Home » Owning A Depreciating Car Is Killing Me Inside

Owning A Depreciating Car Is Killing Me Inside

David Depreciation Ts
ADVERTISEMENT

When I bought my 2021 BMW i3S, I knew it was a less-than-optimal financial move. In fact, my article on the purchase was titled “I Bought The Holy Grail Of BMW i3s Even Though It Was Probably A Terrible Financial Decision.” And yet, I went through with it, and every month since, my car’s value has dropped. It stings.

Other than my Moab off-road projects, I’ve never lost a penny on a car. Why? Because historically I’ve bought old junkers — oftentimes severely broken ones. These cars were dirt cheap, and solely by getting them running and driving I significantly upped their value.

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

Take my 2000 Chevy Tracker. At $700, this thing was dirt cheap, and so were all the parts. The water pump was $27, the harmonic balancer pulley was $20, the ECU was $100, the CV axles were $34 apiece — ridiculous. I probably had a couple of grand into it when I let it go for $3,450.

Tracker Underrated Topshot

That salvage-title 1991 Jeep Cherokee XJ I bought for $2000? Well, I did have to replace literally every part on it, but I managed to get $7000 for it, which was more than I’d put in it (not accounting for labor).

ADVERTISEMENT

20220612 131705

Then there’s the minty-fresh manual 1993 Jeep ZJ five-speed that I bought for about $3000 and sold for $9,500 after probably pumping $2,000 into it:

Screen Shot 2022 11 11 At 12.41.43 Pm

There’s also my old Willys FC, which had cost me $1,500 (plus probably another $1000 in parts and fuel), and which I let go for $4000:

Goobyefc Top

ADVERTISEMENT

I also bought a 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle for $2000, spent probably 4 grand on parts and on transporting it across the country, but ultimately got $8000 out of it.

Screen Shot 2024 05 08 At 11.59.48 Am

And when I bought the cheapest BMW i3 in the country for $10,500, only to have BMW install a new battery and compressor, I knew I’d come out OK even though i3 prices were dropping like a rock. I managed to sell the vehicle for $11,300 in the end.

Bmw I3 Sold Ts

You get the idea. I buy cars with problems, and I trade a bunch of my time in order to then sell them with fewer problems for slightly more money.

ADVERTISEMENT

That’s why purchasing my “Holy Grail” 2021 BMW i3S has been such a hard pill for me to swallow. I paid $30 grand for this thing, which itself was $27,500 lower than MSRP. So it’s not like I bought the car at the top of its depreciation curve, but I definitely didn’t buy it at the bottom, either.

David Tracy Bmw I3 Grail Balloon

Carvana has a “Value Tracker” that I’ve been looking at ever since buying my car. I recall the car was, per Carvana, worth ~$28,000 when I bought it for $30,000 (plus shipping and fees — in the end, I probably spent $34,000). You can see that now the i3 is worth, per Carvana, $22,000:

Screen Shot 2025 03 14 At 1.19.26 Pm

Obviously, Carvana isn’t the arbiter of used car values, but KBB puts the value somewhere between $24,000 and $28,000:

ADVERTISEMENT

Screen Shot 2025 03 14 At 1.26.28 Pm

Both of these values are mileage dependent. Look what happens when I plug in 50,000 miles on the odometer instead of 25,000:

Screen Shot 2025 03 14 At 1.27.27 Pm

And when the mileage hits 100,000, the values tank even farther.

Screen Shot 2025 03 14 At 1.28.07 Pm

ADVERTISEMENT

Obviously, value dropping with mileage is unsurprising, but this is just new for me. I’ve never owned a car that lost value over time/use, so just watching that Carvana graph and that KBB “private party range” drop and drop and drop — it’s hard!

Could I have bought a higher-mileage 2019 BMW i3 with a different color and maybe the same interior? Sure. And I think a more rational version of me would have bought that 62,000 mile white one on Carvana for $22,000. Sure, it had 2 years and 40,000 miles less on its CARB warranty, and it wasn’t Galvanic Gold, but $8 grand is a lot!

So I did, the one time, splurge a bit. Still, despite that prevailing guilt, I take solace in knowing that this i3 purchase was an anomaly. I’m not in the business of buying depreciating cars. I bought that particular i3 because it’s extremely rare (possibly 1 of 3 in that configuration on earth), meaning me waiting for it to depreciate would have meant not owning it at all. Also, I don’t plan on selling it ever; it is, in my view, the very best version of the greatest city car ever built — it’s truly perfect for Los Angeles. What’s more, it’s absurdly reliable, costs almost nothing to operate now that I have dirt cheap tires, and most importantly: I’m almost a year in, and I remain completely and utterly obsessed with this machine.

ADVERTISEMENT

I don’t plan to buy another depreciating car pretty much ever. Maybe I would for my wife, who may want something safe and newer, but I myself don’t really see a reason why I would need to go down that path again. The odds of another hyper rare, absurdly over-engineered car that’s truly the perfect daily-driver my living situation popping up is pretty much zero, so I’m happy to go back to buying 10+ year old cars.

If Scout decides to get rid of the bench seat option on the Traveler after the first model-year (and there’s no indication it will, it’s just a recurring nightmare of mine), I might be tempted. But assuming that doesn’t become a hyper-rare option, I’ll just wait until the Scout is 10-15 years old before dropping cash on it, because I’m not sure I can deal with this guilt anymore. And more importantly, I already have the daily-driver of my dreams right here in my driveway.

Top graphic images: BMW; depositphotos,com

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
41 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
AlterId is disillusioned, but still hallucinating
AlterId is disillusioned, but still hallucinating
3 minutes ago

Are you completely sure that what’s killing you inside isn’t some kind of cancer or infection caused by exposure to the more profitable cars in your fleet?

StillPlaysWithCars
StillPlaysWithCars
7 minutes ago

DT, I’m willing to bet if you applied an hourly value to the time you sunk into some of your projects you would have lost some eye watering money. It doesn’t even have to be a significant wage, $10/hour. Always remember time is your most limited and valuable resource.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
13 minutes ago

You could re-title this post as a life lesson.

Buys rusty brake drum of vintage Jeep and DNA sequences it into…into…something.

Spends a little more on something that resembles (from 100 ft away) a functioning vehicle.
etc etc.

Eventually ‘invests’ in something with potential then realizes his portfolio looks like a hillbilly bank vault out back and on the front lawn.

Learns first real life lesson, grows up and gets married and understands why cheeping out is the wrong approach.

BTW – wives don’t depreciate, but they don’t always appreciate your car parts hoard either. Be a good boy and keep the dishwasher clean.

Also. And I repeat also. You bought the i3 to make money? I thought you bought it because you liked it. I’ve had some amazing expensive meals in my life, but never expected to get my money back after I ate half of them.

Shooting Brake
Shooting Brake
53 minutes ago

Cancelled that Scout order already eh? I wonder how many others have done the same.

Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
1 hour ago

Depreciation is only a problem if you ever sell a car.
I generally hang on to cars until they are un-sellable then give them away.

Actually I sell them for one dollar because someone told me that would avoid some bad things for both me and the person that got the car.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
9 minutes ago
Reply to  Hugh Crawford

Yeah, yeah. Stop pointing that gun at me, just take the car and that crappy kid I never wanted in the back seat. I’ll just say I don’t remember what happened. Trauma, yeah, trauma, that will work…

Can I at least bum a smoke or something for the walk home?

41
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x