We often hear that new cars depreciate the moment you drive them off the lot. It’s something we come to understand, but there may be times when it is just too much to bear.
A YouTuber named Connor regularly posts videos about things that he purchases, including his new electric car. He purchased the Tesla for $140,000 in 2022 and decided it was time to sell it this year.
We all understand that cars depreciate, but he was not prepared for the sticker shock he would experience when he saw the invoice. According to a TikTok enthusiast, Chris Pierce, it was ‘insane how fast Teslas depreciate.’
When Pierce pulled up the invoice after the car was appraised by Tesla, they found that it was depreciating at a rapid rate. It was much more than you would expect from a gas car.
When it was purchased in 2022, it had a value of $140,490. When Tesla appreciated it just two years later, with 37,000 miles on the odometer, he was offered $46,400.
Pierce went on to say: “That’s a loss of $94,000 or 67% of its original value.”
Pierce did say that the car may have been valued higher if he sold it privately but some car appraisal sites also offered less than half of the value that the car cost.
He said: “The appraisal came straight from Tesla, so it could be a lowball offer.
“But even sites like Edmunds, or Consumer Reports wouldn’t give him more than $59,000 at the absolute highest.”
He then pulled up a BMW to see how much it would have depreciated if it were purchased new in the same year and what it would be worth today.
He said: “The BMW M5 CS came out in 2022, the same year, for around $140,000 — the exact same price. It’s not a perfect comparison, but they’re both saloon-performance sedans. If you go on any of those sites I mentioned, you can buy the M5 CS for $140,000 today. Meaning this car has depreciated maybe $10,000.”
He had some advice that we should not be fooled by the newest and shiniest objects out there because they may not be worth what you are spending.
In other words, let the buyer beware.