First year depreciation wins and sinners: Parkers reveals huge price drops in 2024’s new cars after just one year

• Parkers picks 10 popular cars with rampant first year depreciation
• We then contrast them with better-performing rivals
• Buy nearly new and save a packet

Depreciation can turn a new car buyer white with fear. While it’s common for a new car to shed some of its value in the first year after registration, there are some cars that can lose a lot more, sometimes more than half its price in the first year. This is excellent news for buyers, as these lightly used cars make for total bargains.

We’re breaking down 10 of the best new cars on sale in January 2024 that suffered from heavy depreciation. Whether you’re looking for a city car, sports car or family SUV, we’ve found some low prices on cars that’ll cost a lot less than if you plugged for them new. 

There are a few factors at play that do feed into a greater level of depreciation. Electric vehicles and woes about battery degradation are a common concern and as a result this list is dominated by EVs. Lower demand on the used car market has produced fertile ground for bargain hunters. Executive cars with their complicated tech are another common money pit. There are also some surprises.

How we chose the 10 cars 
This is an editorialised selection and we’re only choosing the ones we’d happily run ourselves. There are plenty of mediocre-to-bad cars that suffer from heavy depreciation, too, but poor residuals shouldn’t mean putting up with a sub-standard secondhand buy. 

We’re using data from the Parkers Valuation Tool, charting how much value an example registered in January 2024 with 20,000 miles and no optional extras added against the list price. We’ll be looking at the range-topping example of each model – partially to show the extent of the depreciation, but also to highlight the exceptional savings you could be picking up just one year later.

We’ll be comparing these cars to a rival that holds its value better. In some instances, this’ll be from a different marque, but we’ll also be highlighting examples of petrol and electric alternates of the same car, like with the Vauxhall Corsa.

Example one: Fiat 500e vs MINI Cooper
This pint-sized EV city car is packed with enough retro charm and urban chic to rival a Smeg showroom. The Fiat 500e is a likeable town runabout with plenty of equipment and well-resolved electric drivetrain. Compare it next to the refreshed petrol-powered MINI Cooper dressed to the nines, and the depreciation difference is stark. The MINI had a similar price tag in January 2024, bags of retro charm and a lot more performance, but it retained most of its value, not suffering the dramatic 52% the Fiat 500e lost in its first year (see table). 

Example two: Vauxhall Corsa Electric vs Corsa petrol
The Vauxhall Corsa Electric is a commendable small EV. It’s a solid small car with decent battery tech and a fun driving experience. But in January 2024, an Ultimate Edition cost a whopping £38,530. It takes home the crown for the most heavily depreciating car in our list. Losing a whopping 54.8% of its value in the first year, it’s clear that it was overpriced new. Things have improved since then with the arrival of the Yes Edition – but it’s still more expensive than a petrol Corsa in cash terms.

Why 2024’s worst depreciating cars matter to you 
The depreciation numbers make for stark reading when laid bare in the table below. Beyond the Corsa and 500e detailed above, a comparison between the Mercedes-AMG EQS and Mercedes-AMG S-Class show a shocking difference – a 48.9% drop for the EV compared with a 15.5% fall for its ICE equivalent. More examples can be found on Parkers.

Parkers editor, Keith Adams says: ‘Depreciation is a double-edged sword. If you’re buying used, it works in your favour, meaning you get more bangs for your buck. The downside, of course, is that depreciation is a constant while you could pick up a half-price year-old car, that catastrophic value drop is likely to continue well into the third and fourth years – and beyond. Buy new, and those that drop the fastest will cost considerably more per mile or per month than those that hold on to their values better.’

He adds: ‘That’s because lenders use these figures to calculate depreciation on new cars and then work out finance packages to suit – which explains why monthly deal prices don’t seem to have a direct relationship with cash prices. Depreciation is often the biggest cost drivers shoulder, and often it can be hidden from view, often silently relieving you of thousands…’

Using the Parkers Valuation Tool can give you a great insight into these prices and values, helping inform your next car purchase, new or used.

Table: Depreciation sinners

Price new (Jan 2024), value after 12 months, amount lost and total percentage drop

Table: Depreciation winners

Price new (Jan 2024), value after 12 months, amount lost and percentage drop

Full data is available on Parkers.co.uk or via the Parkers editorial team.