ticket myths debunked
When we buy a car, we think of the price as the true cost, along with the expense of insurance, gas, and maintenance. But the real cost of a car is depreciation—how much in value it loses during the initial years of ownership.
The average car depreciates by 21% after a year of ownership, according to iSeeCars.com. That means you would lose 21 cents on every dollar you paid if you were to go resell that vehicle after driving it for 12 months.
iSeeCars.com has a new tally of the 12 most heavily depreciated cars during the period of Aug. 1, 2015 to July 31, 2016.
If you are a used car buyer, these are the best nameplates to look at buying secondhand because they all take steep depreciation losses in the first year of ownership. Considering how much value cars lose the minute they drive off the lot, isn’t it great to be the second owner of that car—not the first one?
All noted below are 2016 models:
If you must buy new, plan on holding a car for 10 years or longer to absorb all the depreciation. As an alternative, Clark has said that you can also buy a two-year-old car and hold it for three years or a three-year-old car and hold it for two years.
Read more: Used car leasing: Deal or dud for your wallet?
This post was last modified on March 22, 2017 1:51 pm
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