Depreciation

Welcome to PriusChat Clifford. Well, you could read the Consumer Reports article, but be sure to re-wash your brain afterwards. They propose that it will lose some 56% of its value after 5 years, ending up at $9801. That doesn't sound very good.

Or you could look at how the new model Prius has done so far, loosing about 8% of its value after 2 years. This result is far better than typical cars (including Camry), and even I don't suppose that it will continue quite that well in later years.

Or you could look at the previous model Prius that lost about 40% of its original value after 5 years. I expect the new model to do a bit better than that.

Most folks at this internet group and a few others expect very high resale values for Prius. Ask the same question in the Edmunds.com forum, and you may hear a different story!

I don't have NAV on my rickety old 2001 Prius, but if I bought it, would be to use it. I don't suppose that it would hold its value as an option.

 

there are 2003's selling for 16-17000. that is 15-20% drop in value. not too bad since some of these cars have over 40000 miles on them.

 

I have an '05 package 4 that was purchased one week before Katrina for $22.3k ($1100 under MSRP). I have just over 16k miles on the Odo and Kelly Blue Book says I could expect to sell it on my own to a non-dealer buyer for $24,645.

Hmm, am I to believe that this vehicle increased in value during my seven months of ownership and all that driving?

That's an interesting notion, to say the least. Of course, something is only worth what you can get for it at the time of sale, and should I decide to sell tomorrow, I might not realize what Kelly says I should. Still, I have personally never seen an auto value behave like real estate - excepting vintage and rare cars.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

If you want a sorry resale vehicle buy a Hyundai and start crying 3 or 4 years later when it's worth less then 1/2 of what it cost new.

Toyotas are light years ahead of Hyundais.

 

Generally speaking, Prius has a relatively low depreciation. However, because of the Federal tax credit, peoples tend to buy new rather than buy a 1-2 years old used. Check out the Private Sales section in Priuschat Market Place and decide for yourself.

Other auto makers have such a low resale, a big factor is the huge discount offered when the car is initially purchased-at invoice or even below invoice.

 

I believe the predicted high depreciation is predicated on battery failure/replacement that will be needed when hybrids are out of warranty. They (edmunds, CR) seem to think this will make potential second hand buyers think twice. IMHO it will indeed. It will because of newer battery technologies it may rival a new model. The Prius being battery first is primed to take advantage of this where the Honda IMA is not, but dont take my word for it, check into this. The question to ask is how well can a current configuration of the HSD take advantage of a higher capacity, faster charging battery? With the more robust electric motors doing the grunt work the ICE is babied and I think these cars with a battery upgrade will go a long time.

 

I think my Prius will last a long time, and I think that if gas shoots through the roof like most people on this board believe it will, then the Prius will really fare well against other vehicles. However, I think that we're at an apex in vehicle technologies and that newer models over the next 3 or 4 years will take off where the Prius started. Not many cars have ever been designed from the ground up to be a hybrid, and I'm sure that we'll see all of the big manufacturers releasing "gound-up" hybrids. This is the only reason I haven't bought 2 Prius's or a Ford Escape... I think our cars will not seem quite as magical in the years to come... I wonder how this will affect their resale value though...

 

if that is the case, then yours depreciated much faster than mine. i had 18,000 miles on it after 14 months before the resale value dropped to what i paid for mine. i paid sticker for a pak 1.

 

mine just priced at about 20k ( 04 with 53k miles) seeing i paid about 27k.. and more with financing... yeah... decent drop for the kbb. Could i ask more and get it? I'm pretty sure i can.

 

I suspect the unkown will play a factor for people until there are a bunch of 8 to 10 year old Prii out on the road still on their original batteries. Then the average person will trust that a 4 year old Prius WILL last another 4-6 years without major repair expense.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. The early adopters are trusting Toyota's integrity as a company, the 8year /100K warranty on the hybrid systems and antecdotal evidence (such as the Vancouver taxi). I notice that the 2006s don't have 3 year free roadside assistance. The 2004s didn't get free oil changes like the 2001-2003s. Toyota is slowly pulling off the consumers' "security blankets" that make the risk of a new thing more palatable. Very few people had to make use of the roadside service, the battery recycling plant is unused, everything points to a quality product with a long life.

 

I know prius's are holding thier value, But what about the honda hybrids?

 

I am still working on a larger statement on depreciation, but here are the parts related to your question. Edmunds and Kelly Blue book provide "true market value" and "private party value", respectively. NADA does not, so I averaged their trade-in and retail (Honda lot) values. Then I averaged all three sources. Where necessary, I specified automatic transmissions and alloy wheels. In all cases assumed 15k miles/yr. Here comes the data:

2001...Insight...$10432
2002...Insight...$11809
2003...Insight...$14221
2004...Insight...$16233

2003...Civic-H...$16391
2004...Civic-H...$18311

I don't have their MSRPs yet, so please add 'em if you got 'em. I think you'll find the Honda hybrid depreciations are generally in line with the Prius models, and slower than (reliable) non-hybrid sedans.