Car depreciation in Ireland

How fast does a car lose value in Ireland?

Across the 142 models with enough listings to fit a curve, the median works out at about 14% of the asking price a year. Half the models sit between roughly 11.6% and 16.3% a year, which is the first thing worth knowing: the spread between a model that holds on and one that does not is far wider than any single national average suggests, and it is the difference between two cars of the same price at the same age.

That rate is an average over a whole curve, not a flat yearly charge. It falls hardest at the start.

What is left after one, three and five years

Each model here is measured against its own newest well-populated model year, so the table reads as "what a car of this age still asks, as a share of a nearly-new one". The median is taken across models rather than across listings, so one very common car does not become most of the answer.

The shape is the point. About 14.8% goes in the first year, and by five years old the typical model is asking 58.2% of a nearly-new one — so roughly two fifths of what a car costs to own over five years is a number nobody ever invoices.

It is worth saying where the fall stops, because the usual advice is that it settles after three or four years. On these listings it mostly does not, at least not that early: of the 142 models measured, only 19 reach an age where the year-on-year drop stops clearing 10% within the model years on record, and just 8 of those do it by year six. For the rest the fall is still running at eight years old. A model's own page prints its settling age where it has one.

Which cars hold their value best in Ireland?

These are 109 models where one model year could be priced twice — in the earliest year with ten or more listings of it, and again now — so the change is what that year of cars actually lost while it aged, not a curve fitted across different cars of different ages today. Each row names the two years it was priced in, because the earliest well-populated year differs from model to model: a change measured over two years and one measured over a single year sit in the same column here, and only the years tell them apart. "Now" is today's live listings. The full table, with the drop curve and every age band, is on the depreciation league.

Held their value best

Lost the most

One honest caveat about the bottom of any such table: a model that changed generation in the period is yesterday's shape against a new one, which is part of what depreciation is but not the same thing as a car nobody wants.

Electric cars

A three-year-old electric car asks about 65.2% of a nearly-new one, against 72.2% for everything else, across 17 electric models with enough listings. They fall faster, and by a margin that is visible rather than marginal. Models are counted as electric by name rather than by the fuel field, because that field is the seller's own tick-box and several names are sold in both drivetrains — grouping on it would mix a petrol car's curve into the electric answer.

Common questions

How much does a car lose in value per year in Ireland?

Across the 142 models tracked here, the median is about 14% of the asking price a year, fitted across each model's own model years. That is an average over a whole curve and not a flat rate: the first years fall much harder than the later ones.

How much does a new car lose in the first year in Ireland?

A one-year-old car still asks about 85.2% of what a nearly-new one asks, so roughly 14.8% has gone in the first year. By three years old that is down to about 71.1%, measured across 98 models.

At what age does a car stop depreciating in Ireland?

Later than the usual advice suggests. Of the 142 models measured here, only 19 reach an age where the year-on-year drop stops clearing 10% within the model years on record, and only 8 of those manage it by year six; for the rest the fall is still running at eight years old. The steepest part is over early, but "stops depreciating" is a different claim and the listings mostly do not support it.

Do electric cars depreciate faster in Ireland?

On these listings, yes. A three-year-old electric car asks about 65.2% of a nearly-new one, against 72.2% for everything else, across 17 electric models. Electric models are grouped by name rather than by the fuel field, because the fuel field is the seller's own tick-box and several names are sold in both drivetrains.

Are these sale prices or asking prices?

Asking prices, always. They are what sellers wanted for 53,717 live DoneDeal listings and 144,152 archived observations of them, which is the number a buyer negotiates down from rather than what any one car fetched. Nothing about a seller is stored.

Look up your own car

Every figure above is an average over many models, and the model you are actually looking at may be nowhere near it. The depreciation tracker gives the curve for one make and model, filtered down to trim, engine size, fuel, gearbox and body, and there is a page for every model the listings support one for.