2011 Best Retained Value Awards

As part of its continuing efforts to highlight vehicle value for consumers, Edmunds.com is inaugurating the Best Retained Value Awards. The awards recognize the brands and models that have the highest projected residual value after five years, expressed as a percentage of their True Market Value^® (TMV^®).

The 2011 Best Retained Value Awards winners are Honda, which won the brand award for non-luxury makes, and Lexus, which won the brand award for luxury makes. In each case, the award is based on the average five-year retained value of the carmaker's 2011 models that launched prior to the end of 2010. In addition, Edmunds named Best Retained Value Award winners in 23 model-level categories.

A reliable assessment of a vehicle's resale value can be a critical piece of information for consumers in the car-buying process. Smart car shoppers will choose a car with high retained value so they can maximize its worth at trade-in or sale. And for consumers who lease, selecting a car with strong resale value is just as important, because resale value is a key factor in determining the monthly lease payment.

All model-year 2011 vehicles that were launched by the end of 2010 and had unit sales in February 2011 that were at least 20 percent of the average unit sales for the models in its segment were eligible for this year's model-level Best Retained Value Awards. Edmunds determined each model's competitive segment based on its body type and the sales-weighted average MSRP of all available styles (excluding destination charges) of that model's body type. All makes with more than 100,000 unit sales in 2010 were eligible for this year's brand-level Best Retained Value Awards.