Man who bought $140,000 Tesla two years ago left in shock at what its worth now

A man who bought a shiny new Tesla for $140,000 (£104,000) was shocked to see how much the car was worth two years after he bought it.

You're buying much more than the smell of a new car when you get yourself a fresh set of wheels but one guy was left wondering if he'd spent too much when he checked how much his two-year-old Tesla would be worth in a trade in.

This bloke Kyle Conner posted on social media the breakdown of costs which showed he'd spent just over $140,000 for a Tesla Model S, only to check its value two years later and be told he could trade it in for a value of $46,400 (£34,487).

He summed it up in one word, 'depreciation', which in case you don't have a dictionary handy means a decrease in value over time.

While it might be something many car owners have to face it's still a lot of value that's just not there any longer, but if you're scratching your head trying to figure out why it fell so much there are answers.

depreciation pic.twitter.com/3wZ0I9usYK

— Kyle Conner (@itskyleconner) October 27, 2024

There are some very good reasons why cars in general and Teslas in particular lose their value over time, with a big drop coming pretty much as soon as you drive it out of the dealership.

Stuart Masson, editor of The Car Expert, told LADbible that basically any car is going to lose 'up to 35 percent of value' in the first year because when you buy a car you're not just paying for the car itself.

Masson explained you were paying into the dealers and all the other service costs involved with getting that car to you, so that's a big chunk of value wiped away immediately.

He also said that Teslas had a number of reasons they lost value more than some other kinds of car, saying they'd become a 'victim of their own success' in the EV market since they were 'far and away the best selling' models.

However, selling lots of them means there's so many more to be resold, which pushes down the value of each individual car since second-hand buyers had greater options to shop around.

In addition to lots of competition from other Teslas that had been sold, Tesla was facing more of a challenge from other car manufacturers who'd managed to get their own models out for sale.

Stuart told us 'Tesla was really taking off five, six years ago' back when other brands were still getting their electric business together but other manufacturers were now catching up.

On top of that, the prices of EVs are coming down in general as manufacturers refine their process and the cars become cheaper overall.

With all of those factors to consider it's no wonder this unlucky man saw a car he bought for $140,000 drop to a value of $46,400