Which used cars hold their value? Size, brand, model and fuel type compared: Part 2

Two used cars with the same price tag today can be worth very different amounts when you come to sell them. That gap is money you never see on the forecourt, which makes it one of the biggest costs of owning a car. To find out which cars hold their value and which lose it fast, we compared 41,298 used cars.

How we measured it

• We looked at 41,298 used cars aged 1 to 10 years, covering 485 models, listed for sale on two large UK used-car dealer websites between June and October 2026.
• We compared cars of the same model and specification (fuel, gearbox, body and engine size), so any difference in value comes from age alone.
• We re-checked every figure on two random halves of the data, and where a gap is too small to tell from chance, we say so.
• The average used car loses 10.0% of its value a year.
• To show what each finding means for you, we use one example throughout: a £15,000 used car that you keep for 3 years.

How car size affects how fast a car loses value: do bigger cars lose value faster?

Car size affects depreciation more than body style does, and the bigger the car you buy, the faster it loses value. At the small end, a city car loses 8.6% of its value a year, while at the top an executive car loses 11.8%.

In our example, that gap is worth £1,161. Spend £15,000 on a city car and it'll be worth £11,453 after 3 years, whereas the same money spent on an executive car leaves you with £10,292.

Do bigger cars lose more value at the same mileage?

Bigger cars lose value faster even when you compare cars with the same mileage, so the gap isn't just down to bigger cars doing more miles. At equal mileage, a city car loses 6.3% a year, while an executive car still loses 9.0%.

Do SUVs lose value faster than hatchbacks of the same size?

SUVs lose value at the same pace as hatchbacks of the same size, so you don't need to avoid an SUV to protect what you'll get back. Compared size for size, the gaps are small. A small SUV loses 9.6% of its value a year against 9.3% for a supermini, and a large SUV loses 10.9%, slightly less than the 11.1% a large family car loses.

The widest gap is between a compact SUV, at 10.6%, and a family hatchback, at 9.6%. Even that one, like the others, isn't big enough to be sure it's real once we compare like-for-like models. What SUVs do share with hatchbacks is the size pattern, so a large SUV loses value faster than a small one.

If you've heard that SUVs depreciate faster, that's because on the raw figures they seem to. Cars listed as SUVs lose 10.8% a year, against 9.5% for hatchbacks. However, SUVs are bigger on average, and size explains the whole gap. The listing labels muddy things further, with 41% of crossovers listed as hatchbacks.

How the car brand affects how fast a car loses value

The car brand you pick can change your depreciation by several points a year, and of the 20 biggest brands, SEAT holds its value best, losing 7.5% a year. Toyota, Mazda and Volkswagen follow close behind, losing between 8.0% and 8.8%. At the other end, BMW loses 11.6% a year, and Land Rover does worst of all, at 12.7%.

That gap adds up by the time you sell. Kept for 3 years, our £15,000 example car would be worth £11,872 as a SEAT but only £9,980 as a Land Rover, a difference of £1,892 in the SEAT's favour.

Does mileage explain the gap between brands?

Mileage doesn't explain the gap between brands either, because the gap stays even when you compare cars with the same mileage. At equal mileage, Land Rover still loses the most, at 9.7% a year, followed by BMW at 8.6%, while SEAT loses just 4.8%.

Does a premium badge make a car lose value faster?

A premium badge only costs you extra in the bigger size classes. Among family hatchbacks, premium models (Audi A3, BMW 1 Series, Mercedes A-Class and CLA) lose 9.3% a year against 10.0% for mainstream ones, so in this class the badge actually helps you.

In the bigger classes it's the other way round, with premium models losing about 1% a year more. Premium business cars, for instance, lose 11.3% a year against 10.0% for mainstream ones, and among large SUVs premium models lose 11.2% against 10.1%. Because each of these figures could be about 1% a year out either way, treat them as a rule of thumb.

Which countries' car brands hold their value best?

Grouped by where they come from, Italian, Czech, Spanish and Japanese car brands hold their value best, while British brands lose it fastest.

Czech and Spanish, Japanese and Italian brands all hold value clearly better than the 10.0% average. Italy's lead rests on only 685 cars, though, so treat its figure as rough. British brands, by contrast, are the only group that loses value clearly faster than average.

Even so, a country's average can hide big gaps between its own brands. If you want a German car that holds its value, for example, Volkswagen loses 8.8% a year while BMW loses 11.6%. Likewise, among British brands Land Rover and Jaguar drag the average down, but MINI holds up at 9.2%.

Swedish brands lose an average share of their value but more money than any other group, because Volvos cost more to begin with. With a typical Volvo for sale priced at £26,998, the same percentage adds up to £2,484 a year.

The used car models that hold their value best and worst

The used car models that hold their value best are mostly small petrol crossovers and hatchbacks, led by the SEAT Arona at 6.0% a year. Those that lose value fastest are mostly premium diesel SUVs and saloons. Because we only ranked models with at least 150 cars for sale, these are cars you'll find plenty of when you start looking.

12 used cars that hold their value best

12 used cars that lose their value fastest

Not every car on the fastest-depreciating list is premium, though. Three mainstream compact SUVs (the Vauxhall Grandland, Dacia Duster and Hyundai Tucson) sit there alongside the BMWs and Mercedes. If you're shopping for a family SUV, that's worth knowing before you settle on one.

What fast-depreciating cars have in common

The strongest link we found is fuel, with fast-depreciating cars more often diesels, an effect that shows most clearly once a diesel is over 5 years old. These cars also tend to have bigger engines and cover more miles a year, and more of them are automatics.

By contrast, a model's price on its own and how popular it is make little difference. This means an expensive or popular car doesn't automatically lose value faster.

How much picking the right model can save you

Picking a model that holds its value can save you thousands of pounds over a few years. Take our £15,000 example car. If it loses 6% a year, like a SEAT Arona, it's worth £12,459 after 3 years, but at 14% a year, like a Land Rover Discovery Sport, it's worth just £9,541. That's £2,918 back in your pocket for choosing well.

You can rely on these rankings because they aren't a fluke of the sample: a model's rate measured on one half of our data closely matches its rate on the other half. That consistency matters, because models genuinely differ, with a typical model sitting about 2% a year away from the 10% average, in one direction or the other.

How fuel type affects how fast a car loses value

Fuel type changes how fast a car loses value, with petrol cars holding it best and diesels, plug-in hybrids and electric cars losing it fastest. A full hybrid loses 9.1% a year, a touch less than petrol, so on our £15,000 example it's worth £11,266 after 3 years. A plug-in hybrid, by comparison, is worth £10,327, which costs you £939 more over the same 3 years.

These raw figures can mislead, though, because the cars on sale differ a lot in age. A typical diesel for sale is 7 years old, with 68% over 5, whereas electric and hybrid cars are much younger, at a typical 3 years.

Full, mild or plug-in hybrid: why the type matters

The three kinds of hybrid lose value at different rates, so the word "hybrid" on a listing doesn't tell you much on its own. A full hybrid (HEV) charges its own battery as you drive. As a group, full hybrids hold their value as well as petrol cars, helped by the brands that sell them, mostly Toyota, Hyundai and Honda. A plug-in hybrid (PHEV), on the other hand, has a bigger battery you charge from a socket, and it loses value almost as fast as an electric car.

Between the two sits the mild hybrid (MHEV), which uses a small electric motor to help the petrol or diesel engine. It loses 11.1% a year, close to diesel.

How electric, hybrid and diesel cars compare with the petrol version of the same model

Because of those age and brand differences, comparing a model with its own petrol version is the fairest test, as it takes brand and size out of the picture. A straight comparison of all cars by fuel type, by contrast, mixes in different models, so it partly reflects which brands make each kind. Here's how each fuel compares with the petrol version of the same models:

• Electric, 1 to 5 years old: loses 13.5% a year against 9.2% for the petrol version, £1,544 more over 3 years on our £15,000 example.
• Plug-in hybrid, 1 to 5 years old: 12.3% against 9.5%, £1,010 more.
• Mild hybrid, 1 to 5 years old: 11.3% against 8.9%, £894 more. It's a rough figure, though, because it's based on only 258 mild hybrids.
• Full hybrid, 1 to 5 years old: 10.3% against 9.2%, £425 more. The gap is small, but it shows up in both halves of our data.
• Full hybrid, 6 to 10 years old: 9.2% against 10.8%, with no clear difference.
• Diesel, 1 to 5 years old: 10.3% against 9.0%, £473 more, though the gap is too small to be sure.
• Diesel, 6 to 10 years old: 12.0% against 10.8%, £415 more.

Taken together, this means a full hybrid costs you little extra in lost value. A plug-in hybrid or electric car, however, can cost you over £1,000 more across 3 years.

How fast electric cars lose value

Electric cars deserve a closer look, because they lose value fastest in their first two years, dropping 31% between 1 and 3 years old, compared with 21% for the average used car over the same stretch. In practice, a £15,000 one-year-old electric car would be worth £10,350 by its third birthday. An average car bought for the same money would still be worth £11,850.

Why a 3-year-old electric car is the better buy

Because the steepest drop is already behind it, a 3-year-old electric car is a better used buy than a 1-year-old one. After year 3, electric cars lose value at a normal pace: 8.8% in year 4 and 9.8% in year 5, then 9.4% and 7.7% in years 6 and 7. So if you buy at 3 years old, the first owner has already taken the big hit.

Even so, as the same-model comparison showed, an electric car still loses value faster than the petrol version of the same model for at least its first 5 years. That difference is what costs you the extra £1,544 over 3 years on our £15,000 example.

Does mileage matter for an electric car's value?

Mileage matters far less than age for an electric car's value. Every 10,000 miles takes just 2.2% off an electric car's price, against 4.7% for the average car, so a few extra miles on an electric car's clock cost you less than you might think.

Battery size works in your favour too. An extra 10 kWh of battery (a measure of how much energy it stores) adds 8.3% to the price of the same model. Because that premium doesn't fade as the car gets older, you'll keep more of it when you sell.

Which electric cars hold their value best?

Of the electric cars we looked at, the Mercedes EQC holds its value best, losing 7.9% a year. The Hyundai Kona Electric loses the most, at 15.8%, against an average of 12.0%. We only included models with at least 30 cars for sale, and each figure could be about 3% a year out either way, so treat these as a guide.

Our picture of older electric cars is thinner still. Most electric cars on sale are young (a typical one is 3 years old), and only 141 are 6 years or older, which is why the figures beyond year 5 are less certain.

How to choose a used car that holds its value

Putting all this together, a small petrol or full hybrid hatchback or crossover from a brand that holds its value is the best pick for most buyers who want to lose as little as possible. The SEAT Arona, Volkswagen Polo, Toyota Yaris and Fiat 500, for example, all lose less than 8% a year.

• Want an SUV? Size matters more than shape, so a small SUV holds its value as well as a supermini.
• Need a bigger car? Expect it to lose more each year, whatever the badge, and in the bigger classes a premium model loses about 1% a year more than a mainstream one.
• Fancy a premium badge? Look at premium family hatchbacks such as the Audi A3 or Mercedes CLA, which hold their value at least as well as mainstream rivals.
• Choosing a hybrid? Go for a full hybrid if resale value matters to you, since a plug-in hybrid loses value more like an electric car.
• Considering diesel? Expect it to lose a little more than the petrol version, especially once it's over 5 years old.
• Want an electric car? Buy one around 3 years old, after the steepest drop, and favour a bigger battery, because it keeps its price premium as the car ages.

Depreciation is only one part of what a car costs you, though. That's why our next guide looks at what's worth paying for (options, gearbox and trim) and the true monthly cost of a car.

Read the previous parts:

1. How fast do used cars lose value? What 41,000 UK listings show: Part 1