City cars best performers at resale time

13 January 2009

News

Lease companies struggling with massive falls in the value of used cars entered into auction have been told that it is smaller city cars that are performing strongest in the used car market.

According to the latest research, Toyota city car - the Aygo - was Britain’s slowest depreciating car in 2008.

In its annual depreciation report, Parker’s compared last January’s new prices with what a car would be worth if it were sold now.

A Toyota Aygo lost just £1,515 over the last 12 months – the equivalent of £4 per day.

Meanwhile the worst performer, the Maybach lost more than £350 every day in depreciation last year.

It’s the third year running that Toyota’s city car has featured in the top ten.

Its sister cars – the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107 – take second and fifth spots. All three are essentially the same car with different badges.

The Fiat 500 makes its appearance in the top 10, after it was placed in fourth position, well ahead of the seventh place Mini, which has been a star performer for residual values since 2001.

All the cars in this year’s top 10 have one thing in common: they’re all small and cheap to run.

As a result, increased demand from buyers trading down to smaller, more economical cars have pushed up prices.

Meanwhile, those cars at the foot of the table are all thirsty, large engined executive models or high-end sports cars.

The best residual performers of 2008