See a year-by-year estimate of value loss for a new or used vehicle, based on typical depreciation curves.
| Year | Est. Value | Retained |
|---|
Enter the price you paid, choose whether the car is new or used, and set how many years to project. The page applies a year-by-year loss rate and shows the value at the end of each year as a percentage of what you paid.
The new-versus-used toggle matters because the first-year drop is the steepest and a used car has already taken it. Projecting from what you paid, not from the original sticker, is what keeps the answer honest.
A $35,000 new car, projected forward:
| End of year | Value | Share of new price |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $28,000 | 80% |
| 2 | $23,800 | 68% |
| 3 | $20,706 | 59% |
| 5 | $16,399 | 47% |
| 8 | $12,631 | 36% |
The first year costs $7,000 and the fifth costs about $1,600. That is the shape of the curve: front-loaded, then flattening. It is why the cheapest miles you will ever drive are the ones in a car you have already owned for four years, and why buying a two-year-old car avoids the single worst year of the whole curve.
The percentages on this page are typical loss rates, not a prediction for your car. Vehicles differ enormously: trucks and some SUVs hold value better than average, luxury sedans worse, and anything with an unusual specification can beat or miss the curve by a wide margin. Locally, a model that is popular and in short supply depreciates more slowly than the same car in a market that does not want it.
Mileage and condition sit on top of the age curve. Two identical four-year-old cars can differ by thousands depending on whether one has done 40,000 miles and the other 90,000. An accident on the history report is the other common discount, and it follows the car forever.
The practical use is timing a sale. If the curve is flat between year five and year six, the car is costing you very little in depreciation and the case for replacing it is about reliability rather than money. If you are in year one or two, selling now crystallises the steepest part of the loss.
Because the next buyer can choose a new one instead. The moment a car becomes used it competes with new stock, and the discount has to bridge that gap.
No. It is a typical curve applied to your price. Market conditions, mileage and condition can move the real number a long way.
Yes, more slowly. Choose the used option to start from a flatter part of the curve.
Then depreciation matters less, because you extract the value by using it. The cost per year of ownership falls the longer you hold it.
Recent models have depreciated quickly in some markets, partly because of price cuts on new cars and partly because battery technology keeps improving. Treat the standard curve as a starting point, not a verdict.
The percentages are this site’s rule of thumb. A real asking price is someone else’s data.
Last updated: November 2, 2026. Reviewed by David Liu.