Vehicle Fair Market Value

[niky]

You can consider at least a 20% depreciation for the first year or two for almost any car. So that SHOULD put the CR-V at 1.1million.

The net depreciation for Honda and Toyota over 5 years or more, though, is very VERY low. Take for example, the VTi, which is still selling for 40% the original price for a 1997 model, meaning a net depreciation of only 8% per year. Whereas Nissans depreciate at 11% or so and Ford Lynxes at around 12+% per year over five years.

The 1st gen City's depreciation is silly. Only about a 7% drop per year for Type Zs. (At least according to asking price). But true value for those cars is much lower than the owners are actually asking for them (should be 50k or more less than the asking price). This is just based on ads. Actual vehicle value for Toyotas and Hondas should be around 20-50k lower than in the ads, while for Nissans, Fords, etc., around 25k.

Not that you'll get many old Honda owners to budge on the price, though. That's what fuels the mystique of the secondhand Honda market... where a 5 year old SiR can still sell for 60-70% of its sticker price. The more people who want the car, the sillier the secondhand price is. It won't necessarily be worth that much, but you'll have to pay that to get a good model.

[jackndbox]

hello bry and niky! thanks a lot for your informative response. I guess a baseline 8% depreciation for every year would indeed be a reasonable figure to apply in estimating used car prices which i would apply from hereon. The reason i asked is that i can not seem to decipher a pattern/logic into the pricing of cars in the ads where a 100k price difference on basically the same car model. at least i know better now......