Canadian · Vehicles
Car depreciation estimator.
See what a vehicle is worth after N years using a real depreciation curve — the CRA's own Capital Cost Allowance rate for motor vehicles, not an invented percentage.
The CRA depreciates Class 10 / 10.1 motor vehicles at 30% declining balance per year, halved to 15% in the year of purchase under the standard half-year rule. On a $35,000 vehicle that's roughly $29,750 after year 1 and about $7,143 after year 5.
Inputs
Estimated value
Fill the form and press Calculate.
Year-by-year value
Where the 30% rate actually comes from
This isn't a made-up "cars lose X% a year" rule of thumb. It's the Canada Revenue Agency's Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) rate for Class 10 and Class 10.1 — the tax classes for motor vehicles and most passenger vehicles — which businesses use every year to write down a vehicle's value for tax purposes. CRA sets that rate at 30%, declining balance. Declining balance means each year's deduction is 30% of whatever book value is left, not 30% of the original price, so the dollar amount shrinks every year even though the rate stays flat. In the year of purchase, CRA's standard half-year rule (the "50% rule," which applies to ordinary vehicle classes and is only suspended for the newer zero-emission vehicle classes 54/55/56) allows only half the normal rate — 15% — because the vehicle wasn't owned for the full year.
Because it's a real, government-published, exact rate, it's a genuinely useful proxy for typical value decline — steep in year one, tapering off after. It is not a real-time market appraisal. What a specific vehicle actually sells or trades for depends on make, model, trim, odometer, condition, accident history, and local demand, which this tool has no way to see. Use it to sanity-check a depreciation assumption, not to price an actual sale.
Source, read 29 September 2026 (fetched directly from the CRA's own page): canada.ca — Canada Revenue Agency, "Classes of depreciable property," Business income tax reporting › Claiming Capital Cost Allowance section, listing Class 10 and Class 10.1 at a 30% CCA rate.
Frequently asked questions
Is this what my car is actually worth right now?
Treat it as a starting estimate, not an appraisal. It applies a fixed government depreciation schedule to your purchase price; it doesn't know your mileage, condition, trim, or what similar vehicles are actually selling for in your market. For a real number, check recent sold listings for your exact make/model/year or get a dealer appraisal.
Why does the CRA rate matter if I'm not a business?
You don't need to be claiming CCA for the curve to be useful — it's simply a real, precisely-defined depreciation schedule that the government itself uses to estimate how fast a vehicle's book value falls. It's a reasonable proxy for typical decline even outside a tax context.
Why is year one worth less than 30% off?
CRA's half-year rule limits the first year's claim to half the class rate (15% here) because the vehicle wasn't in service for the full 12 months of that calendar/fiscal year. Every year after uses the full 30% rate on whatever value remains.
Can I change the 30% rate?
Yes — the rate field defaults to CRA's real Class 10/10.1 figure, but you can override it to model a faster or slower decline (for example, if you expect a specific vehicle to hold value better or worse than average).
Estimate only, using a real government depreciation schedule
This tool applies CRA's published Class 10/10.1 Capital Cost Allowance rate (30% declining balance, halved in year one) to a purchase price you supply. It is a depreciation-schedule estimate, not a market valuation, trade-in quote, or tax filing. CCA rates can change; confirm the current rate on canada.ca before using this for an actual tax return.