Busting the Toyota / Honda myth.
Ever heard about these car talks when it comes to Honda / Toyota going around town on:
"Hondas have no market resale value"
Pretty common eh? I'll bet most of you would've heard it at some point.
Well, I set outto investigate into these ongoing rumors.
I started by getting insurance market value figures from insurance companies - I wouldn't say it is most accurate, give or take some differences but it is the benchmark values that all Insurance companies use to evaluate the value of their customers' cars. That's accurate enough, in my opinion.
I chose a model from each manufacturer - A 2.4L 4 door Honda Accord & a 2.4L 4 door Toyota Camry. Both are NOT reconditioned models from Japan (a.k.a "Recond"), as such their parts & availability should be within easy reach. I chose them for one reason alone; these two cars are highly similar to each other, are priced at roughly the same price ranges, are marketed to the same groups of people, and both cars are direct competitors. They're basically twins born from different parents. Nothing comes closer.
I chose the '03 models, because of the same reasons, and they are just about coming into the second hand market at around 5 years. It is then safe to say that the figures would reflect the 5-year depreciation of these 2 models.
A preliminary research came up with this:
The 2.4L Accord when new at RM163,149 in 2003 is valued at RM92,100 after 5 years, and the 2.4L Camry when new at RM172,676 in 2003 is valued at RM88,200 after 5 years assuming that they are catergorized as "Good" condition. Prices may vary for us in Miri, but the point is how these different cars depreciate.
The myth is busted: Not only is it inaccurate to say that the Honda has no market value, as we can see above the 03 Honda Accord actually has a higher 5 year market value than the 03 Toyota Camry, depreciating MUCH LESS than the initially more expensive Toyota when new. I had expected the Toyota to retain more resale value, followed closely by the Honda, but the results speak for themselves, the myth is totally broken. The Honda actually retains more of its value if you're selling in about 5 years.
Don't believe me? Call up your insurance company and ask.
Conclusion:
People who go around saying Hondas have no resale value are like parrots - conformists, if you will - simply repeating what everyone else is saying without taking the initiative into checking up on whether what they heard is actually truth.
The moral of the story is, take everything with a grain of salt, don't believe in rumors and take up the initiatives to do some research before repeating to others what people say to you.
