Kelley Blue Book says Toyota is the best car brand at retaining a resale value.
The leading provider of new and used car information released its latest Best Resale Value Award winners on Monday. Awards are based on projections from the Kelley Blue Book® Official Residual Value Guide, determined by a skilled staff of automotive analysts.
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Toyota's entire lineup of 2013 model-year vehicles is expected to retain the greatest amount of its original value after the initial five years of ownership.
The luxury brand with the same claim is Toyota's more refined sibling, Lexus. Both Toyota and Lexus earned the Best Resale Value Awards' highest honors – Best Resale Value: Brand and Best Resale Value: Luxury Brand, respectively – for the second consecutive year. Both brands also won their respective categories for the 2010 model year, making them winners in three of the last four years. Toyota improved its 60-month average residual value by more than 3 percentage points from this time last year, driven primarily by the brand's two perennial truck winners, the FJ Cruiser and Tacoma.
The newly redesigned Avalon also improved its 60-month residual value nearly 8 percentage points year-over-year, making a significant contribution to Toyota's already strong lineup.
"After the past two tumultuous years, Toyota bounced back in 2012 to prove it hadn't lost its competitive spirit," said Eric Ibara, director of residual consulting for Kelley Blue Book. "Enduring some of its darkest days in the U.S. market after unintended acceleration issues caused a massive worldwide recall of Toyota models, the brand managed to retain residual value levels consistent with its historical averages. If the recall wasn't enough, the 2011 tsunami in Japan resulted in severe disruptions in supply. However, Toyota prevailed and regained the market share it lost to other automakers during this timeframe. It is quite an accomplishment when you think about the challenges Toyota has overcome to remain Best Resale Value: Brand for the past two years in a row."
Overall, 60-month residual values for all 2013 model-year vehicles averaged 38.2 percent, which is stated as a percent of each vehicle's MSRP. This represents an increase of 2.5 percentage points compared to the 2012 model-year average from the same period last year.
For 2013, Kelley Blue Book's residual value forecast calls for the truck segment to continue to hold its value better than cars, with the average 60-month residual value across all trucks at 39.8 percent, compared to the average across all car models at 37.2 percent. Excluding compact SUV/crossovers, full-size SUV/crossovers and high-performance cars, all segment average 60-month residual values increased on a year-over-year basis. The average residual values for all cars increased 3.1 percentage points, while all trucks increased 1.8 percentage points.
The automotive market continued to gain momentum this year after clocking in at 12.7 million sales in 2011. With a little more than one month remaining in 2012, it appears auto sales will climb to around 14.4 million this year. However, head winds are starting to pick up, and there are now more reasons to expect the automotive recovery to stall.
"Unemployment remains aggravatingly high, despite the amount of time that has elapsed since the economy bottomed in 2009," said Ibara. "Individuals without jobs are not likely to purchase new vehicles, so a return to a 16 million seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) will not be likely until the employment picture brightens."