Here's How Much A 2021 Porsche 911 Has Depreciated In 5 Years

Porsche's incredible 992-generation 911 is a technological force that blends grand touring sensibilities with a platform that's still illogically quick and still fun to drive. The first examples were launched at the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, and Porsche is still introducing new variants of the chassis today. You never want to buy those first couple model years, though; it's better to give automakers some time to work out the production kinks. By 2021, in spite of a global pandemic that derailed so much progress, Porsche had pretty much perfected the eighth-generation 911 Carrera.  

These kinds of cars don't typically get huge numbers added to the odometer, and they're usually well-cared for, so you'll still find a nice example for a bit less than you'd pay for a new one. However, Porsche 911s don't exactly depreciate as quickly as other German luxury automobiles, or even other comparably-priced sports/grand tourers like a 2021 Nissan GT-R. Instead of seeing its price cut in half by depreciation, a 2021 Porsche 911 has only lost about 8% of its value in the last three years, according to Kelly Blue Book (KBB). Because of the post-COVID chip-shortage-induced price boom on sports cars, a five-year-old 911 has "depreciated" back to its original MSRP, more or less. 

It's hard to say if that makes a used 911 purchase a good idea right now. If you want a nearly-new 911 for a bit of a discount, you can probably find a good one for around $101,000. That's a little more than you'd pay for a same-year Lotus Evora GT, which might be a more worthwhile buy. Then again, with the base price of a new 911 ballooning to over $135,000, saving 36 grand by purchasing used isn't nothing. 

Data from KBB indicates that a 2021 Porsche 911 basically hasn't depreciated at all from its new MSRP price. A $108,000 Porsche 911 purchased in 2021 is still worth about $101,000 in 2026. Whoever bought that car five years ago basically got to drive a Porsche 911 for the cost of insurance and gasoline. And that's a fantastic deal, as I can tell you as a 911 owner. Check out Porsche's list of certified pre-owned cars available nationwide, however, and you'll see that none of these cars can actually be bought for $101,000. You're looking a little deeper into the six figures to purchase any nice 911 on the market.

A perk of picking a five-year-old 911 is that someone else already took the depreciation hit for you. An argument could be made that all of the 911's depreciation was mitigated by inflation. For example, a 911 purchased for $108,000 in 2021 has the same buying power today of around $133,793. If you're buying a used 2021 911 today for $101,000, you're practically getting about $20,000 off of its original asking price. If it helps, KBB predicts that the $101,000 992-generation 911 is going to be hitting a depreciation wall in 2027 and 2028, dropping to just around $80,000 and $69,000 in those years, respectively. If you aren't prepared to walk away from $30,000 worth of value loss in the next two years, maybe stick to deeply-depreciated BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes.