2011's best and worst depreciators

According to the Parkers depreciation stats for 2011, the outgoing generation of Kia Picanto was the car that lost the least money after a year of ownership.

The results were calculated from the difference between the list price of the car, and the average private resale value after 12 months and 10,000 miles.

Depreciation’s an important factor to consider when buying a new car. Some cars hold onto their value better than others, meaning they will cost you less overall in the long run.

The Kia Picanto lost only £1,250 of its value over the course of a year. That’s approximately £3.43 a day. That might sound like incredibly low depreciation, but the Picanto has a list price of £7,080.

That means that it will have lost about 18% of its value over 12 months, meaning that owners will get back about 82% of the original purchase price after a year.

Compact and smaller cars held 31 of the top 50 places. This was partly thanks to their low initial purchase price, meaning minimal losses compared to more expensive cars. Also contributing to the popularity of smaller cars was the new trend of people downsizing to save money by cutting their cost of motoring.

New cars to the top 10, compared to 2010, include the Suzuki Jimny, Renault Twingo, Hyundai i10, Ford Ka, Citroen DS3 and Smart Fortwo. The majority of these are strong contenders for the top 10 thanks to a combination of low list prices and decent residual values. The Citroen DS3 is a particularly desirable model, in ‘Black’ trim, meaning it retains its value well, hence its presence in the list.  

The average amount of depreciation for 2009 was 33%, yet in 2010 that rose slightly to 34%. 2011’s figures, however, show that figure to have returned to the 33% of the previous year. This potentially indicates that the used car market is stabilising slighty, and cars are more reliably holding onto their value.

More and more 4x4s and crossovers are also starting to appear higher up the tables, as people realise that many of them offer affordable running costs and economy to match conventional hatchbacks. Cars including the Skoda Yeti, Nissan Juke, Audi Q5 and Land Rover Discovery all do well as a result.

Not sure how much your car is worth? Find out with a Parkers valuation.

To view the top 100 results from 2011, see our separate article here.

All figures based on cash lost during 2011.

The best performers of 2011 (based on cash lost)

The worst performers of 2011 (based on cash lost)

Note: data correct at time of publication.

Parkers Top Tip:

See the depreciation winners of 2010 in our article here. Don’t forget to read our guide on how to protect your car’s residual values, in order to avoid hefty depreciation.