Funding & Finance

The Cars That Hold Their Value in 2026

Most people buying a car think about the monthly payment. Almost nobody thinks about the number that dwarfs it: depreciation.

The car depreciation 2026 data from iSeeCars, based on 950,000 five-year-old vehicles sold between March 2025 and February 2026, puts the average at 41.8%. On a $40,000 car, that is $16,720 gone. Not to a mechanic, not to the fuel pump, not to insurance. Just gone while the car sits in your garage.

Choose the right car and that same five years costs you far less. Choose the wrong one and you are looking at a $25,000 loss before you have spent a dollar on maintenance.

The List

The 15 lowest-depreciating cars over five years, from iSeeCars’ 2026 study:

Porsche 718 Cayman: 9.6% (loses $6,988)
Porsche 911: 11.1% (loses $15,533)
Chevrolet Corvette: 18.7% (loses $13,365)
Toyota Tacoma: 19.9% (loses $6,426)
Toyota Tundra: 21.2% (loses $8,746)
Honda Civic: 22.9% (loses $5,828)
Subaru BRZ: 23.7% (loses $8,489)
Toyota GR Supra: 24.0% (loses $13,963)
Toyota RAV4 Hybrid: 25.2% (loses $7,731)
Toyota Corolla Hatchback: 25.5% (loses $6,220)
Toyota 4Runner: 25.5%
Lexus RC 300/350: 26.6%
Ford Mustang: 26.8%
Toyota Corolla: 27.6%
Toyota Sienna: 28.5%

The industry average is 41.8%. Every car on this list beats it by a significant margin. The 718 Cayman beats it by 32 percentage points.

The Porsche 718 Cayman: A $73,000 Car That Barely Loses Value

The 718 Cayman is not a cheap car. The base price runs around $73,000. But losing only 9.6% of its value over five years makes it one of the most financially rational cars you can buy, which sounds absurd until you look at what most luxury vehicles do in the same period.

Three things explain it.

Porsche does not flood the market with 718 Caymans. Production is deliberately limited and enthusiast demand consistently outpaces used supply. That scarcity keeps prices firm on both the new and used sides.

It is also genuinely one of the best-handling cars ever made. Mid-engine layout, near-perfect weight distribution, a chassis that communicates through the wheel in a way that front-engine cars with their noses hanging over the front axle simply cannot. People who own them tend not to want to sell them. People who want one are willing to pay.

And the ICE 718 is being discontinued as Porsche moves to electric. Buyers who want the combustion version before it disappears are competing in a shrinking used pool. That urgency is already visible in prices.

Karl Brauer, iSeeCars executive analyst: “It’s interesting to note that the two Porsches, plus one Lexus coupe, are the only luxury models to make the top 25 ranking for retained value.”

The Porsche 911: Sixty Years of the Same Good Idea

Porsche has been making the 911 since 1963. The silhouette has barely changed. That is not nostalgia. It is a brand that has earned the right to leave well enough alone because each generation validates the one before it.

At 11.1% over five years, the 911 loses around $15,533 on average from its MSRP. The base Carrera starts around $115,000. Most luxury cars at that price bracket haemorrhage value. The 911 does not.

The five-year average also undersells some variants. A clean, low-mileage GT3 or Turbo S regularly sells above its original MSRP in the used market. The 11.1% is pulled up by high-volume Carrera examples. The desirable stuff frequently appreciates.

The Chevrolet Corvette: The One That Made Europe Pay Attention

The C8 Corvette arrived in 2020 with a mid-engine layout, the first time in the car’s history. That single change forced a reappraisal from people who had spent decades dismissing the Corvette as a straight-line muscle car that fell apart in corners.

A $70,000 car that laps the Nürburgring faster than vehicles costing twice as much gets noticed. Europeans who had always bought Porsches and BMWs started putting C8s on their shopping lists. Demand ran ahead of supply from day one. That backlog pushed new buyers to over-MSRP deals and kept used prices elevated throughout.

In the car depreciation 2026 table, the Corvette at 18.7% is doing something unusual: sports car performance, Japanese truck depreciation.

Seven Toyotas in Fifteen Spots

Seven of the fifteen lowest-depreciating cars are Toyotas. Ten appear in the full top 25. That is the payoff from thirty years of the same strategy: build reliable cars, do not cut corners, let the reputation compound.

A ten-year-old Tacoma with 150,000 miles sells for prices that would be laughable for a comparable vehicle from almost any other brand. Buyers have seen enough high-mileage Tacomas still running properly that they trust them at prices that reflect it. The Tacoma appears on best-resale-value lists so consistently that it has become self-reinforcing. Everyone knows Tacomas hold value. Everyone wants one. The price holds.

The RAV4 Hybrid at 25.2% is worth singling out. Hybrid versions of popular models are outperforming their combustion equivalents across the board as fuel costs and range anxiety from EVs push buyers toward the middle ground. The RAV4 Hybrid consistently sells at or above sticker at dealers. That demand flows straight into the used market five years later.

The GR Supra at 24.0% is the most interesting Toyota on the list. It is a jointly developed car with BMW, built on the Z4 platform, tuned by Toyota’s GR division. Enthusiast appetite has been strong since launch and certain trims regularly trade above MSRP on the used market.

Honda Civic: The Best Argument for Boring

The Civic at 22.9% is proof that a reputation for reliability is worth real money when it comes time to sell.

It has been one of the best-selling cars in North America for most of the past twenty years. The owner community is enormous and vocal. Examples with 200,000 miles are not concerning to used buyers. They are the point.

Civic Si and Type R variants command significant premiums. But even base Civics hold their value because buyers would rather pay more for a known quantity than take a discount on something with an uncertain track record.

Subaru BRZ: Bought by People Who Actually Want It

The BRZ starts around $30,000 and loses only 23.7% over five years. A $30,000 Nissan Sentra loses roughly 50% in the same period.

The reason a small sports coupe holds value better than a practical sedan is not complicated. The BRZ is bought almost entirely by people who specifically want a BRZ. Not people who needed a car and happened to choose one. That means the used market is supplied by people reluctant to sell to buyers who are enthusiastic about buying. That dynamic keeps prices stable.

EVs: The Other Side of the Table

The car depreciation 2026 numbers get brutal on the EV side.

Six of the fifteen worst-depreciating vehicles are electric. The Nissan LEAF loses 63.1% of its value in five years. The overall EV segment average is 57.2% depreciation, compared to 41.8% for all vehicles. That gap has barely improved from previous years despite the overall market getting better.

Karl Brauer: “Electric vehicles consistently cost more than the equivalent gasoline or hybrid model. That high upfront cost comes back to haunt electric cars on the used market, where buyers aren’t willing to pay the premium.”

It is not just price. Battery degradation anxiety, charging infrastructure concerns, and the pace of EV technology improvement all work against used values. A 2020 Nissan LEAF has shorter range, older battery chemistry, and slower charging than current EVs. A 2020 Toyota Corolla is almost identical to drive as a 2026 one. Used buyers price that obsolescence gap aggressively.

Tesla is not immune. The Model 3 and Model Y avoided this problem during the pandemic when used supply was almost nonexistent. Now that supply has returned and Tesla has repeatedly cut new car prices, used values have fallen sharply to reflect the discounting.

What It Costs You to Get This Wrong

The car depreciation 2026 rankings make the financial case clearly. It is also the only cost that never appears on a statement. Your insurance bill arrives monthly. Your fuel costs appear every time you fill up. Depreciation only surfaces when you try to sell, at which point it is already spent.

If you buy the average car and sell in five years, you lose $16,720 to depreciation on a $40,000 purchase. Buy a Honda Civic and you lose $5,828. That $10,892 difference is not captured in any comparison spreadsheet most buyers run before signing.

Nobody buys a 718 Cayman because it makes financial sense. It is a two-seat sports coupe that starts at $73,000. But after five years of owning one, the financial case looks considerably better than almost any alternative at any price. The Civic and the Tacoma make the same argument differently: build something people genuinely trust, do it consistently for thirty years, and watch the resale values take care of themselves.