10 Best Resale Value Cars

Money checked out Kelley Blue Book and picked out a nice top ten list of cars that retained the most value after five years. The bulk of the cars on the list are not domestics, in fact only Chevy makes an appearance with the extremely popular Corvette. The other cars on the list are owned by either Japanese or European car companies!

Toyota and VW control 60% of the list with the Scions and the Corolla representing Toyota and three VW models rounding out the top ten. As expected, a majority of the Japanese cars are on the list because of their reliability; most of the other cars are there because of high demand for other reasons. For example, KBB supposed that despite VW’s history of questionable reliability, three of their vehicles made the list.

One thing to note, KBB did identify some contradictory information. When talking about the Jetta, they said “Despite Volkswagen’s spotty reputation for reliability - the brand fairs poorly in J.D. Powers’ annual rankings of long-term dependability - its cars hold their value well.” Then in talking about the Rabbit, they said that “Volkswagen’s certified pre-owned program, recently rated the best by Intellichoice.com, may help boost resale values in the long term.”

Top Ten Cars (Retained Value)

1. Chevrolet Corvette - 50% retained
2. Honda Civic Sedan - 52%, reliability
3. Infiniti G37 - 52%
4. Mini Cooper - 52%
5. Scion tC - 52%
6. Scion xB - 52%
7. Toyota Corolla - 52%
8. Volkswagen Eos - 52%
9. Volkswagen Jetta - 52%
10. Volkswagen Rabbit - 51%

Source: Money