Car Depreciation UK:3-Year-Old Savings Data

Depreciation guides usually quote industry rules of thumb. We measured it instead: across 105 models with enough data in our price database, a three-year-old car costs on average a third less than a nearly-new example of the same model on sale today. But the spread is enormous — from over 50% on a big Audi saloon to under 17% on a Toyota Yaris — and the spread is where the smart buying decisions live.

One honest definition before the tables. This is the nearly-new premium: how much less a 2022 car costs than a 2025 car of the same model, both priced from live UK listings this month. It's the number that actually matters if you're choosing between nearly-new and three years old. It isn't a prediction of what a car you buy today will lose — and where a model changed generation or its new price jumped in between, part of the gap is the newer car costing more, not the older one falling. We've noted those cases.

Where skipping three years saves the most

Model	Nearly-new (2025) avg	3-year-old (2022) avg	Saving
Audi A6 Saloon	£44,565	£22,135	50.3%
Volkswagen Passat	£30,312	£16,416	45.8%
Range Rover Sport	£82,486	£46,724	43.4%
Dacia Duster*	£21,617	£12,465	42.3%
Audi A6 Avant	£44,030	£25,435	42.2%
Lexus RX	£55,849	£33,154	40.6%
Land Rover Discovery Sport	£40,798	£24,245	40.6%
MG3*	£14,872	£8,901	40.1%
Citroën C3 Aircross	£19,810	£11,925	39.8%
Škoda Octavia	£25,909	£15,658	39.6%

* The Duster and MG3 both launched new generations with higher list prices in 2024 — part of their gap is the new car getting dearer, not the old one collapsing. Still a real saving for the buyer; just a different mechanism.

The pattern behind the big fallers is no mystery: large executive cars (the A6 twice over, the Passat), luxury SUVs with running-cost reputations (Range Rover Sport, Discovery Sport, RX), and anything whose buyers overwhelmingly leased it new and never intended to own the depreciation. If you actually want one of these cars, the three-year-old example is where the value sits — a £44,500 A6 for £22,100 is half price with two-thirds of its life left.

Where the used discount barely exists

Model	Nearly-new (2025) avg	3-year-old (2022) avg	Saving
Porsche 911	£125,069	£109,799	12.2%
Toyota Yaris	£20,376	£16,991	16.6%
Hyundai i20	£17,695	£14,310	19.1%
Vauxhall Astra	£19,310	£15,157	21.5%
Mazda3	£19,557	£15,327	21.6%
BMW 2 Series	£36,024	£28,124	21.9%
Volkswagen Polo	£20,256	£15,575	23.1%
Hyundai i10	£15,279	£11,711	23.4%
Nissan Juke	£18,031	£13,802	23.5%
Land Rover Defender 90	£68,303	£51,958	23.9%

The value-holders are the mirror image: reliability-reputation superminis (Yaris hybrids are practically currency in the taxi trade), cars in permanent demand at the cheap end (i10, Polo, Juke), and the two cars people buy because they hold value — the 911 and the Defender. On these, buying three years old saves you so little that a nearly-new one with the full warranty is often the rational buy.

What we left out, and why

Two models earned their exclusion. The Ford Ranger showed a 49.8% gap — but pickup listings mix VAT-qualifying commercial prices with retail ones, so the gap isn't comparing like with like. The Toyota Prius showed 45.9% — but Toyota didn't sell a new Prius in the UK for part of the gap period, so its "2022 cars" are a different mix entirely. Data that looks dramatic but can't be defended doesn't go in the table; our methodology page explains all the gates we apply.

How to use this if you're buying

• Big saloons and premium SUVs: buy the depreciation. Let the first owner fund the drop; check our cheap-buyer guides for each model’s known weak points before you commit.
• Value-holders: consider nearly-new. When the three-year saving is under 20%, the warranty, fresh tyres and known history of a newer car can be worth the difference.
• Price the specific car, not the average. Every figure above is a market average; a real car needs a real valuation — ours is free and asks for no contact details.

Methodology

For each of the 146 models in our price database we compared the average listed price of 2025-registered cars with 2022-registered cars of the same model, both from live UK marketplace and dealer-platform listings collected March–July 2026. Only models with at least 50 cars in both years qualified (105 did). Prices are asking prices; averages are unweighted within each year. Two qualifying models were excluded for the comparability reasons given above. Full detail: data & methodology. Journalists: cuts by segment or fuel type available free — info@scanauctions.com.