Prius depreciation revisted

Almost two years ago, I posted about how our Prius had been holding its value exceedingly well. Based on the resale value at 16 months old, I projected the expected depreciation over three years to be no greater than 13.6% as compared to 45% for the average vehicle in the US.

With gas prices so high, demand for the Prius is astronomical -- much higher than Toyota can meet. This in turn has led to very high resale values of used Priuses. After a little over three years, our car has depreciated only 7.7% 7.2%. This value reflects a below average number of miles, so correcting for that (assuming the average person drives 15k miles/yr), it would have depreciated 11.4% instead.

A lot of folks like to say that it takes years to make up the hybrid premium in gas savings. It's not hard to see that Prius owners made out like bandits (whether out of "foresight" or just plain blind luck) in terms of reduced depreciation alone. Whether this astoundingly low rate of depreciation will hold up for the next several years remains to be seen, but either way I'm sure the price of gas will be a large determining factor.

EDIT: Jess points out that we only have around 17k miles on our car versus the 24k figure I used in my original post, so I updated the pricing chart below. Our depreciation is currently about 7.2% (or 2.4% annually!) instead of 7.7% from original price.

2005 Toyota Prius 4 Dr Hatchback Trade-In Private Party Dealer Retail National Base Price $17,618 $19,684 $21,242 Optional Equipment $1,054 $1,181 $1,415 Front Side Airbags $160 $179 $215 Stability Control $149 $167 $200 Front and Rear Head Airbags $149 $167 $200 Power Door Locks $149 $167 $200 Keyless Ignition System $149 $167 $200 Xenon High Intensity Discharge Headlights $149 $167 $200 Fog Lights $149 $167 $200 Color Adjustment Red $55 $61 $66 Regional Adjustment for Zip Code 02141 $-89 $-99 $-107 Mileage Adjustment 17,500 miles $985 $985 $985 Condition Adjustment Clean $0 $0 $0 Total $19,623 $21,812 $23,601     Certified Used Vehicle $25,605 Price Another Vehicle Print Window Stickers: Trade-In | Private Party | Dealer Retail