A Car With 11 Open Recall Campaigns Sells for the Same as One With None
You'd expect a documented safety defect to cost a seller money. I normalised prices against class and year to find out how much, and the answer came back as nothing.
Cars Stop Losing Value at About Sixteen Years Old. Then They Start Gaining.
Depreciation is described as a curve that flattens towards zero. Plotted against actual listings it doesn't flatten — it turns around and goes back up.
Silver Was the Colour of the 2000s. It's Now the Oldest Paint on the Market.
Paint colours don't disappear overnight, they age out. Sorting the used market by average vehicle age turns a colour chart into a timeline of what was fashionable when.
In 2015 the GMC Badge Was Worth Nothing. By 2025 It Was Worth 75%.
The Sierra and the Silverado are the same truck with different grilles. What that grille costs has changed completely in a decade, and only in one direction.
Crossing 100,000 Miles Costs $882. The Next 10,000 Cost Nothing.
Mileage should erode value smoothly. Around one specific number it doesn't — the price steps down, then stops moving, and the number turns out to have six digits.
The Cadillac Escalade Sells From $4,900 to $84,500. Good Luck Pricing One.
Some models have a price. Others have a range so wide that quoting an average is meaningless, and they turn out to have something in common.
The Market Agrees What a New Car Is Worth and Argues About Old Ones
A valuation is only as good as the agreement behind it. Measured year by year, that agreement erodes steadily until the number stops describing anything.
The Diesel Premium Is 61% on an F-250 and Minus 14% on a RAM 1500
Diesel is supposed to be worth paying for in a truck. Comparing the same model with both engines shows that holds only above a certain size, and reverses below it.
One in Five People Asking What Their Car Is Worth Owns Something With No Comparables at All
Valuation tools always return a number. We checked how often there was anything behind it, and for a fifth of requests the honest answer would have been that nobody is selling one.
A Used Pickup Costs 2.5x a Used Sedan. The Cheapest Body Style Is One Nobody Buys.
Body style decides more of the price than model year or mileage does. Ranking every type by what it actually sells for puts the most practical shape on the market at the bottom.
A Luxury SUV Loses Its Badge Premium by Year 15. A Luxury Sedan Never Does.
Premium badges are supposed to hold value better. Tracked year by year against mainstream equivalents, that turns out to depend entirely on what shape the car is.
There Is No Cheap Tesla. Its Price Floor Is Higher Than Porsche's.
Every prestige brand eventually produces a cheap used example. A tired old Mercedes is a recognised category. A tired old Tesla, it turns out, isn't one yet.