What Is the Most Valuable Car Based on Used Car Prices?

Resale Price Matters
Consumers Value Kia SUV Vehicles Highly

What makes a product a good product? There are various criteria. One of them is resale price. Prices tend to drop over time. However, products that receive positive reviews from consumers remain popular when resold and can be sold at good prices. Some luxury items, such as certain watches and bags, even increase in value over time.

For cars, the used price is an important factor. Buying a car means buying one’s ‘status.’ When selling a car, it is essentially selling one’s status. Consumers naturally prefer products that can be sold at higher prices. Together with used car companies (K Car and Encar.com), we ranked vehicles based on residual value (used car price compared to new car price). We investigated the prices of 2019 models of the best-selling vehicles in the first half of this year. The average prices from December 2021, June and December of last year, and last month were used as reference points. Although there are slight differences between used car companies (K Car and Encar.com), Korean consumers consider Kia’s sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to be the most valuable vehicles.

According to K Car data, the Kia Sportage ranked first with a residual value of 82.4% based on last month’s average price. This means that if you bought this car for 1 million KRW, you could sell it for 824,000 KRW last month. The Sportage was initially priced at 26.7 million KRW (2019 model The Bold Gasoline 2.0 2WD Noblesse trim). The used car prices were 22.5 million KRW in December 2021, 23 million KRW and 22.3 million KRW in June and December of last year, respectively. Last month, it recorded 22 million KRW. The second and third places were also Kia SUVs, the Seltos (81.8%) and Sorento (78.9%). Fourth place was the Hyundai Tucson, also an SUV.

According to Encar.com data, the Hyundai Tucson (85.6%) took first place. If you bought a Tucson for 1 million KRW, you could get back 856,000 KRW by selling it last month. The price trend started at 26.46 million KRW (2019 model 1.6 Gasoline Turbo 2WD Premium trim) and changed to 23.99 million KRW, 23.55 million KRW, 23.95 million KRW, and 22.65 million KRW. The Sportage, which ranked first on K Car, ranked fourth here. The second and third places were Kia Seltos and Sorento. Among imported cars, the Lexus ES300h had the highest residual value in both companies’ data (K Car 69.28%, Encar.com 66.93%).

So, which car loses value the fastest? Most of the top spots were occupied by imported cars. In both companies’ data, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class depreciated the most, recording 46.17% and 43.4%, respectively. This means that if you bought it for 1 million KRW, you would get back about 430,000 to 460,000 KRW. According to K Car data, the S-Class priced at 151.6 million KRW started at 98 million KRW, maintained the same price for half a year, then dropped to 78.1 million KRW in December last year. Last month, it was sold for 70 million KRW. On Encar.com, it started at 91.17 million KRW and changed to 86.65 million KRW, 78.81 million KRW, and 65.8 million KRW.

Among the five domestic companies (Hyundai Motor Company, Kia, KG Mobility, Renault Korea, and GM Korea), the Renault Korea QM6 and Chevrolet Trax appeared in the rankings. The QM6 recorded 53.18% and 56.31%, and the Trax recorded 58.15% and 56.01%.

It is often pointed out that imported cars depreciate faster because of costly repairs due to issues such as parts supply. Used car prices also drop quickly for brands offering many discount benefits.

Consumers are expected to become more sensitive to used car prices in the future. This is because the used car market is changing, similar to the luxury watch market. The luxury watch used market was once considered risky due to doubts about authenticity and fraud. However, it is now transparently operated and continuously growing through online information sharing and brand authentication services. The used car market is also expected to become more transparent as automakers directly enter the market. Hyundai Motor Company and Kia plan to enter the certified used car market starting this October. KG Mobility is also preparing for a used car business with a goal set for next year.