Estimate how much mileage affects your car, van, taxi or fleet vehicle value. Use per-mile depreciation, expected life miles, excess mileage adjustments and HMRC mileage guidance to plan resale value, business use and total ownership cost.
Choose the quick per-mile estimate, detailed mileage schedule or business mileage comparison. Results are designed for planning resale value, not for filing a tax return without professional review.
Use this tab when you know the vehicle’s current value and want a simple estimate of depreciation caused by a given mileage increase.
Build a year-by-year depreciation schedule using the units of production method: depreciable value divided by expected life miles, multiplied by miles used.
Compare HMRC-style mileage allowance planning against estimated actual vehicle cost. This helps sole traders and employers understand whether mileage reimbursement looks reasonable, but it is not a substitute for tax advice.
Mileage depreciation is the reduction in a vehicle’s value caused by use. Age matters, but mileage tells buyers how much work the car has actually done. Two identical three-year-old cars can have very different values if one has covered 18,000 miles and the other has covered 78,000 miles. The higher-mileage car has more wear on the engine, gearbox, suspension, brakes, tyres, seats and interior, so the market normally prices it lower.
For private buyers, mileage depreciation helps you decide whether a cheap high-mileage car is genuinely good value. For business users, it helps estimate the real cost of using a vehicle for sales routes, deliveries, taxi work, site visits or commuting between business locations. For fleet managers, it helps decide whether to rotate vehicles earlier, set mileage limits, or recharge drivers for excess mileage.
The simplest approach is a pounds-per-mile estimate. If a car is expected to lose 16p for every additional mile and you plan to add 12,000 miles before selling it, the mileage-related value loss is about £1,920. A more formal accounting approach is the units of production method, where depreciation is based on useful life miles rather than years. That method can be helpful when mileage is the main driver of economic use.
Use these planning bands to choose a sensible per-mile rate. The exact value depends on make, model, condition, fuel type, warranty status, service history and market demand.
Low purchase prices mean the pound loss per mile is often lower, but very high mileage can make small cars harder to sell privately.
Strong demand keeps values stable, but mileage above the common 10,000-mile advert benchmark still reduces buyer interest.
Heavier vehicles often have higher tyre, brake and suspension wear, so mileage adjustments can be more visible at resale.
Premium cars lose more pounds per extra mile because the starting value is higher and buyers expect a strong service history.
Battery health, charging habits and remaining warranty matter as much as mileage. Popular EVs with good range can still sell strongly.
Commercial buyers expect higher mileage, but condition, maintenance records and payload use become critical value factors.
The quick calculator uses a simple per-mile rate. You enter the current value, choose a vehicle type and add the extra miles you want to model. The result estimates the mileage-related value loss and the likely value after those miles. This is ideal for quick resale planning, excess mileage decisions and comparing whether a cheaper high-mileage car is worth the saving.
The schedule tab uses the units of production method. It first calculates depreciable value by subtracting residual value from starting value. It then divides that amount by expected life miles to create a cost per mile. Every year in the projection, it multiplies that per-mile charge by the miles driven in that year. This method is logical where the vehicle is consumed mainly through use rather than time.
The business tab compares approved mileage-style reimbursement against your estimated actual operating cost. It separates fuel or charging, depreciation and other running costs. That makes it easier to see whether a mileage rate covers your real cost per journey. For employees, employer mileage payments are governed by approved mileage allowance rules. For self-employed users, simplified expenses can be used by sole traders and eligible partnerships, while actual costs and capital allowances are a separate route.
It is important not to mix up three different ideas: market depreciation, accounting depreciation and tax relief. Market depreciation is the real-world fall in resale value. Accounting depreciation is the charge recorded in business accounts. Tax relief is the amount HMRC allows you to deduct from taxable profit. These three numbers can be different even for the same vehicle.
For employees using their own cars for business travel, approved mileage allowance payments set the tax-free mileage framework. For 2026/27, the published GOV.UK table shows cars and vans at 55p for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year and 25p for each business mile over 10,000. Those rates are designed to cover fuel, depreciation and running costs together; they are not a separate depreciation allowance.
For self-employed sole traders, simplified expenses allow eligible businesses to use flat mileage rates instead of working out actual vehicle costs. GOV.UK states that simplified expenses can be used by sole traders and business partnerships with no companies as partners, but not by limited companies. If you use actual costs instead, you track fuel, repairs, insurance and other business costs, and vehicle purchase costs may be handled through capital allowances where the rules allow.
For business cars, capital allowances depend on the car and its CO₂ emissions. GOV.UK lists 100% first-year allowances for new and unused zero-emission/electric cars bought before April 2027, main rate allowances at 14% from April 2026 for qualifying lower-emission cars and second-hand EVs, and special rate allowances at 6% for cars over the relevant emissions threshold. This is why a mileage depreciation estimate should sit alongside, not replace, your tax computation.
You cannot remove miles from a car, and you should never rely on mileage alone to value a vehicle. What you can do is reduce the uncertainty that makes buyers discount high-mileage cars. A high-mileage vehicle with clean MOT history, matching tyres, evidence of regular servicing and receipts for major work will usually achieve a stronger price than a lower-mileage car with patchy records.
Start by checking the mileage story. Make sure the odometer reading matches MOT history, service invoices and any finance or lease records. Buyers are nervous when mileage records jump inconsistently or disappear for several years. If the car has done above-average miles, explain the type of use honestly. Long motorway commutes are often easier to accept than constant short urban trips, especially for diesel cars and vans.
Next, prepare the car for valuation. Replace worn tyres, repair obvious warning lights, remove business branding carefully, deep-clean the interior and gather every invoice in date order. Small cosmetic issues can make mileage feel worse because buyers assume the whole car has been worked hard. A clean, well-documented high-mileage car can still be a sensible purchase when priced correctly.
Finally, compare your car against live adverts with similar mileage, not just similar age. A five-year-old car with 95,000 miles should not be priced against 45,000-mile examples. Use the calculator to estimate the mileage gap, then check Auto Trader, dealer listings and trade offers to test whether your expected price is realistic.
These examples show how mileage changes the value story for private cars, company cars and high-use commercial vehicles.
A family hatchback is worth £18,000 today. You expect to add 12,000 miles before selling it. At an estimated 16p per mile, mileage-related depreciation is £1,920. That does not mean the car will fall by exactly that amount, because age and market conditions also matter, but it gives a useful resale planning figure.
A company car covers 24,000 business miles per year. Compared with a 10,000-mile benchmark, it is adding 14,000 extra miles annually. If the car is worth £28,000 and the per-mile wear assumption is 20p, those excess miles could represent about £2,800 of additional value pressure each year.
A van purchased for £22,000 is expected to have a useful life of 180,000 miles and a residual value of £4,000. The depreciable amount is £18,000, or 10p per life mile. If it covers 30,000 miles in a delivery year, the usage-based depreciation charge is £3,000 before considering condition and repair history.
| Vehicle age | Low mileage | Normal mileage | High mileage | What buyers usually think |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | Under 6,000 | 7,000–12,000 | 15,000+ | High miles can remove the “nearly-new” premium quickly. |
| 3 years | Under 20,000 | 24,000–36,000 | 45,000+ | This is a key finance and lease return age, so mileage matters a lot. |
| 5 years | Under 35,000 | 40,000–60,000 | 75,000+ | Service history starts to become as important as the odometer. |
| 8 years | Under 55,000 | 60,000–90,000 | 110,000+ | Condition, repairs and ownership history can outweigh mileage alone. |
| 10 years | Under 70,000 | 75,000–110,000 | 130,000+ | A well-maintained high-mileage car can still be attractive at the right price. |
These are practical used-car market ranges, not fixed valuation rules. Always compare live listings and actual trade offers for your exact model, trim and location.
Common questions about vehicle mileage, resale value, business mileage claims and depreciation per mile.
Use the calculator before buying, leasing, returning or selling a vehicle. A few thousand miles can change trade-in value, finance equity and business cost planning.
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