In Qatar, a used SUV asks about 39% more than the same maker's sedan. Most of that comes back when you sell.

QatarEnergy announced today that fuel prices for November are unchanged: Super 95 stays at QAR 2.10 a litre, Premium 91 at QAR 1.95 and diesel at QAR 2.05. Running costs are not moving this month. The bigger number in most people's car budget is the purchase price, and one of the largest choices inside it is one buyers rarely put a figure on: sedan or SUV.

In Qatar the market has already voted. Of the 8,418 used cars on BuMotar today whose body type is recorded, 5,889 are SUVs, 70%, and 1,310 are sedans, 16%. Among cars from model years 2023 to 2026, sedans are 12% of listings, against 16% to 18% for every older group of years. So we asked what choosing the SUV actually costs, and whether you get it back.

How we measured it

We started from the same cleaned set we use for every article: used cars from model years 2014 to 2026, with between 1,000 and 500,000 km and an asking price of at least QAR 5,000, with obvious duplicates removed. That is 9,362 cars today.

Comparing all SUVs with all sedans tells you nothing; the SUVs include every Land Cruiser in the country. So we paired each sedan with an SUV from the same maker in roughly the same part of the range, and kept pairs with enough cars on both sides: 11 pairs, 418 sedans and 395 SUVs from model years 2014 to 2025. For each pair we measured how much more the SUV asks than the sedan once model year and mileage are held level, then combined the pairs.

The premium, pair by pair

How much more the SUV asks than its sedan sibling of the same model year and mileage, with the number of cars on each side:

• MG 5 and ZS — The ZS asks 21% more. 43 and 76 cars.
• Hyundai Accent and Creta — 26% more. 26 and 42 cars.
• Honda Civic and CR-V — 28% more. 22 and 26 cars.
• Suzuki Ciaz and Vitara — 29% more. 27 and 16 cars.
• Nissan Altima and X-Trail — 36% more. 23 and 79 cars.
• Honda City and HR-V — 42% more. 47 and 8 cars.
• Nissan Sunny and Kicks — 45% more. 90 and 60 cars.
• Kia Cerato and Sportage — 48% more. 21 and 32 cars.
• Toyota Corolla and RAV4 — 60% more. 78 and 32 cars.
• Hyundai Elantra and Tucson — 66% more. 15 and 13 cars.
• Kia Pegas and Seltos — 71% more. 26 and 11 cars.

Taken together, the SUV asks about 39% more than the same maker's sedan of the same age and mileage. Allowing for the spread in the data, the figure lies between about 35% and 43%. It is not a small number. On a sedan asking QAR 45,000, it is roughly QAR 17,500.

Part of that is not the body at all. A RAV4 is a bigger car than a Corolla, and a Tucson than an Elantra, and SUVs are often sold with more equipment. The premium is what the market charges for the SUV you would actually be offered, not for the shape alone. The Camry, a bigger car than the Corolla, is the Toyota sedan nearest the RAV4 on price: against a Camry of the same age and mileage, the RAV4 asks about 24% more. That pair also shows a trap. Of the 26 Camrys from 2020 to 2022 for sale, 18 have done more than 200,000 km, and the middle one 255,000. That pattern looks like cars that have been worked, though the listings do not say so.

At the same age and mileage, the SUV asks about 39% more than its sedan sibling. Three years on, it still asks about 39% more.

Do you get it back?

This is the part buyers usually guess at. Across the 11 pairs, sedans ask about 6.3% less for each model year of age, and SUVs about 6.4% less. The difference is too small to separate from noise. In plain terms, the SUV premium does not shrink as the car gets older: a five-year-old SUV still asks about 39% more than a five-year-old sedan from the same maker.

In riyals, take a sedan asking QAR 45,000 and its SUV sibling at about QAR 62,500 (an example, not an average). Losing 6.4% a year, after three years the sedan would ask about QAR 36,900 and the SUV about QAR 51,300. You paid QAR 17,500 more for the SUV. About QAR 14,400 of it is still in the car when you sell. The rest, about QAR 3,200 over three years, is what the SUV actually cost you in value, before fuel, insurance and tyres.

At the luxury end, the premium vanishes

We ran the same comparison on four luxury pairs: Lexus ES and RX, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and GLC, BMW 3 Series and X3, and BMW 5 Series and X5, 172 cars in all. Taken together, the SUV asks about the same as the sedan: 1.5% less, with a range from about 11% less to 8% more. The pairs disagree with each other. The X5 asks about 31% more than a 5 Series and the X3 21% more than a 3 Series, while the RX asks 6% less than an ES and the GLC 8% less than a C-Class.

What does differ is how fast they lose value. In these four pairs, the SUVs ask about 10.6% less for each year of age and the sedans about 7.9% less. That is the opposite of the mainstream market. Buying a used luxury SUV costs about the same as the sedan on the day, and more in value each year you keep it.

What to do with this

• If you are buying — If you do not need the height, the ground clearance or the boot, the sedan is the same maker's engineering for a little over a quarter less money, and you lose roughly the same share of it each year. If you do want the SUV, the extra mostly comes back at resale, so it is less of a cost than the sticker suggests; just do not pay more than the gap above for it. On a Camry, check the mileage before anything else. In the luxury pairs, compare the SUV and the sedan directly, because the market does not consistently charge more for the SUV.
• If you are selling — Price against your own model, year and mileage, not against the sibling. A Kicks owner who prices off Sunnys will sell cheap, and a Sunny owner who prices off Kicks will not sell. Fewer sedans are listed, which suggests fewer people are looking for one, though we cannot measure how long either takes to sell.
• If you are holding — A mainstream sedan or SUV that suits you is losing about the same share each year whichever it is, so there is no case for switching body style to save money. Swapping an older luxury SUV for a sedan of the same maker would stop the faster loss, but every sale and purchase costs you the gap between asking and selling prices, so do it only if you were changing cars anyway.

What we do not know, and what would change the answer. These are asking prices, not sale prices, and if SUVs sell closer to their asking price than sedans, or faster, the real gap differs from the one we measured. We compare cars of different ages for sale today, not the same car followed over time. Our listings do not reliably record trim or engine, and inside each model the trims vary widely; in the luxury pairs especially, a C 300 and an AMG C 63 are both a C-Class. Some pairs rest on fewer than 20 cars on one side (the HR-V, the Seltos, the Tucson, the Elantra, and the luxury SUVs), so treat those figures as a rough guide. The Altima and X-Trail pair is the least stable: measured only on 2018 to 2024 cars with 20,000 to 200,000 km, the X-Trail's premium falls from 36% to 7%. And mileage is as the seller states it; we cannot see accident history or service records.

Read next

• Camping season is open: a 2020 to 2022 Pajero asks QAR 61,000, a Land Cruiser of the same age QAR 169,000
• In Qatar, QAR 50,000 buys a 2023 crossover with 41,000 km, or a 2015 Patrol with 233,000 km