Can't afford that dream performance car? Just wait while depreciation does its thing

If you’ve been on the fence about pulling the trigger on your dream performance car, now might be the time to – very carefully – pick your target for practical reasons. Peruse the classifieds and you’ll find some nearly new high-performance cars that seem immune to the effects of depreciation. Admittedly, the list is short, but it’s certainly not a boring one. 

The modern Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman have always boasted strong used values – and that’s become all the more true recently because, firstly, their replacements aren’t imminent, and secondly, when they do arrive, they’ll probably be electric. But even by its own high standards, the 718 is performing even better when it’s fitted with the 4.0-litre flat-six engine. 

In the classifieds, most examples have retained an incredible amount of value, even with a few thousand miles on the clock. Spyders are a typical case of good residuals, but there was also some hype about the RS derivative. Some heavily inflated prices have now settled down to near-new prices, and values for these cars, along with the base Spyder, don’t appear to be heading further downwards any time soon. Look at the more sensible 4.0 GTS and prices also remain incredibly solid.

The same can be said of the latest C8-generation Audi RS 6. It’s only just gone out of production, and with word of a plug-in hybrid coming in the next version, prices have almost frozen, with no untarnished car available for under £80k. Not bad for a five-year-old Audi that cost from just over £90k new. Better still, the later Performance models seem to be clinging onto values of at least £100,000, which is barely any less than their retail prices when new.

At the lower end of the scale is the Honda Civic Type R. Many people were shocked when the circa-£50,000 FL5 variant arrived at a £15,000 premium over the previous-generation FK8, but values look pretty solid. Examples with average mileage are trading at less than 10 per cent below their new values, and in-stock cars at or above list price. 

The crux of the matter is that, when an otherwise very sensible Audi A6 Avant is selling with a 10, 12 or 15 per cent discount from new – and the expectation is that another 50 per cent of its value will disappear over the course of three years – putting a little more money in up front and dealing with the added running costs might actually see something like an RS 6 Avant cost less to own over time. 

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