Edmunds.com Names Best Bets for Used Cars, Perfect for Consumers Unwilling to Pay Thousands for That New-Car Smell
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Edmunds.com Names Best Bets for Used Cars, Perfect for Consumers Unwilling to Pay Thousands for That New-Car Smell
SANTA MONICA, CALIF. - June 30, 2004 - While some may say there is nothing like that new-car smell, is it really worth thousands of dollars? Clever consumers understand that a vehicle's value depreciates most during the first few years of ownership, making low-mileage two- or three-year-old used vehicles the best values. Edmunds.com, the Internet's premiere resource for consumer automotive information, today announced its selections for the top choices in the used vehicle market. The full article can be viewed at: http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/bestbet/articles/index.html.
Edmunds.com's 2004 Used Car Best Bets are:
| Economy Car: | 1997-2002 Honda Civic |
| Midsize Car: | 1997-2002 Toyota Camry |
| Large Car: | 1997-2002 Ford Crown Victoria / Mercury Grand Marquis |
| Luxury Car: | 1997-2002 Lexus ES 300 |
| Sporty Car: | 1997-2002 Mazda Miata |
| Mini-SUV: | 1997-2002 Honda CR-V |
| SUV: | 1999-2002 Nissan Pathfinder |
| Minivan: | 1999-2002 Honda Odyssey |
| Small Pickup: | 1997-2002 Ford Ranger / Mazda B-Series |
| Large Pickup: | 1997-2002 Ford F-150 |
"America's fascination with new cars means there are always ample trade-ins and off-lease vehicles being sold as used vehicles at great values," said Karl Brauer, Editor in Chief of Edmunds.com. "Of course, consumers should thoroughly investigate an individual used vehicle's condition and history before purchasing it — and maybe request a spray of synthetic 'new-car smell' if that's important to them, too."
Edmunds.com editors emphasized reliability, safety and availability as the most important criteria when developing their list: The editors also limited the age range of these selections from two to seven years for the following reasons: Older vehicles typically have too many miles on them, and newer ones will not have fully taken the full brunt of the initial depreciation hit that typically makes a low-mileage two- or three-year-old car the best value.
About Edmunds
Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value® pricing, is generated by Edmunds Data Services and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies over 800,000 pages of content for the auto sections of AOL and NYTimes.com, provides weekly data to Automotive News and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com StudySM and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. and maintains a satellite office near Detroit.
