Which Audi A4 trim depreciates the fastest?
Which Audi A4 trim depreciates the fastest?
Martin Pretorius
In many respects, the current Audi A4 is a class-leading car. But, seeing as it’s been available in South Africa for almost three years now, we can also have a look at the value retention of this executive saloon. Which trim holds its value the best, and which one depreciates the fastest?
With a model range consisting of 5 derivatives at launch, plenty of Audi A4s have found happy owners – and many of them have now reached the pre-owned market as well. We searched AutoTrader for used, current-generation A4s from the 2016 model year, and compared their averaged current prices to what they cost when new. We also calculated the percentage of its value it retained over this 3-year period. It makes for interesting reading.
New Price: R 441 000
Average Current Price: R 294 965
Value Retained: 66.9%
New Price: R 459 000
Average Current Price: R 341 456
Value Retained: 74.4%
New Price: R 496 000
Average Current Price: R 362 558
Value Retained: 73.1%
New Price: R 517 000
Average Current Price: R 449 917
Value Retained: 87.0%
New Price: R 616 000
Average Current Price: R 449 500
Value Retained: 72.0%
Analysis
It needs to be kept in mind that many of the cars listed on AutoTrader may have all manner of expensive options fitted, which will obviously skew their second-hand value somewhat. However, it’s also well-known that a car’s factory options seldom influence their resale value as much as they influence the car’s price when new. At most, options should make a difference of around R40 000 to the ’s second-hand value, in the case of a full-house car, which may account for some of the discrepancies we notice here.
Of far greater significance is the car’s mileage, with lower-mileage cars fetching appreciably higher prices in the used market. We didn’t factor this into our calculations, because most of the cars we considered have similar (industry-average for their age) mileage around the 60 000 kilometre mark anyway.
Which one depreciates the fastest?
Contrary to popular wisdom, the least-expensive A4 when new also lost the most of its value in the pre-owned market: the manual-gearbox A4 1.4 TFSI only retained 66.9% of its original value after 3 years. The other petrol-powered variants performed roughly the same, with 72% to 74.4% of their value being retained at the same age.
However, the 2.0 TDI is the real champion here, with a current average value of 87% of its price when new. We’ve always suspected that the TDI derivatives hold their value really well, but this impressive figure surprised even us.
Our advice to used-car buyers? Look for any petrol A4, and if you really want a bargain, find one with a manual gearbox: there are bargains to be had. But if you’d like to safeguard as much of your investment as possible over the long term, a TDI is definitely the way to go.