How much value a VW Polo loses after 10,000km, 25,000km, and 50,000km

A VW Polo will lose approximately 27% of its purchase value within the first two years of its life, according to research done by TopAuto.

The hatchback has long been one of South Africa’s favourite vehicles, but even the most popular models are not immune to depreciation, and the results can be quite alarming.

On the other hand, it illustrates how important it is to do your research when browsing classifieds for a new set of wheels, as you can find two of the exact same models, but with different mileages, and a big price gap that doesn’t necessarily correlate with that odometer.

The true cost of ownership

To investigate the rate of depreciation for the current-generation Polo, we looked at AutoTrader and filtered for listings from VW dealerships with a mileage cap of 10,000km, 25,000km, and 50,000km.

To simplify the process, we exclusively looked for the entry-level 1.0-litre TSI model with 70kW and a five-speed manual gearbox to give a more apples-to-apples comparison.

As a reminder, the Polo was launched in 2022 and initially had a price tag of R311,800, though inflation has since raised this figure to R357,800.

These were the first three results for a model that had travelled less than 10,000km.

This is the lowest mileage we considered, and already you can see a substantial drop of nearly R60,000 for a demo model from the current year, and roughly R80,000 for a used model with an even lower usage stat, if you compare it to the cost of buying a new Polo today.

Naturally, a higher mileage will drop the value even further, which we can see in the next table for figures between 20,000km and 25,000km.

The interesting thing to note here is that the drop in value is proportionally lower than it was at 10,000km, illustrating that any car’s first miles are always its most costly.

Logically, an odometer reading close to 50,000km would see an even greater price cut, but this is where the trend takes a turn, which you can see in the next table.

Despite an ever-growing mileage, the price of a pre-owned, current-generation VW Polo seems to be unofficially capped around or above R250,000, which is likely due to the hatchback’s immense popularity, which drives demand and in turn allows dealerships to sell for a relatively stable minimum.

It’s also important to highlight that, since the Volkswagen has only been around since 2022, it’s rare to find a model that’s already done over 50,000km.

A useful bit of information highlighted by this exercise is that the best deals for a Polo right now seem to be for those with an odometer reading around 25,000km.

Anything less than this will have you paying more for the fresher option, while anything above this range will cost a similar amount anyway.