Don’t be misled by a low sticker price
It’s always rewarding
to get the best possible price on a new car. But merely buying the
least-expensive car available is likely to give you years of frustration. And
the type of vehicle you are buying isn’t’ important: a bad or unreliable car
isn’t a good value no matter how little you paid for it.
Toyota Camry Hybrid
What most car buyers
want is to get the most bang for their buck in the long run. So we has used our
five-year owner cost estimates to analyze the relative value of vehicles in
different categories to show which ones give you the most for the least.
Shopping for value
One of the most active
vehicle segments today is small, fuel-efficient cars. Every manufacturer is
either updating existing models or introducing new ones.
If you are looking for
a new small car, you might be tempted to buy the Chevrolet Cruze LS, one of the
lowest priced car in the class.
Chevrolet Cruze LS
But you would be
setting yourself up for disappointment if you went that route.
A closer look reveals
that the Mazda3 I Touring SkyActiv is a much better value, even though it costs
about $1800 more to buy. The Mazda costs less to own in the long run than the
Cruze and performs better in our tests. Its 32 mpg overall and excellent
predicted reliability will save you $4,200 over five years compared with the
Cruze
Mazda3 I Touring SkyActiv
We think that real
value is not necessarily how much you spend but what you get for your money.
Vehicles that are reliable, perform well, and don’t’ cost much to own represent
the best values. So our value scores are based on these three elements:
Road-test
scores.
These are the results of
more than 50 tests and evaluations, including assessments of performance,
comfort, convenience, and fuel economy. Ratings are based on a 100-point scale
and range from a high of 99 for the luxurious Lexus LS 460L to 20 for the
crude, off-road-ready Jeep Wrangler. If a car doesn’t perform well enough, we
can’t recommend it.
Lexus LS 460L
Predicted-reliability
scores.
These are forecasts of
how new models will probably hold up, based on their recent history. The data
comes from our Annual Auto Survey, in which subscribers told us about the
problems they had experienced with 1.3 million vehicles. If a model has
below-average reliability, we won’t recommend it regardless of how well it
performed in our testing. For example, the Jaguar X JL scored a respectable 83
points in our testing but it is the lowest value in our analysis, because it
had one of the lowest predicted-reliability scores and among the highest owners
costs.
Five-year
owner costs.
These estimates factor
in all major expenses incurred in the first five years, a common ownership
period. Those costs are depreciation, fuel, insurance premiums, interest on
financing, maintenance and repairs, and sales tax. They are represented as cost
per mile, ranging from 40 cents for the Toyota Prius C to 89 cents for the Ford
Explorer XLT. (Luxury cars are far higher, like the $1.78 for the BMW 750iL).
Depreciation is by far the largest factor, accounting for almost half of all
owners cost in the first five years. Fuel is the second largest expense.
Ford Explorer XLT
Our analysis assumes
the cars will be traded in after five years. We use the national average of
12,000 miles per year to calculate costs. Maintenance and repair costs come
from our Annual Auto Survey.
The $16,650 Honda Fit
is not only our top value among small cars, but it tops more than 200 cars in
our analysis.
Smaller is better
Smaller is better it
should come as no surprise that small cars and family sedans tend to provide
the most value for the money, with their reasonable purchase prices, relatively
good fuel economy, and fewer complex and sometimes trouble-prone accessories
and electronic systems found on more expensive models. Most scored at least one
and a half times as high as the average model. Even the Cruze, the worst value
among small cars, is close to average.
Honda Fit
The $16,650 Honda Fit
is our top value among the more than 200 vehicles in our analysis, delivering
more than twice the value of the average model. On the other hand, the
similarly-priced Nissan Cube offers less for the same money: lower fuel
economy, slightly worse reliability, and lower resale value. The Fit is a
better value despite its similar price. Other small cars that are good values
include the regular Toyota Prius, the diesel powered Golf TDI (with manual
transmission), and the Toyota Corolla.
The family car category
is led by the Toyota Camry Hybrid and the Prius V, followed by the Camry LE
(4-cyl), and the Subaru Legacy 2.5i. Even the lowest-rated family sedans rank
slightly better than average in value.
Larger and luxury
vehicles are among the worst values overall. The best large and midsized SUVs
tend to earn about the same value score as the lowest-ranked family sedans.
Luxury cars as a class are more expensive to own, mainly because a higher
purchase price leads to steeper depreciation than on more moderately priced
vehicles.
Compact pickups are
usually a better value than full-sized because of their lower purchase price
and better fuel economy. The Honda Ridgeline, Nissan Frontier, and Toyota
Tacoma are the best in class. The full-sized Nissan Titan and Toyota Tundra scored
about average. The Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Avalanche scored just below
average.
Good value alternatives
If you need a roomier
vehicle, wagons and small SUVs tend to provide better value than larger SUVs or
minivans. With most wagons today resembling family sedans or midsized SUVs in
function, form, and price, we’ve listed them with competitive family sedans and
midsized SUVs.
For example, the
Subaru Outback looks like a wagon but is sized like an SUV, blurring the line
between the categories. It easily out-scores midsized SUVs with about 1.5 times
the average value.
The Prius V, with its
excellent 41 mpg overall, topped nearly every family car with almost twice the
average value. The Mazda5 small minivan and the diesel-powered Volkswagen Jetta
SportWagen TDI scored near the top of their categories with almost one and a
half times the value of the average car.
The Prius V
The best small SUVs
are even better values than wagons. Leading that class are the four-cylinder Toyota
RAV4 and the Subaru Forester.
More mainstream
midsized SUVs represent less of a bargain because of their higher purchase
prices and fuel costs. Other than the Outback, the best midsized SUVs scored a
little better than average. The Toyota Venza and Highlander, Nissan Murano, and
Honda Cross-tour are among the best values.
Nissan Murano
Hybrids and manuals
Our analysis also
shows that hybrids, with their good fuel economy, low depreciation, and
above-average reliability, can be relatively good values. As a class, hybrids
deliver half again the value of an average car and cost about 60 cents per
miles to drive over the first five years.
Cars equipped with
manual transmissions offer more bang for your buck than the same cars with
automatics. They generally get better gas mileage and have quicker
acceleration, which improve road-test scores. And they have a lower purchase
price, which reduces ownership costs. But fewer models are available with stick
shifts these days.
Best & Worst Values
Models are ranked by
value score, above or below the average (1.0). Scores are calculated based on
the five-year owner cost for each vehicle, shown as cost per mile, along with
the road-test score and predicted-reliability Rating. A vehicle with a score of
2.0 is twice as good a value as the average; one with 0.5 is half as good.
Models with a ü are recommended. Vehicles with an * have a value score that is greater
than 2.0.
