Final answer:
The 0.97 in the model represents a depreciation rate, which indicates that the car's value will decrease annually by 3%.
Step-by-step explanation:
The value of 0.97 in the model y=15,000(0.97)^x, where x represents the number of years, is a depreciation rate of the car's value. This figure suggests that each year, the car's value will decrease to 97% of its value from the previous year. This is an instance of exponential decay, where the base of the exponential function, in this case 0.97, indicates the percent change from one year to the next. Therefore, a 0.97 decay factor means there is a 3% (100% - 97%) depreciation of the car's value each year.