afaik, depreciation is supposed to be a scientific & user specific approach as to how you can gradually & methodically assess the value of a certain asset.. many factors (i.e. mostly mentioned above) contribute to whether an asset depreciate faster or slower than another..

why, even money is considered to depreciate by financial experts due to inflation or even its relation to other currencies. so if you think your money is growing just because you put it in interest bearing instruments, well, guess again. if the interest (i.e. net of taxes & opportunity loss) is less than the percentage of inflation, then your money is actually losing value..

it is actually the amount of depreciation (i.e. depreciation = original cost - net value) which is considered expense. in most cases, the amount charged to expense is very much related to the projected useful life and/or degree of use of the asset whereas, the longer the projected usefule life, the lesser the assets depreciates overtime.

this explains why cars are usually considered expense, due to the rapid depreciation based on its use wherein its original cost or value will almost always be immediately reduced right out-the-door..

in a way, depreciation is also a relative term, because it depends on the owners view of the asset.
Quote Originally Posted by oldblue
best way to beat depreciation, buy a car for keeps
*sir oldblue: though it may seem to disregard the notion of depreciation, i guess you are right in a certain way because, as you mentioned, buy a car for keeps but still, there will be a point in time that you will need to determine its value and that's when the methodology of depreciation comes into play..

just my :twocents: po, i know there is a better way to put it out there