No One Wants Your Worthless Small Car, and Its Retained Value Shows It

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems
Is there a tiny pinpoint of light that can stir some meager hope in the heart of the compact and midsize passenger car segment? No, no there isn’t.Even as sticker prices for these vehicles rise and as manufacturers endow them with enough technological goodies to make your mom’s car from yesterday look like a chuckwagon, retained value is dropping as fast as the segments’ market share.Once a driving force, the segment has now become a red-headed stepchild at auction.According to data from Kelley Blue Book, no one wants to pay more for the extra content on these vehicles and it’s dragging down the industry-wide retained value average.The average price of all one- to three-year-old vehicles sold at auction remains static, but retained value continued its downward slide. Average retained value hit 56 percent of MSRP by the end of the quarter — a nearly four percent decrease from 2014’s average.This isn’t to say that there aren’t hot segments stacked with vehicles that hold their values at auction. SUVs and pickups are sales leaders with high sticker prices that consumers are only too happy to pay and they top the retained value list. The best performer? The growing midsize pickup segment, which sees 2015 models retain 87 percent of their value.Still, it’s compact and midsize passenger cars that serve as a high-volume boat anchor. Used compact cars saw a retained value decline of 9.7 percent, year to date, while midsizers declined 10.8 percent. That puts the average auction price of a one- to three-year-old compact at $9,931 and midsize cars at $11,645.This is great news for those looking to buy a slightly used sedan. More content at no extra cost? Who can complain? Still, the value drop is indicative of the segments’ declining popularity — a market shift that was once unthinkable. Now, America’s changing buying habits are Mexico’s manufacturing gain.Crossovers and SUVs overtook passenger cars in new vehicle sales this past summer, and the trend continued last month. Sales of compact cars dropped 1 percent and midsize cars dropped 11 percent. The worst offender among one-year-old compact vehicles? The 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer, which kept only 47 percent of its value. The midsize segment’s worst offender, the soon-to-be-dead Chrysler 200, fared even worse with a retained value of only 46 percent.Full-size cars are in trouble, too, and subcompacts share the same affliction. Still, none of these segments can claim the lowest rung on the retained value ladder. That infamy goes to hybrids and battery electric vehicles.[Image: Toyota]
Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • -Nate -Nate on Oct 29, 2016

    " I don’t like floating around in a big goddamn boat of a car. But I do realize I’m in the tiny, tiny minority." . That's not necessarily true ~ Most of the folks of any age group I know prefer smaller vehicles because they're much more fun to actually _drive_ . I'm an outlier because I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's squeezed into tiny little crap imported boxes but I see lots and lots of people of all ages out driving small two door Coupes every day, every where I go . It depends on what you want to do : I only had one child to raise and we never carried the Metric crap load of unnecessary junk most Parents think they need these days so a 1948 VW Beetle or a '1962 Renault Dauphine Sedan were just fine and dandy if slow . The same with pickup trucks ~ if a Motocycle will fit in the bed (1969 Chevy C/10 stepside) that's enough ~ most of the time I'll only carrying a tool box or engines/trannies so no actual need for a 3/4 ton behemoth that's not fun to drive in the canyons, thirsty at the fuel pump and unpleasant to parallel park . Small vehicles rock ! . -Nate

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    • Vulpine Vulpine on Oct 31, 2016

      @AJ Real? Or perception? I saw next to no difference between driving my Fiat 500 and my Jeep Wrangler Unlimited (JKU), with one exception. Big pickup trucks like to tailgate me in the Fiat. I think I rattled them more than they rattled me because I was running on cruise control and they couldn't force me to speed up or slow down for anything. And if they passed me and hit the brakes in front of me? I shot past them so quick they hardly realized I'd moved. It could out accelerate even the biggest engines at normal highway speeds in those big road whales of theirs. Even running at 65 on the Interstate (legal speed limit for I-95) if they tried to play games with me, I'd be at 80-85 by the time my nose was past theirs and pulling away rapidly. They usually didn't try it more than once.

  • Proflig8tor Proflig8tor on Oct 31, 2016

    How about the resale on used luxury sedans? Enjoying the heck out of a 2013 E Class for less than new Camry money. The E350 really goes with the new engine and (to me) it handles like my 84 Porshe 944. It is a little too stiffly sprung and under-damped, but still fun.

  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
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