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A decent car is one of the most important investments you’ll ever make -
second only to buying a house - but the reality of the situation is that most cars will begin to depreciate in value from the very moment you drive them off the lot.
As a buyer, then, you want to spend your hard-earned money on something worthwhile, and as a seller, you want to get the best deal possible. So, we need to know which vehicles are smart buys, and why, and which vehicles probably aren’t going to get you too much money when you decide to sell.
If you’ve stayed up to date on the maintenance and services, and kept all the odds and ends in good working order, this should increase the resale value of the vehicle. This isn’t always the case, though, as a few unfortunate car owners often discover.
Some cars are just duds, for a variety of good reasons, and not just because people inherently dislike them. It’s important to take this depreciation, and resale value, into account before signing on that dotted line.
To help the public out, vehicle evaluation group, True Price, gathered data from thousands of vehicles sold on auction around South Africa, and published a report on the cars with the best and worst resale value, based on actual prices achieved on auction.
Let’s start off with the worst of the worst.
From a buyer’s perspective, some of these vehicles are great buys, and many of them are actually good cars. According to Darryl Jacobson, MD of True Price, depreciation will have knocked thousands off of the purchasing price, and buyers could potentially walk away with a steal.
However, there are often very good reasons why these vehicles depreciate so drastically in value. For instance, True Price found that the Tata Indica was the vehicle with the absolute worst resale value in South Africa. It achieved, on average, only 50% of its original price list on auction.
Jacobson added that while the Tata remains popular with local buyers (largely due to how inexpensive it is), customers have complained about difficulty in obtaining parts, and the vehicle being quite unreliable. So, not a very good deal there.
Some of the other vehicles on this list may have been impacted by other factors. When General Motors pulled out of South Africa, for example, the resale value of the vehicles it sold – such as Chevrolet – almost immediately depreciated.
Here are the ten vehicles with the worst resale value, based on the percentage of the original sales price achieved on auction.
1. Tata Indica;
2. Jeep Grand Cherokee;
3. Chevrolet Cruze;
4. Ford Kuga;
5. GWM Steed;
6. Kia Cerato;
7. Chevrolet Aveo;
8. Hyundai ix35;
9. Nissan Navara;
10. Nissan Micra.
From a seller’s perspective, you may rest easy that you’ll probably be getting a fair amount of money back when selling one of these vehicles. This could be due to popularity, affordability and availability of parts, reliability, or a number of other contributing factors.
As a prospective buyer, with the possible exception of the garbage-fire-on-wheels that is the Datsun Go, you’d also be glad to know that you’ll be purchasing a good car.
Here are the ten vehicles with the best resale value, based on the percentage of the original sales price achieved on auction.
1. Renault Kwid;
2. Toyota Etios;
3. Volkswagen Polo (including Sedan);
4. Kia Picanto;
5. Kia Rio;
6. Mercedes-Benz A-Class;
7. Volkswagen Golf;
8. Datsun Go;
9. Volkswagen Up;
10. Mercedes-Benz C Class.
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