Cars and Drivers

2 German, 2 US Luxury Car Makers Shut Out of Best Resale Value Lists

Paul Ausick

Published: January 25, 2017 1:05 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:32 pm

When you pay north of around $40,000 for a luxury vehicle, one of the extras you might expect is a higher resale value when you either trade or sell the vehicle. Depending on what brand of luxury vehicle you buy, you could be disappointed.

The top luxury brands do not include either of the best-known German nameplates — Mercedes-Benz and BMW — or either of their two best-known U.S. competitors — Lincoln from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and Cadillac from General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM).

Researchers at Kelley Blue Book (KBB) have issued their rankings of 2017 model year vehicles with the best resale value in 22 vehicle categories and also named the top 10 2017 cars with the best resale value. The rankings are based on a projected retained value through an initial five-year ownership period.

Over the past five years, from model year 2013 through this morning’s announcement of model year 2017, Toyota Motor Corp.’s (NYSE: TM) Lexus brand claimed the title of the luxury brand with the best resale value for four consecutive years, before Volkswagen’s Porsche brand ended the streak in this year’s ranking.

The 2017 rankings for vehicles in the six luxury categories included four Lexus models and two Porsche models. The following chart shows the resale rankings in each of the luxury categories for the past five model years. No U.S. nameplate is among the winners, and only one German nameplate other than Porsche appears among the 30 winners. That’s not exactly a thrilling showing for high-end automakers.

We noted earlier this morning all the winners in the Kelley Blue best resale value categories.