2012 Best Retained Value^® Awards

Edmunds.com's Best Retained Value^® Awards are part of our continuing efforts to highlight vehicle value for consumers. 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 2012 Best Retained Value^® Awards winners are Honda, which won the brand award for non-luxury makes, and Acura, 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 2012 models that launched prior to the end of 2011. 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 car buyers. 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: Resale value is a key factor in determining the monthly lease payment.

All model-year 2012 vehicles that were launched by the end of 2011 and had unit sales in March 2012 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 2011 were eligible for this year's brand-level Best Retained Value^® Awards.