Top 10 Cars with the best Resale value
If you are looking for cars with the best resale values, think quality 4x4s and SUVs.
The vehicle valuation business, Glass's, has placed seven 4x4s or SUVs in its top 10 of cars in the UK that retain the highest value, in percentage terms, three years after purchase when new.
Glass’s says that deciding what new car to buy can sometimes be difficult, but a big part of any buying decision should be how much the car is likely to be worth in the future, relative to the price you pay for it.
When compiling its list of the top 10 cars with the best resale value, the business excluded automotive exotica and cars sold in very small numbers.
Its list expresses the residual values of the vehicles as a percentage of the original asking price in 2007. The cars compared - the best performing of each model - had average mileage of 37,000 miles.
The Volkswagen Tiguan (168bhp) SE 4Motion five-door topped the list.
The car retained 68 per cent of its value with average annual depreciation of £2,394.
Second place went to the Mini 1.6 Cooper three-door (65.9 per cent, £1,462) and the Honda CR-V 2.2 CTDi (138bhp) SE five-door (64.3 per cent, £2,356) came third.
Equal fourth were the Land Rover Freelander 2 GS Td4 auto (63.8 per cent, £2,965) and the Audi Q7 3.0TDI (237bhp) Quattro S Line Tip (63.8 per cent, £4,962)
Making up the rest of the top 10, in descending order, were the Land Rover Discovery 3 2.7TD (190bhp) (63.7 per cent, £3,720), the Audi TT Coupe 2.0T FSI (197bhp) (63.6 per cent, £3,123), the Nissan Qashqai 1.6 (113bhp) 2WD Visia (63.3 per cent, £1,628), the Land Rover Range Rover 2.7TD Sport (187bhp) S Auto (62.5 per cent, £4,425) and the Audi A5 2.7TDI (187bhp) Sport Coupe Multitronic (62.2 per cent, £4,123).
Adrian Rushmore, Glass's managing editor, said: ‘The VW Tiguan is blessed with all the right ingredients to give it great residual values. Apart from having the cachet of the VW badge, it has never been marketed hard as a new car and there have been prolonged periods of very limited availability.
‘The Mini still does incredibly well. Having topped the table in 2008 and then slipped to fifth place last year, the first of the new generation models are now three years old, boosting its ranking.’
Mr Rushmore said that 4x4s and SUVs had performed remarkably well in the used car market despite external factors such as fuel price rises that might have worked against these types of vehicles.
He added it seemed that used car buyers with a healthy amount of disposable income were opting to pay the highest prices - relative to original list prices - for cars that reflected their chosen lifestyle and image, rather than those that reflected a desire for lower running costs or outright practicality.
Of course, when considering cars with the best resale values, you should always take into account the fact that if you buy a small car, the depreciation in actual cash terms is likely to be a lot less than that of the luxury 4x4s and SUVs.
For more information on car valuations, visitwww.glass.co.uk.
