BMW wins 2nd place at Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards

Kelley Blue Book Best Resale Value Awards have declared BMW and Subaru as the 2011 model-year winners for best resale value. The nominees for this award were judged based on the residual value of the car five years after it was purchased. KBB said that the average vehicle will normally retain around 34% of its original value after five years of ownership. The resale value is also based on current and projected future market conditions. BMW got a score of 37.1%, closely following Subaru with a 39% original value retained.

Kelley Blue Book says that this year’s winners were very close. BMW was able to beat the previous year’s winners, Toyota and Lexus. James Bell, executive market analyst for KBB said that “one of the reasons Subaru has done well and just squeaked by Toyota this year is the fact that they’ve got a nice balance between supply and demand. Their dealers are clamoring for more product because they know they can sell more. But the flip side of that is that they are able to sell the product that they do have at or near full M.S.R.P., and that has a huge factor in resale value as well.”

In the individual rankings, there are a couple of BMW made vehicles that made it to the list. This includes the BMW X5 SAV leading for the Luxury Utility category, the X5 diesel also took the lead in the Hybrid/Alternative Energy Utility, and the MINI Cooper won in the Compact segment. Here are a summary of the winners for best resale value:

• Honda Fit (subcompact)
• Mini Cooper (compact)
• Honda Accord (midsize)
• Ford Taurus (full-size)
• Lexus IS (near-luxury)
• Audi A5 (luxury)
• Subaru Impreza WRX (sports car)
• Ford Mustang GT (high-performance)
• Volkswagen Golf TDI (hybrid/alternative energy)
• Honda CR-V (compact utility vehicle)
• Toyota FJ Cruiser (midsize utility)
• GMC Acadia (full-size utility)
• BMW X5 (luxury utility)
• BMW X5 XDrive 35d ()
• Toyota Tacoma (midsize pickup)
• Ford F-Series Super Duty (full-size pickup)
• Toyota Sienna (van)
• Subaru Outback (wagon)

Source: KBB via NYT