Repair-It

https://www.kbb.com/new-cars/best-resal ... p-10-cars/

Trucks and SUVs have long dominated this list, but now they've almost completely taken over. With the Chevy Silverado and redesigned Honda Ridgeline returning to the list this year, we're now looking at seven trucks, two SUVs and -- clinging to the number 10 spot -- one car. But they're all standouts. While the average new vehicle will be worth about 33 percent of its original sticker price after 60 months, these 10 vehicles will return an average of 50 percent to their owners' pockets.

4/10 of these are GM trucks! And the Silverado takes the #3 spot which seems very impressive to me. The list shows 3 year and 5 year resale and the ranking is sorted by 5 year.

And actually the only one on the list that is clearly not a truck is the WRX which takes #10. The Honda Ridgeline could be argued as a crossover-truck (that is what it is). Everything else is a real, body-on-frame, truck or is based on one. To me, and my interpretation is biased, this reads like people perceive body on frame vehicles to have a different lifecycle than unibody vehicles. Unibody vehicles, perhaps, are perceived to be more disposable and the body on frame stuff perhaps has a longer operational life (and can do more work, depending on your definition of work). I have made this argument for the B-body in the past so maybe there is something to that. I don't mean that it translates directly to resale for the B-body, but just the general sense of longevity vs disposability.

By class, here is the breakdown for resale value:

Best subcompact: Honda Fit. Two variants of the Yaris made 2nd and 3rd place. I think a low MSRP is very key to this. I.e. if you could option a Fit to $30k, that car would depreciate pretty badly compared to a base one.

Best compact: Subaru Impreza. Again, directly related to my comment above, I think Subaru enjoys a resale advantage due in no small part to modest MSRPs and no highly optioned variants to drag down the average resale. The Civic and Corolla made 2nd and 3rd.

Best mid-size: Subaru Legacy. Same argument as above. 2nd and 3rd place are the Accord and Camry.

Best full-size: Nissan Maxima. 2nd and 3rd place are the Avalon and Charger (???).

Best sport compact: Subaru WRX. Now we are getting into a segment that is not quite as obviously defined imo. But you get a little bit of an idea when you look at the 2nd and 3rd: Focus RS and Golf R. Is this the entire class??

Best sports car: Porsche Cayman. 2nd and 3rd: Porsche Boxster and Lexus RC F.

Best high performance car: Ford Mustang Shelby (I wasn't aware that was a model). 2nd and 3rd: Porsche 911 and Chevrolet Corvette.

Best entry-level luxury car: Lexus RC. 2nd and 3rd: Lexus ES and Lexus IS. Snooze all the way around.

Best luxury car: Lexus GS. 2nd and 3rd: Audi A7 and Cadillac CT6. Things are getting weird as we move into niche segments.

Best high-end luxury car: Porsche Panamera. 2nd and 3rd: Lexus LS and MB CLS.

Best hybrid/alt-energy car: Honda Accord Hybrid. I didn't even know they had one. 2nd and 3rd: Prius and Avalon Hybrid (same).

Best EV: Chevrolet Bolt. 2nd and 3rd: MB B-class, BMW i3.

Best subcompact SUV/CUV: Honda HR-V. 2nd and 3rd: Nissan Juke and Mazda CX-3.

Best compact SUV/CUV: Jeep Wrangler. 2nd and 3rd: Honda CR-V and Subaru Crosstrek.

Best midsize SUV/CUV: Toyota 4Runner. 2nd and 3rd: Wrangler Unlimited and Toyota Highlander. I am rapidly getting bored here.

Best fullsize SUV/CUV: Chevrolet Suburban. Kind of nice to see the sales leader in the segment is also the resale leader. That is certainly not always the case by any means. 2nd and 3rd: Chevrolet Tahoe and Toyota Sequoia.

Best luxury compact SUV/CUV: Porsche Macan. 2nd and 3rd: Lexus NX and Audi Q3.

Best luxury midsize SUV/CUV: Lexus RX. 2nd and 3rd: Lexus GX and Acura MDX.

Best luxury fullsize SUV/CUV: Lexus LX 570. 2nd and 3rd: MB G-class and Toyota Land Cruiser.

Best midsize pickup: Toyota Tacoma. 2nd and 3rd: Chevrolet Colorado and Honda Ridgeline. I am happy to see GM squeezed between two Japanese entries.

Best fullsize pickup truck: Chevrolet Silverado HD. 2nd and 3rd: GMC Sierra HD and Toyota Tundra. I think this is significant. I could have easily seen the fairly unpopular Tundra as having the best resale, yet it did not. On the other hand, since there is no HD Tundra, you could argue the Tundra is thus #1 in 1/2 ton resale. At least I would assume that given this data.

Best minivan: Toyota Sienna. 2nd and 3rd: Chrysler Pacifica and Kia Sedona. Uhh, what happened to the Odyssey??

As usual "best of" rankings are realistically just one factor in a purchase decision. There are so many factors that I can't see a single best-of metric as defining a purchase decision. Mainly because there are a lot of "best-ofs" that all seem important such as:
- Best fuel economy
- Best performance
- Best interior
- Best looking
- Best lease deal
- Best badge
- Best resale

And when I purchase cars, I am more or less selecting worst resale, so the whole thing flips on its head.

I missed an obvious one:
- Best reliability