Subcompact Crossovers Are Depreciating Faster Than Any Other Segment

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky
subcompact crossovers are depreciating faster than any other segment

Remember how Beanie Babies were a national phenomenon in the mid-1990s? The country couldn’t seem to get enough of the little darlings and many ended up going for astronomical prices. But, like most stupid trends, their popularity was short lived. It wasn’t long before the once-collectible toys held the same value as a used pair of underwear.

Subcompact crossovers may be suffering a similar fate. With the CUV craze in full tilt, automakers have been capitalizing by providing budget-minded shoppers with small and affordable variants. However, the group currently faces the heaviest depreciation of any automotive segment.

Market analysts at Black Book cited subcompact crossovers as losing 1.18 percent of their original value this week. Full-sized cars took the second heaviest hit at 1.17 percent per week — followed by subcompact and sporting cars at 0.98 and 0.97 percent, respectively. While those differences don’t sound terribly dramatic, keep in mind these vehicles have differing MSRPs. That translates to the baby crossovers shedding $133 of their original value against full-sized cars only losing $116. Meanwhile, those subcompacts riding closer to the ground gave up $51 this week.

It’s not an isolated incident either. Going back to the middle of July in 2016, Black Book had all subcompact crossovers losing 0.79 percent per week. At that time they were only beaten by their luxury equivalent, which depreciated by 1.01 percent. There is plenty of flux from week-to-week but the littlest late-model crossovers are typically poor at maintaining their original value. The same cannot be said for their larger brethren.

“Cars continued to depreciate at a steady rate while most SUV segments did better in the second week of the year [than before],” explained Anil Goyal, executive vice president of the auto valuation firm’s operations. “Generally, activity was reported to be slow in the auto auctions.”

What’s to be gained from this information? Well, if you’re buying new, you might be better off purchasing an sedan (luxury or otherwise) if you want it to maintain its resale value. However, if you’re shopping for the truck or SUV, bigger is usually better when it comes to deprecation.

[Image: Honda]

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  • Tekdemon Tekdemon on Jan 18, 2018

    Maybe I'll finally be able to get a well equipped newer Encore for cheap as a city car to drive into NYC with.

    • NormSV650 NormSV650 on Jan 19, 2018

      Used Encore's with 100,000 are $8,000, new are $15,000-17,000. Much better to get a new one on a 10,000 mile lease.

  • Tinn-Can Tinn-Can on Jan 18, 2018

    Wait, is this saying luxury cars are depreciating slower than others?

  • SCE to AUX I charge at home 99% of the time, on a Level 2 charger I installed myself in 2012 for my Leaf. My house is 1967, 150-Amp service, gas dryer and furnace; everything else is electric with no problems. I switched from gas HW to electric HW last year, when my 18-year-old tank finally failed.I charge at a for-pay station maybe a couple times a year.I don't travel more than an hour each way in my Ioniq 1 EV, so I don't deal much with public chargers. Despite a big electric rate increase this year, my car remains ridiculously cheap to operate.
  • ToolGuy 38:25 to 45:40 -- Let's all wait around for the stupid ugly helicopter. 😉The wheels and tires are cool, as in a) carbon fiber is a structural element not decoration and b) they have some sidewall.Also like the automatic fuel adjustment (gasoline vs. ethanol).(Anyone know why it's more powerful on E85? Huh? Huh?)
  • Ja-GTI So, seems like you have to own a house before you can own a BEV.
  • Kwik_Shift Good thing for fossil fuels to keep the EVs going.
  • Carlson Fan Meh, never cared for this car because I was never a big fan of the Gen 1 Camaro. The Gen 1 Firebird looked better inside and out and you could get it with the 400.The Gen 2 for my eyes was peak Camaro as far as styling w/those sexy split bumpers! They should have modeled the 6th Gen after that.
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