Cars do not depreciate in the current environment. The hold their value or appreciate against the dollar, which is itself in a downward spiral. Maybe the cars are depreciating against the Bitcoin but not against the dollar.
It all depends on your desire to get a better deal for your used (or barely used) car. I got a trade-in value on my barely used Model Y (with 23 miles on it) from Audi dealers in the range of $49,000 - $64,000 - depending on the dealer. One dealer gave me a trade-in quote for $54,000. When I laughed at him on the phone and told him I already had a quote from another dealer for $64,000, he asked me to email him the quote. Then, he matched it. So, his appraisal of my ModelnY went from $54,000 to $64,000 within an hour. In the meantime, Musk raised the price of the Model Y by $2,000 in the 10 days that I was negotiating the trade-in, so the official Tesla price became $$59,000. I went to both dealers and told them if they raised their trade-in price by $2,000 more, I was ready to trade my Model Y in for a brand-new e-tron. One refused, while the other one is deciding.
Vroom appraised my Model Y for $60,000, which is a low ball. Carvana can’t appraise it yet because the car is so new, I don’t have the title in hand yet, and their system can’t pull the title from the DMV (or wherever) yet.
The moral of this story is that no one knows the true value of your car at this time. Your quotes could differ by 25% (like in my case). So if you are patient and are willing to put some work into the appraisal, and if you are not averse to haggling and telling the dealers off, you can get a very good price for your car. Theee-year-old cheap vehicles like Honda CRV or Ford Focus are selling above the purchase price when they were new.
Teslas definitely hold their values better than the ID.4 right now, but I actually believe that I could make a few grand if I bought an AWD ID.4, paid the sales tax, claimed the $7,500 refund, and then turned around and sold it. I would find a dealer or a private party who can’t wait 6-8 months and wants to pay extra to have it right away and who doesn’t care about the refund. Some people with the money can’t get a refund because they may only have capital gains and no income tax. Others may want to salvage their savings from inflation and save on ever increasing gas prices, so they may want to buy an EV now before their money turns into dust by the inflation. They may not have enough income to take advantage of the $7,500 tax rebate.
We live in strange times, and many things that weren’t possible before are possible now.