- My Ford Focus... And it's mysterious evil twin...

Depreciation Battle: Focus ST3 vs 911 Carrera S

Porsche accelerates faster, but which depreciates faster?

Now those of you have been following me will understand, I'm one of those people who are permanently car shopping. I like fast, interesting cars. But I'm neither wealthy nor stupid (you can be either or both to be a hardcore petrolhead), so I tend to choose vehicles with at least a nod towards sensible economics.

The present Mrs. Stanley is rather less of a petrolhead than me. She's probably about as much a petrolhead as Caroline Lucas if I'm honest. So when trying to convince her it's time to refresh my garage - an economic argument is always going to be a winner.

Having gone off the idea of getting a Defender, I'm leaning back towards buying a Porsche 911. If I could budget £40,000 I'd look at a 997.2 Carrera S with either a manual or PDK. If I didn't push the boat out so much, then I'd look at a 997.1 Carrera S with a manual.

Image Source: Autotrader

Image Source: Autotrader

On practicality terms the 911 loses out to the Focus ST3. But how does it fare on the economics side? The main cost to owning any car, when you only do 3500 miles a year(my annual mileage) - is deprecation.

So will changing to a Porsche 911 997.2 Carrera S reduce your annual costs?

That's the question I asked myself. To answer it I scoured the Autotrader for a selection of Focus and 911's of low to average mileage for their year and compared the reduction in value both cars appear to suffer year on year.

The rough values I drew from Autotrader prices.

The rough values I drew from Autotrader prices.

Once I'd got the values in, I calculated the yearly loss as well.

The yearly loss estimated.

The yearly loss estimated.

For the Porsche there is a bit of an anomaly between the year the 997.2 swapped to the 991. On that year if you had a 991 it's worth significantly more than a 997.2 of the same year.

Having drawn up the figures for both cars, I added a calculation for roughly 3 years of ownership of each:-

Losses over year periods.

Losses over year periods.

All the data in, I drew up some graphs to see how the depreciation curve looks for both cars:-

Depreciation Value Graph

Depreciation Value Graph

Depreciation loss per year graph

Depreciation loss per year graph

Depreciation costs over several different 2-3 year periods

Depreciation costs over several different 2-3 year periods

So what conclusions can we draw? Is it economical to swap a Focus ST3 for a 911?

In a word - no. Sadly, despite the 911 being a popular, sought after car that has something of a reputation for being a car which will retain some value - if you buy one you will lose money hand over fist. The only caveat to this, is that after around 12 - 13 years the Porsche seems to level out. This makes sense, really. At that age, the Ford Focus is worth next to nothing so has sort of leveled out in a different way.

Obviously the running costs on a 2004 911 Carrera S will probably be significantly higher than a Ford Focus ST of equivalent value. At that age, a Carrera S is STILL worth more than a brand new Focus ST3. If you bought a used 18 reg Focus from a dealership on low miles, it looks like you'd lose around £3500 in depreciation over your first three years of ownership. That £3500 wouldn't actually go very far in terms of maintaining your Porsche.

There are a few oddities to consider. The amount you lose on the Porsche appears to be less stable than that of the Focus. I believe this is more down to mileage and condition rather than options. Options don't seem to affect used values of 911s much on the whole. It could well be that by the nature of Porsche 911s, if you bought a low miler and hardly drove it - it might actually maintain more value than these charts suggest.

Martyn Stanley

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Comments (8)

  • And this is the problem with bringing calculators and charts to buying nice things. Fine, if you're working out whether you can, not helpful if you're working out whether you should.

    Depreciation in intrinsic value never takes into account appreciation in subjective value - the most important value if you're buying something with a primary aim to enjoying it, not selling it. So stop putting the case to Mrs Stanley in terms of how much of a numerical return a Porsche will give when it's time to trade for a Honda Jazz - and start putting it in terms of how it will make you a more radiant husband.

      2 years ago
    • To be fair her main concern is it will make me drive faster. Which, may be a possibility... I also really worry about the costs of running and maintaining an ancient Porsche. Idbe more confident if I was spending more on a 997.2 with low miles,...

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        2 years ago
    • I have ideas, but ah, not here.

        2 years ago
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