It seems like the market can't get enough of SUVs at the moment, with more choice and competition between manufacturers than ever. The luxury SUV market is a particularly crowded segment, with every brand vying to give their car the edge over everyone else's. That means there's a lot of great luxury models being sold right now, but they all come with sky-high price tags.
That value doesn't last though, as the resale price of many of these cars drops faster than a stone down a well. Most luxury SUVs will lose around half of their value within five years, which means losses of tens of thousands of dollars for those who buy them new. For the savvy used buyer though, it can mean snagging a top-spec SUV for a rock-bottom price. Either way, it's crazy to see just how much money these luxury land yachts lose in just a few years.
10 Cadillac Escalade ESV
An SUV as lavish and excessive as an Escalade ESV is always going to lose money, simply because buyers of these types of vehicles always like to have the newest versions of their cars. As soon as something newer is released, the value of the older car plummets.
A 2019 article by Business Insider puts the five-year depreciation of an Escalade ESV at 63.6%, but that number is likely to have increased even further in 2021. That's thanks to Caddy's fresh redesign of the Escalade, with even more space and a redesigned interior.
9 Audi SQ5
Audi's range of SUVs suffers from high maintenance costs, poor reliability, and designs that seem to age more rapidly than many of their rivals' offerings. That all means the brand has some of the worst depreciation in its class, but the SQ5 is a particularly bad offender.
It's sort of the worst of both worlds: being an S model, it's got more expensive and complicated features that inevitably mean bigger repair bills, but it's not quite got the lasting appeal of an RS model. It means buyers of a new SQ5 can expect to lose well over half of their money after just five years.
8 Lincoln MKT
The crossover MKT SUV was axed by Lincoln after the 2019 model year, but those unfortunate souls who bought a 2019 model can expect to lose an unbelievable amount of money. With a huge depreciation of 66.1%, the MKT ranks among the worst SUVs for resale on the market.
That's mostly down to dated technology, a questionable design, and a boring drive. In a segment that's so fiercely competitive, there isn't really a single reason to buy a used MKT over anything else, and so as a result, almost nobody does.
7 Maserati Levante
Pretty much every manufacturer now has an SUV in their lineup, including Italian performance marque Maserati. The Levante is a blatant attempt to cash in on the market craze for big cars, but it's actually not a bad product.
The issue is, like with most of Maserati's range, the resale value is not good. Brand image is a big factor here: a used Maserati doesn't carry anywhere near the same prestige as a new one, and so buyers just won't pay much for second-hand examples.
6 Land Rover Range Rover
They're consistently ranked among the least reliable automobiles on the market, but people still love Range Rovers. Enough people, in fact, for them to shift around 15-20,000 units in the US every year.
For their first few years, a comprehensive warranty means that unreliability will be nothing more than an inconvenience. However, as soon as that warranty is gone, maintenance will get very expensive very quickly. Most buyers of used cars won't want that kind of financial commitment, and so the car's value will fall an average of 63% over half a decade.
5 Infiniti QX80
Nissan's luxury arm has struggled for years with brand recognition, and even today there are many Americans who probably have no idea that Infiniti even exists. That's a massive problem for resale value, as nobody likes to buy a car from a brand they don't know about.
It doesn't help that the QX80 has several design issues, like a disappointing interior and a cramped third row. Reliability is also rated fairly poorly, all of which contribute to the QX80 losing around 59% of its value over five years.
4 BMW X7
BMW's biggest ever SUV is built to take on the likes of the Range Rover and Audi Q8, and like those cars, it also loses value like crazy. This is mostly for the same reasons as its rivals do: new buyers like to have the latest and best model, and spiraling maintenance costs put used buyers off.
The X7 is too new to get an exact figure on depreciation, but estimates based on the rest of the BMW SUV range put the car at losing 51% of its value over five years. That's actually pretty good for the segment, but given the base-spec car starts at $74,900, it still totals a loss of $38,200.
3 Lincoln Navigator L
The Lincoln Navigator L takes the already-big Navigator and adds 14.7 inches of extra length. It's a solid car, with Top Gear reporting it's better than the class-leading Cadillac Escalade in every aspect apart from its engine.
High praise like that can't stop it from losing value though, and over five years it's estimated the car will lose about 50%. That might seem like a lot, but it's a lot better than most older Lincoln models, which for years were the worst vehicles for holding value across the whole market. In that context, a loss of only half is a big victory for Lincoln.
2 Mercedes GLS-Class
The most luxurious of Mercedes SUVs, the GLS takes the size and capability of the G- Wagen and combines it with the executive prestige of the S-Class. The result is a full-size SUV that's both insanely plush and also surprisingly capable off-road, not that any buyers will ever need to use it for that.
It's expected to lose around 59% of its value after five years, although it's probably going to lose more than that if it's higher mileage. Anyone wealthy enough to buy a new GLS probably won't be bothered though, and at least it means some temptingly cheap cars for used buyers in a few years.
1 Bentley Bentayga
A favorite of celebrities and influencers, Bentley's SUV is unsurprisingly a huge money pit. Like every other Bentley model, the brand offers a lot of customization options when buying a new Bentayga, but that has the side effect of hurting resale value. After all, what one buyer thinks looks great might have another scratching their head.
An estimate by CarEdge puts depreciation of the Bentayga at about 53% over five years, although models with higher mileage will suffer considerably more. With a W12 spec car costing $245,000, that's a loss of nearly $130,000 in just five years. Ouch!