Car Depreciation Calculator
Depreciation is the biggest cost of owning a car, and it is the one nobody writes a check for. AAA put the average at $4,334 a year for a new vehicle in its 2025 Your Driving Costs study, ahead of fuel, insurance and finance charges. But an average hides the real spread: a flagship luxury sedan and a compact SUV lose value at very different speeds, and a single flat percentage misprices both.
This car depreciation calculator fixes that by starting from the vehicle type. Pick one of six types, from compact cars to sports and performance cars, enter the purchase price, the car’s age, your annual mileage and its condition, and the calculator applies that type’s retained-value curve, adjusts it for mileage and condition, and returns the estimated current value, the total and per-year loss, a year-by-year schedule, a month-by-month schedule, and a five-year benchmark against the average car. Every figure is labelled as a planning estimate, not an appraisal, because that is honestly what any depreciation model is. Calculator Zilo is not affiliated with any car maker, pricing guide or valuation service named on this page.
Estimates use class-based depreciation curves and are planning figures, not appraisals. Real resale depends on make, model, trim, options, service history, accident record and your local market.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- Vehicle types do not share one curve. At year 5 the flagship luxury sedan curve keeps 29% of the original price, the large sedan 33%, the compact car 40%, the midsize SUV 41%, the compact SUV 43% and the sports car curve 45%, before mileage and condition adjustments.
- Condition is priced, not decorative: Good trims the retained value by 5% and Fair by 12% from year 1 onward.
- Mileage moves the estimate too, by +2% under 8,000 miles a year and -3% over 15,000 miles a year.
- Recent market data runs kinder than long-run curves: the iSeeCars five-year depreciation study puts the average loss at 41.8% over five years, so treat this calculator’s output as a cautious planning figure, not a quote.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the car depreciation calculator
- The six curves behind the numbers
- Worked example: a three-year-old compact car
- Why luxury sedans fall fastest, and SUVs hold up
- When the estimate will miss, and by how much
- Market value is not tax depreciation
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the car depreciation calculator
Start with the vehicle type, because the type decides the curve. Then enter the price the curve should act on, the car’s age in whole years, the miles it covers in a typical year, and an honest condition grade.
Six types cover most of the market, from compact cars to flagship luxury sedans. If your car sits between two types, run both and treat the pair of answers as a range.
Use the original price if you want the car’s loss since new, or your own purchase price if you want your loss since you bought it. The maths is identical; only the story changes.
Age runs to 15 years. Past year 10 the curve is extended at 6% a year off the year-10 value, with a floor of 5% of the original price.
The year-by-year table shows where the steep years sit for your vehicle type, and the month-by-month table interpolates between the annual marks for anyone pricing a sale mid-year.
If a loan is involved, compare the value curve with the balance curve: the auto loan principal payment calculator shows how fast the amount you owe falls, which is the other half of the trade-in picture.
The six curves behind the numbers
Each vehicle type maps to one retained-value curve, expressed as the share of the original price still kept at each birthday. The types exist because the market really does treat these vehicles differently: big luxury sedans are hit by lease returns and expensive out-of-warranty repairs, SUVs keep a wider pool of second buyers, and sought-after sports cars have an enthusiast floor under them.
| Vehicle type curve | Year 1 | Year 3 | Year 5 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compact or midsize car | 72% | 52% | 40% | 21% |
| Large sedan | 66% | 45% | 33% | 17% |
| Flagship luxury sedan | 62% | 41% | 29% | 14% |
| Compact SUV or crossover | 74% | 55% | 43% | 23% |
| Midsize or large SUV | 73% | 53% | 41% | 21% |
| Sports or performance car | 75% | 57% | 45% | 24% |
Set those curves against published market data and they sit at the cautious end, which is where a planning figure should sit. Kelley Blue Book puts the typical first-year loss at about 20% and close to 60% over five years in its guide to beating car depreciation, while the latest iSeeCars study of over 950,000 five-year-old vehicles found an average five-year loss of 41.8%, with trucks at 34.2%, hybrids at 35.4% and electric vehicles at 57.2%. CARFAX’s 2026 data tells a similar recent story in its car depreciation guide: roughly 12.5% lost in year one and about 66% of value kept at five years. Used-car supply is still tight enough to hold values up. If your car is a strong seller in a hot segment, expect it to beat the curve here; if it is a slow seller, the curve may be kind.
Worked example: a three-year-old compact car
The calculator is pre-filled with this case, and every number below is what it returns: compact or midsize car, $60,000, 3 years old, 12,000 miles a year, good condition. At 12,000 miles the mileage factor is neutral, so the only adjustment is the 5% good-condition trim: 52% x 0.95 = 49.4% retained.
| Age | Retained | Estimated value | Lost that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| New | 100% | $60,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Year 1 | 68.40% | $41,040.00 | $18,960.00 |
| Year 2 | 57.00% | $34,200.00 | $6,840.00 |
| Year 3 | 49.40% | $29,640.00 | $4,560.00 |
Two things stand out. First, year 1 costs more than years 2 and 3 combined in this example: $18,960 against $11,400. That front-loaded shape is why nearly-new cars are the sweet spot for second owners. Second, the condition grade alone is worth real money: the same car graded excellent returns $31,200, and graded fair it returns $27,456, so the grade swings the estimate by $3,744 before a buyer has even seen the car. Presentation, service records and tyre condition are how sellers argue their way back toward the excellent line. Anyone budgeting the full running cost, not just the value loss, can spread the same miles over the cost per 100 miles calculator to see what each mile costs to drive.
Share of original price kept at year 5 on each curve in this calculator, before mileage and condition adjustments. On a $50,000 car that is $22,500 for the sports car curve and $14,500 for the flagship luxury sedan curve.
Why luxury sedans fall fastest, and SUVs hold up
The pattern is structural, not a verdict on the cars. A large share of new luxury sedans leave the showroom on leases and business contracts, and those cars return to the market together at two to four years old, swelling supply exactly where prices are set. Out of warranty, a luxury car carries repair bills that reflect its original price, not its used price, and used buyers discount for that risk. New-car incentives and model refreshes pull in the same direction: a facelift makes the pre-facelift car look older overnight. SUVs face the opposite pressure: family buyers keep demand deep, so a five-year-old SUV has more bidders than a five-year-old sedan of the same original price.
An honest example, since readers land here looking for it: take a BMW 3 Series, which sits on this calculator’s compact or midsize car curve. On a $60,000 car that curve gives the worked example above, $29,640 at three years in good condition. Published model-level data tells the same story one size up: iSeeCars figures put the BMW 5 Series at about 67% lost and the 7 Series at about 71% lost over five years, which is exactly where this calculator’s large sedan (33% kept) and flagship luxury sedan (29% kept) curves land. This page is not affiliated with BMW, and no curve here is a BMW valuation: for a price on one specific car, a VIN-based tool such as the CARFAX History-Based Value lookup uses that car’s own accident, service and ownership records.
When the estimate will miss, and by how much
No curve sees your individual car. A rare colour, a missing service stamp, an accident record, a discontinued model or a local shortage can each move a real price thousands of dollars away from the curve in either direction. Two limits are built into the maths itself. The mileage adjustment is a band, not a per-mile price: 15,100 miles a year and 25,000 miles a year are treated the same, and so are 7,900 and 2,000. The condition grades are just as coarse, three steps for a spectrum that runs from showroom to salvage. Treat the output as the centre of a range, then adjust for what you know about the actual car.
One more gap matters to lease drivers: this calculator works from age and annual mileage, not odometer readings against a lease allowance. If you are projecting a lease-end bill, the excess mileage calculator prices the overage itself, which is a different number from the value the extra miles knock off the car.
Market value is not tax depreciation
This calculator estimates what a car is worth. It does not compute what you can deduct. For a car used in a business, the IRS depreciates passenger automobiles as five-year property under MACRS, with dollar caps that have nothing to do with resale value, and the IRS standard mileage rates offer a per-mile alternative that bundles depreciation in (72.5 cents a mile for business use in the first half of 2026, rising to 76 cents from July 1, 2026). If you need the deduction side, the depreciation expense calculator works through book and tax depreciation methods directly.
What competing calculators miss
Most car depreciation tools make one of three compromises, and each one costs accuracy. The straight-line tools ask for a purchase price and a current value and divide by the years, which assumes a car loses the same share every year; real curves are front-loaded, so those tools understate early loss and overstate late loss. The single-curve tools apply one average curve to everything, which misprices a flagship luxury sedan and a compact SUV in opposite directions on the same page. And the rate-entry tools make you supply your own annual depreciation percentage, which is the very number you came to find. The valuation services at the other end, Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds and CARFAX, price individual cars from live market and history data, but they will not show you the curve, the schedule or the assumptions to audit. This page takes the middle ground on purpose: six type curves, stated mileage and condition factors, and a month-by-month schedule you can check line by line.
Where a curve estimate wins
- Planning before you buy: compare types while you still have a choice
- Transparent maths you can audit, with every factor printed
- Year-by-year and month-by-month schedules for timing a sale
- No VIN, plate or personal details needed
Where a VIN valuation wins
- Pricing one specific car you are about to sell or buy
- Accident, service and ownership history priced in
- Local market demand reflected in the figure
- Trade-in and private-party values separated
An accident record deserves its own sentence, because sellers meet it at exactly the wrong moment. A repaired accident can cut what buyers will pay by more than any condition grade here, and that separate loss has its own name and its own maths in the diminishing value depreciation calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the vehicle type. In this calculator the first-year loss runs from 25% on the sports and performance curve to 38% on the flagship luxury sedan curve, before condition is applied. Published market averages are lower: Kelley Blue Book puts the typical first-year loss at about 20%, and CARFAX’s 2026 data puts it near 12.5%. On the worked example, a $60,000 compact car in good condition falls to $41,040 in year 1, a loss of $18,960.
The sports and performance curve, at 45% retained at year 5, followed by the compact SUV curve at 43% and the midsize SUV curve at 41%. The flagship luxury sedan curve holds least, at 29%. That ordering matches published segment data: in the iSeeCars five-year study, trucks, hybrids and sports cars hold value best while large luxury sedans and electric vehicles lose most.
Through a simple factor applied from year 1: over 15,000 miles a year trims the retained value by 3%, under 8,000 miles a year (and above zero) lifts it by 2%, and anything in between leaves it unchanged. It is a band adjustment, not a per-mile price, so 15,100 and 25,000 miles a year are treated the same. On the worked example, 6,000 miles a year gives $30,232.80 and 18,000 miles a year gives $28,750.80.
Excellent applies no adjustment, Good multiplies the retained value by 0.95 and Fair by 0.88. On a car the curve values at $31,200 in excellent condition, that is $29,640 in good condition and $27,456 in fair condition. The grades are deliberately coarse: they price the market’s reaction to condition, not the cost of repairs.
Because the adjustments switch on from year 1, matching how the curves are published: the retained share at age 0 is 100% by definition. The first-year drop then appears in full in the schedule, which is the honest shape of the loss, even though in the real market a chunk of that drop happens the day the car is first registered.
The curves run to year 10, and ages 11 to 15 extend the year-10 value at 6% a year, floored at 5% of the original price. Treat anything past year 10 as a rough guide: at that age, individual condition and repair history matter more than any curve.
Neither. It is a planning estimate built from depreciation curves for the vehicle type, with stated adjustments. A trade-in offer also reflects a dealer’s stock, reconditioning costs and margin, and a formal appraisal inspects the actual car. Use this figure to judge whether an offer is in a fair range, and use a VIN-based valuation for the specific car.
Yes, and it is one of the better uses. Enter the original price and the car’s current age to see what the curve says it should be worth now, then re-run it at the age you plan to sell. The gap between the two values is your expected depreciation cost of owning it, which you can weigh against the asking price.
No. This is market depreciation: what the car is worth. Tax depreciation for a business car follows IRS rules instead, with passenger automobiles treated as five-year property under MACRS and capped each year, or the standard mileage rate used in its place. The two numbers rarely match, and the tax figure belongs on the depreciation expense calculator, not here.
Only loosely, through the condition grade. A recorded accident usually costs more than the Fair grade’s 12% trim, because buyers and dealers price the history report itself, not just the repaired car. That separate loss is called diminished value, and it is calculated differently from age-based depreciation.
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References
- iSeeCars, “Cars That Hold Their Value: Top 25 Vehicles With the Lowest 5-Year Depreciation” – study of over 950,000 five-year-old vehicles sold between March 2025 and February 2026: average five-year depreciation 41.8%, trucks 34.2%, hybrids 35.4%, SUVs 44.9%, electric vehicles 57.2%. iSeeCars: Cars That Hold Their Value Study. Accessed October 2026.
- CARFAX, “Car Depreciation: How Much Value Does a Car Lose Per Year?” – 2026 CARFAX data: more than 10% lost in the first month, about 12.5% in the first year, and about 66% of value retained after five years. CARFAX: Car Depreciation. Accessed October 2026.
- Kelley Blue Book, “How to Beat Car Depreciation” – a new car loses about 20% of its value in the first year and close to 60% within the first five years, and why reliable mainstream brands hold value better. Kelley Blue Book: How to Beat Car Depreciation. Accessed October 2026.
- Edmunds, “How Fast Does My New Car Lose Value?” – year-by-year value-loss pattern for new cars and the effect of mileage and condition on resale. Edmunds: How Fast Does My New Car Lose Value?. Accessed October 2026.
- Kelley Blue Book, “Car Depreciation: How a Car Loses Value” – resale-value methodology, the factors that set a car’s depreciation rate, and why luxury brands typically lose value faster than mainstream brands. Kelley Blue Book: Car Depreciation. Accessed October 2026.
- AAA Newsroom, “AAA: New Vehicle Costs Drop to $11,577” (Your Driving Costs 2025) – depreciation is the most significant cost of vehicle ownership, averaging $4,334 a year in 2025, down from $4,680 in 2024. AAA Newsroom: Your Driving Costs 2025. Accessed October 2026.
- Experian, “What Is Depreciation on a Car?” – how depreciation works, the first-month and first-year losses, and the five-year value range across KBB, CARFAX and iSeeCars estimates. Experian: What Is Depreciation on a Car?. Accessed October 2026.
- CARFAX, “Carfax History-Based Value” – VIN-specific valuation using accident history, service history, number of owners and vehicle use, the individual-car counterpart to the curve estimate on this page. CARFAX: History-Based Value. Accessed October 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, “Standard Mileage Rates” – the standard mileage rate bundles depreciation into a per-mile figure; 35 cents of the 2026 business rate is attributable to depreciation. IRS: Standard Mileage Rates. Accessed October 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service, “IRS Sets 2026 Business Standard Mileage Rate at 72.5 Cents Per Mile” (IR-2025-128) – 2026 business rate of 72.5 cents per mile from January 1, 2026, the rate cited in the tax section of this article. IRS Newsroom: 2026 Standard Mileage Rate. Accessed October 2026.