Which Cars Have The Best Resale Value?

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Parker's Annual depreciation report shows that the Honda Jazz is the car that best holds its own where re-selling is concerned in Britain. The Honda Jazz, based on average car values, comes out top for the last 12 months to December 2009 only depreciating in value by £1379.

The figures show that Honda's little run around looses about £3.78 per day, which is about the price of an average pack of sandwiches or cup of coffee and a cake in town. The small cars led the way in the results and they are where the smart money, who are looking for good returns should invest. From the top 40 cars surveyed over 2009, small cars filled a massive 35 positions, along with some of the more recognised value brands.

Closely behind the Jazz, came the Fiat 500, the SEAT Ibiza and the Hyundai i10 takes fourth position. The other top ten cars were the Mazda 2, Kia Picanto, VW Fox, Suzuki Swift, Toyota Aygo and the Mitsubishi i. Six of the top re-sale cars to hold their value well were from Japanese makers, with no British, American or French manufacturers making the grade.

The survey of 300 models found that the general ...
... trend was for cars to depreciate more slowly in their first year. This figure, however, was even less than the results for the preceding 12 months in 2008. This is acknowledged as a result of the sudden economic downturn that occurred during the second half of 2008 and the drop in new car sales.

This rapid drop in sales has led to an overall shortage in the market of used cars with a 2008 plate. And could lead to certain owners who have seen their car values plummet, getting better deals than they would have otherwise expected.

The yardstick by which the price depreciation index was drawn up, were that the cars had to be a year old, privately sold and with around 10,000 miles on the clock.

As you would expect the biggest losers were some of the most expensive and desirable cars on the forecourts and many saw their values go into free fall after the economic crash. The Maybach 32 was the bottom of the list, loosing an incredible £127,526 in value, while the Rolls Royce Phantom didn't do much better falling £81,183 in its first year.

Cars shamelessly touted by celebrities and sports stars alike, were also ones that took some of the largest hammerings. The Bentley Arnage dropping £66,040 in value, the Ferrari 612 a whopping £51,627 and losses on the Aston Martin DBS reaching £41,347. The Maybach with two models, Bentley along with the Arnage, had the Continental GT and the Flying Spur and Ferrari's F 430 joining its 612 cousin all proved to be the marques that lost the most amount of money over the year.

Although this may be somewhat deceptive as if you take the percentage loss in value, most cars come out down by about 25% on their OTR forecourt sales price.
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