THE NUMBERS MIGHT ALL BE in British pounds, but the implications for Australian buyers are plain to see: new cars are depreciating as fast (or faster) than they have ever done.
Depreciation on new cars has always been a fact of life (the old joke that a car loses a third of its value as soon as you drive it out of the showroom has never looked truer).
A recent study by Parkers, one of the UK’s biggest motoring reviews and advice websites, has shown that some new cars (and they’re mostly available in Australia, the same applies here) can lose up to half the new car price (and even more in some cases) in the first year.
Of course, for every downside, there’s an upside. So there are some incredible bargains out there on barely used one year-old cars.
Parkers looked at cars registered in January 2024, with no options and 20,000 miles (32,000km) on the odometer. In terms of Australian cars, that 32,000km is very high – the average Australian drives 11,864km per year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, so the local situation could be even worse than it first appears.
The other surprise is just how new car prices are generally lower in the UK than Australia. At the time of writing, the British pound is worth precisely double the Australian dollar (in other words, in the UK a Fiat 500e lists at £34,140, equivalent to $68,280 in Australia. Here, the Fiat 500e La Prima lists at $52,500, plus on road costs. To take another example, the Kia EV6 is £62,620 in the UK, $72,590 to $99,590 here).
Comparing the fastest depreciating car with the slowest, we see that the Fiat 500e and MINI Cooper were about the same price new, but the Fiat dropped a massive 52 percent in the first year, while the MINI only fell by 17.3 percent.
Another useful comparison is the MG ZS and MG ZS EV. The petrol-powered ZS tumbled 27.8 percent, while its electric equivalent took a 41.8 percent hit.
Here’s the full list of winners and losers:
Price new (Jan 2024), value after 12 months, amount lost and total percentage drop
| Fiat 500e | £34,140 | £16,375 | -£17,765 | -52.0% |
| Vauxhall Corsa Electric Ultimate | £38,530 | £16,275 | -£21,095 | -54.8% |
| MG ZS EV | £35,440 | £20,625 | -£14,815 | -41.8% |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 | £54,385 | £31,620 | -£22,765 | -41.8% |
| BMW I4 | £70,845 | £44,035 | -£26,810 | -37.8% |
| Kia EV6 | £62,620 | £37,050 | -£25,570 | -40.8% |
| BMW M8 | £158,555 | £89,870 | -£87,940 | -43.3% |
| Maserati Gran Turismo | £213,070 | £125,130 | -£87,940 | -41.3% |
| Mercedes- Benz EQS | £170,800 | £87,265 | -£83,535 | -48.9% |
| Porsche Taycan S | £186,300 | £97,680 | -£88,620 | -47.6% |
Depreciation winners
Price new (Jan 2024), value after 12 months, amount lost and percentage drop
| MINI Cooper | £35,525 | £29,370 | -£6,155 | -17.3% |
| Vauxhall Corsa | £27,150 | £17,855 | -£9,295 | -34.3% |
| MG ZS | £20,510 | £14,800 | -£5,710 | -27.8% |
| BMW X1 35M | £47,535 | £41,745 | -£5,790 | -12.2% |
| BMW 3-Series | £58,695 | £42,180 | -£16,515 | -28.1% |
| RR Evoque | £58,220 | £39,870 | -£18,350 | -31.5% |
| Porsche 911 Turbo S | £180,600 | £142,665 | -£37,935 | -21.0% |
| Aston Martin DB12 | £185,000 | £136,685 | -£48,315 | -26.1% |
| Mercedes-AMG S63 | £188,580 | £160,270 | -£28,310 | -15.7% |
| Porsche Panamera | £168,700 | £111,555 | -£57,145 | -33.9% |