Car Depreciation Calculator
Estimated resale value of a car after years of depreciation at a given annual rate.
About the Car Depreciation Calculator
The Car Depreciation Calculator gives you an instant answer from just a few inputs — purchase price, annual depreciation rate, years. It runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay private and never touch a server, and the result recalculates the moment you change a value. It's free to use with no sign-up, no limits, and nothing to install.
Worth Knowing
Depreciation is the largest cost of owning a car and the one least likely to appear in anyone's budget, because you never write a cheque for it — you simply get less back at the end than you put in. A single flat annual rate is a simplification of a curve that is steepest at the start: a new car commonly sheds 15% to 20% in its first year, and a good deal of that happens the moment it stops being new. Applying one rate across the whole term therefore understates the early drop and overstates the later one, which is fine for a multi-year estimate and misleading for a one-year one. What you actually own matters more than the average. Depreciation varies enormously by make and model, and a vehicle with a reputation for reliability and steady demand can hold value at roughly half the rate of one without it. Trim level, colour, transmission, accident history, and above all mileage move the figure independently of age, and a car driven well above the typical 12,000 miles a year will price below its model year. Two practical consequences. Buying a two or three-year-old vehicle lets the first owner absorb the steepest part of the curve, which is why used cars in that band are usually the best value per dollar. And when you come to sell, the number that matters is what the market is paying this month for your exact specification and mileage — check current listings rather than trusting any modelled figure, including this one.
How to Use
- Enter Purchase price into the first field of the Car Depreciation Calculator.
- Fill in the rest: Annual depreciation rate, Years.
- Your result appears instantly as you type — there's no submit button or page reload.