Motoring News

An expert has said that cars which depreciate in value quickly can make bargain buys for used car buyers.

EurotaxGlass’s annual residual value league table shows that the worst performing three-year old car is the Alfa Romeo 166 which, after three years and 37,000 miles, has a trade-in value worth just 12 per cent of its original value.

To put this in context, the best performer (for the second year in a row) was found to be the diesel-powered Mini 1.4TD (63.2 per cent).

Adrian Rushmore, managing editor at EurotaxGlass’s, believes that ‘obsolescence’ (the attribute of losing value because the outside world has changed) is the common feature shared by the majority of the models in the bottom ten line-up.

To support his argument he pointed out that there are three cars sporting a Rover badge in the lower part of the league table.

Mr Rushmore thinks it is no coincidence that the Vectra is in the process of being replaced, the 9-5 is in the process of re-generating and the remainder haven’t been in production recently.

"Ageing product lifecycles are the death-knell for the values of most used cars," he said.

But the cars in the bottom ten do have their plus points for used car buyers.

Mr Rushmore explained: "Although a three-year-old Rover 75 1.8T Contemporary SE with 37,000 miles will have depreciated by £19,400 over three years, buyers will be virtually guaranteed trouble-free motoring for the next three years, and will not suffer a further significant loss in value."

Written by James Christie