Toyota continued its winning streak in the annual Canadian Black Book “Best Retained Value” awards, coming away with six awards for vehicles that depreciate the least.
For the seventh straight year, the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma dominated in the truck space in their respective categories.
The brand’s plug-in vehicles also scored high in two categories, with the Prius v awarded best residual value in the compact car segment and the Prius c coming in second place in the sub-compact car segment.
This year, the Toyota Camry upset long-time winner, the Subaru Outback, in the mid-size car category.
The mid-size SUV category also saw the highest “Best Retained Value” of all categories at 71 per cent, with the Toyota FJ Cruiser, Toyota 4Runner and Toyota Highlander placing first, second and third, respectively.
In an interview with Canadian auto dealer, Josh Bailey, VP, Research & Editorial for Canadian Black Book, said he finds it remarkable that Toyota has almost a third of the awards over 20 categories.
“I really attribute it to the fact that when you are buying a used car people are looking for some certainty. And Toyota’s reputation of quality and durability help contribute to that certainty for people.”
He added that Toyota is perceived as a strong brand, noting that other brands have also won awards for their quality but haven’t necessarily risen to the top of the Canadian Black Book Awards just yet.
But overall, many used vehicles are seeing record values, spurred by the U.S. dollar, said Bailey. “Some of the year-over-year increases we saw were really remarkable.”
The Canadian Black Book award winners are chosen based on vehicles that retain the highest percentage of their original MSRP after four years.
What Bailey hopes is that consumers start to recognize the importance of depreciation when selecting a vehicle.
In a recent study, Canadian Black Book found that only one percent of people considered depreciation when purchasing vehicles — meaning there’s still a long way to go in educating consumers.
That’s where dealers can come in, said Bailey, and added Canadian Black Book offers a free tool on its website that dealers can use to help customers compare models.
Here’s the full list of 2016 winners:
