Auto Advice From An Auto Expert

Sure, we want vehicles with the best resale value. Simply, we don’t want our money to deteriorate along with the usual wear and tear. To note, regardless of sticker price, vehicles that are rare, performance-minded, and fun to drive have the highest resale values in the auto industry.

The 10 cars with the highest resale value share at least one thing in common, whether they cost $16,000 or $160,000: Most of them skew more toward fun than practicality, said Forbes. The majority of vehicles on Forbes previous ranking of the Top 10 Luxury Cars With the Highest Resale Value are the priciest, fastest, and least practical around. Opening up our new list to all cars keeps a few expensive rides in play, but not as many as you might think.

“There are a lot of 2-doors on this list,” says Larry Batton, president of the Auto Appraisal Group. In fact, all but three vehicles on the list, the Cadillac Escalade, Honda Civic Si, and VW Rabbit are only available in 2-door body styles. The rest of the list includes vehicles like the BMW M6, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, and Mini Cooper S.

Performance

All but 2 vehicles on the list, the Cadillac Escalade and VW Rabbit, are designed for driving thrill. “A solid number of cars on the list emphasize good performance at a reasonable price,” says Eric Ibara, director of market valuation at Kelley Blue Book, the company that provided resale value data on which our list is based. He singled out the Honda Civic Si, Mini Cooper S, Pontiac Solstice, and Saturn Sky as examples of affordable cars that are rewarding to drive. We also think that the Scion tC has a high fun factor.

Uniqueness

Forbes’ previous best- and worst-resale-values lists for luxury cars reflect the link between how rare a vehicle is and how well it holds value over time. “Membership into an exclusive club of limited-run cars” is a major boon for resale value, Ibara says. Two vehicles on this latest list — the BMW M6 and Porsche 911 GT3 — are in that club.

Vehicles with loads of personality also dominate the list, from the curvy Solstice and Sky drop-tops to the customizable Mini Cooper S and Scion tC. “People are seeing great value in these ‘statement vehicles,” Ibara says, even if the cachet they command isn’t based on price.

Affordability

With plenty of superb luxury cars flooding the market, it’s worth stressing that many of the vehicles on this list have prices below $30,000. One reason for this is that the lower the starting price, the less opportunity it has to decline.

Another factor is that some cars lose a lot of their resale value because of technology features that become obsolete, and lower-priced cars tend to have fewer of such amenities. For instance, when vehicles with older in-dash navigation systems are replaced by those with slicker, updated units, the older cars drop further in value. However, lower-priced cars usually forgo high-tech gadgets and include mostly basic, vital features.