Top 10 Cars with Best Resale Value

Chevrolet Corvette

Kelley Blue Book has released its annual list of Top 10 cars that should retain more of their original value by 2013 than the average vehicle.

On average, a vehicle will retain just 35% of its original value after five years of use. In other words, buying a new car today for $20,000 will mean you can expect to get just $7,000 for it after five years. Note that unpopular color, too many accessories and/or radical interior and exterior may reduce the resale value much more than this level simply because you'll get less number of buyers to bargain for the price.

Here is the Top 10 list ['Base price range' and 'Predicted 5-year retained value' are indicated in parenthesis after each car name]:

1) General Motors' Chevrolet Corvette ($47,245 - $55,585, 50%)
2) Honda Motor's Civic ($15,645 - $21,925, 52%)
3) Nissan's Infiniti G37 ($34,965 - $36,265, 52%)
4) BMW's Mini Cooper ($18,700 - $26,050, 52%)
5) Toyota Motor's Scion tC ($15,920 - $18,420, 52%)
6) Toyota's Scion xB ($16,270 - $17,220, 52%)
7) Toyota Corolla ($15,065 - $19,200, 52%)
8) Volkswagen's Eos ($29,555 - $38,630, 52%)
9) Volkswagen Jetta $17,630 ($23,465, 51%)
10) Volkswagen Rabbit ($16,130 - $17,075, 51%)