|
For the second time in three years, Toyota brought home Kelley Blue Book’s Best Resale Value Award for Best Brand. The brand first won in 2010 for its dependability, reliability, and overall quality as exemplified in the models Camry, the best-selling car in the United States, and the Corolla, the best-selling car in the history of the world. For 2012, the car manufacturer bagged the award on the strength of five individual awards. About Resale Values What are resale values anyway and why are they an important factor in deciding which car to buy? Kelley Blue Book maintains that if you want to have low transportation costs each year, you should buy a vehicle that retains its value well because depreciation can cost owners thousands of dollars during car ownership. A vehicle that has a high resale value can guarantee you a good sum when it’s time to trade-in, or sell. Kelley Blue Book has been providing financial institutions, automotive leasing companies, and even government agencies with comprehensive residual values. For consumers, KBB has been conducting the Best Resale Value Awards since 2003. The Awards are instrumental in recognizing the outstanding achievements of car manufacturers in coming up with vehicles that retain their value in the first five years of ownership. The resale projections are tough work and are the product of meticulous market and pricing analysis based on vehicle data, market conditions, competition within segments, and even the expectations of the economy in the future. Best Brands and Models Toyota’s reliability brings it to the top spot of the awards again, with its cars retaining up to 40.5% of their value. And while the brand isn’t known as astoundingly flashy, it is nonetheless highly productive, coming up with trusty cars that satisfy thousands of customers worldwide. Lexus also wins the award as the Best Luxury Brand, and like its parent company, gains it for the second time in three years. It is also KBB’s best luxury brand in 2010. The other brands that made it to the top ten list are Jeep (40.4%), Scion (39.0%), Honda (38.6%), Lexus (37.9%), Subaru (37.4%), Porsche (36.4%), Infiniti (35.5%), Audi (35.2%), and Nissan (35.0%) The best Individual model that retains the most value in five years is the Jeep Wrangler. For the 2012 model year, it has an upgraded, more powerful and fuel-efficient V6. At a close second and third are the Toyota FJ Cruiser and Tacoma, respectively. Trailing behind the top three are the Hyundai Tucson, Audi Q7, Infiniti FX, Honda CR-V, Lexus RX, Nissan Frontier, and Chevrolet Camaro. Notable is the FJ Cruiser, which gained 8.0 percentage points from the previous year, thanks to a strong auction performance. The 2007 first-generation release of the FJ Cruiser holds a value in the mid-60% range of the original manufacturer’s suggested retail price even at five years old. Do you think Toyota deserves to win the Best Brand Award? Would you consider resale values as major factors in deciding which car to buy? Would you refer to the Kelley Blue Book values when you make your next purchase? We’d love to hear what you think!
Related Articles -
japanese cars, japanese used cars, used cars,
|
