The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has issued its latest Used Car Guide for light-duty trucks and sport utility vehicles. Looking at three year old vehicles (model year 2011) from that list, the March edition of NADA Perspective lists those makes and models with the highest value retention.
Not surprisingly, light-duty pickup trucks retained most of their value after three years, averaging about 62.5 percent for typically-equipped models, while mid-sized vans ranked lowest at only 49.2 percent.
The Toyota Tacoma topped the list in the mid-sized pickup segment at 80.7 percent retention. Toyota again dominated the mid-sized SUV segment with the 4Runner at 79.8 percent. Toyota placed within the top two in all mainstream segments, in fact, including top spot in the luxury large SUV segment with the Land Cruiser.
Luxury compact SUVs saw the Audi Q5 leading the way at 67.8 percent retention, which may help explain why it’s one of the segment’s top sellers as well.
Hybrids do not fare so well here, with most hybrid SUV and trucks averaging at just 54 percent retention of value. Compared to hybrid cars, however, they are doing well. “Although hybrid truck retention was lower than that of most other segments, it was almost six points higher than hybrid car retention,” said Jonathan Banks, executive automotive analyst at NADA Used Car Guide. “This is consistent with overall truck performance, as the group’s retention largely outperformed that of cars.”
You can read the March edition of NADA Perspective here.
