Toronto, Ontario — When life gives you lemons, keep hold of them; they might still hold a pretty significant chunk of their original value after three years.
According to a colour study by iSeeCars, yellow vehicles depreciate by approx. 13.5 percent—or US$3,000, on average—after three years. For comparison, iSeeCars states that the typical car loses about 22.5 percent of its value after three years.
“Yellow cars continue to represent the greatest disparity between how many are produced and how many people want one,” said iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer.
“While not many people want a yellow car, there are clearly more people who want one than exist, which is why yellow performs so well on the secondary market. The same can be said of orange and green, colours you don’t see often but are obviously in higher demand than supply.”
Other top-performing colours include beige (depreciates 17.8 percent over three years); orange (18.4 percent); green (19.2 percent) and red (20.6 percent).
Gold cars are the least successful in retaining their value, says iSeeCars data. After three years, a gold-hued vehicle is worth approximately US$11,500 less than its MSRP.
The average vehicle, when all colours are considered, loses about US$9,600 of its MSRP over a three-year period; i.e., from the first model year offered to the third year.
Gold, brown, black, silver and purple hold the bottom three spots with the weakest overall retention values.
