These Cars Will Depreciate The Least Over The Next Five Years

While mostly consisting of Japanese and German cars, Edmunds Best Retained Value Awards contain a couple surprises.

One of the biggest costs of buying a new car isn't insurance, tax, or financing. Instead, it's a hidden cost called depreciation that hits your pocketbook the most when you decide it's time to move on to a new set of wheels. Each year, Edmunds' bestows its Best Retained Value Awards upon models that depreciate the least over five years of ownership using its own True Market Value measurement. For 2018, Toyota and Porsche have again run away with handfuls of trophies.

In all, Edmunds gives out 20 separate trophies as part of its Best Retained Value Awards—two for brands and 18 for different market segments. Toyota took the “Standard” brand award, beating out Honda and GMC, while Porsche took the “Luxury” brand trophy to lord over Acura and Lexus. For cars, Edmunds gave out eight separate awards: Honda Civic (Compact Car), Audi A3 (Luxury Compact Car), Honda Accord (Midsize Car), Lexus ES (Luxury Midsize Car), Dodge Charger (Large Car), Porsche Panamera (Luxury Large Car), Subaru WRX (Sports Car), and Porsche 911 (Luxury Sports Car).

Moving on up to SUVs, Edmunds gave out a total of six trophies to the Honda CR-V (Compact SUV), Porsche Macan (Luxury Compact SUV), Toyota 4Runner (Midsize SUV), Lexus GX 460 (Luxury Midsize SUV), Toyota Sequoia (Large SUV), and Cadillac Escalade (Luxury Large SUV). Toyota nearly swept the truck and van categories, taking home honors for the Toyota Tacoma (Midsize Truck), Toyota Tundra (Large Truck), and Toyota Sienna (Minivan). The Large Van award was given to the Nissan NV Cargo.

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You Have To Watch These 10 Amazing Drag Races

A supercar showdown and a race against a drone are just two of the 10 awesome races.

Following our previous drag race compilation, we have ten more awesome races to shared for your viewing pleasure. As always, watching these races is more exciting if you try to guess the winner. See how many correct predictions you can make and leave your score in the comments. With more than a few neck-and-neck finishes, these races are not always easy to predict.

Ferrari 812 Superfast Vs. McLaren 720S

Very few cars can match the fury of the McLaren 720S with its 4.0-liter, 710 horsepower V8. Perhaps the Ferrari 812 Superfast may be one of the,. With a 6.5-liter V12 producing 789 hp, can the front-engined Ferrari top the mid-engined McLaren?

Mercedes C63 AMG Vs. Alfa Romeo Giulia QV

In the compact sports sedan segment, the Mercedes C63 AMG and Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio sit at the top in terms of power. Each produces over 500 hp from their twin-turbo engines, though the AMG does have two extra cylinders (a V8 vs a V6). Which one will win in a series of races, with and without launch control?

Audi RS3 Vs. Ford Focus RS

The Ford Focus RS is one of the best hot hatchbacks on the market, but can it stand up to the mighty Audi RS3? Both cars have all-wheel-drive grip, but the Audi has an extra cylinder (five) and 50 extra hp (400). With a quick shifting dual-clutch transmission, the Audi also holds the advantage with shift times. Will this race be a foregone conclusion?

Ultimate Supercar Drag Race

Most drag races involve two cars, competing to see which is best. Here, we get to see two Porsche 911s (a GT3 RS and a GT2 RS), a Lamborghini Huracan Performante Coupe and Spyder, a Ferrari 488 GTB, and a McLaren 675 LT. This is a very diverse lineup of supercars, but which one do you think will win as the cars face off against each other?

Nissan GT-R Nismo Vs. Porsche 911 GT3 RS

After a massive hiatus, Fifth Gear is finally back on television. The series's 27 season features a drag race between the Nissan GT-R Nismo and the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Even though the GT-R is typically seen as the better car for drag races, the track-focused 911 may be within a shot of winning this straight line race.

Dodge Challenger Vs. Dodge Viper

In a sibling rivalry, this drag race pits a Dodge Challenger Scat Pack against a fourth generation Dodge Viper. The Challenger seems like it will be at a disadvantage in this race, even with a 485-hp 6.4-liter V8. The Viper has a more powerful 600-hp 8.4-liter V10, but the driver does have to execute the perfect manual shift while the Challenger owner can just let the automatic take care of it.

Bugatti Chiron Vs. McLaren 720S

The McLaren 720S is borderline unbeatable in a drag race. However, even the 720S may have to admit defeat when it's up against a Bugatti Chiron. The Chiron's W16 engine produces 1,500 hp, making it twice as powerful as the mighty 720S. You can probably guess the winner here.

Audi S8 Plus Vs. Porsche 911 Turbo

If someone who didn't know anything about cars looked at this drag race, they'd assume the sexy sports car would beat the boring sedan. Stands to reason. However, that "boring" sedan is an Audi S8 Plus, which is powered by a 605-hp twin-turbo V8. The Porsche 911 Turbo makes do with just 520 hp, though it is much lighter. Can the sleeper sedan keep up with the purpose-built sports car?

AMG GT Roadster Vs. Drone

Seeing cars race other cars is fun, but seeing a car race a drone is pretty cool too. The Mercedes AMG GT Roadster produces 467 hp from a twin-turbo V8, while the drone doesn't have nearly as much power. Still, the drone is able to hit 60 mph in just one second. Yeah, you heard that correctly. This race was over before it started.

GMC Sierra Vs. Nissan Titan Vs. Ram 1500

We highly doubt that truck owners base their purchase decision on straight line speed, but this didn't stop The Fast Lane Truck from lining up three trucks for a drag race. The GMC Sierra is the most powerful with a 6.2-liter 420-hp V8. The Titan's 5.7-liter V8 produces 390 hp while the Ram's 5.7-liter is good for 395 hp. As it turns out, the transmissions have more to do with the outcome of the race than the engines. So, which do you think has the best transmission for a drag race?

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These Are The 10 Best Interiors Of The Year (Apparently)

Some highly dubious entrants made it onto this year's Wards Auto list.

Every year, Wards Auto picks and pokes at pretty much every new model on the market and chooses its list of ten best interiors for us to then criticize and debate. This year I feel like they’re making it easy with the Chevrolet Equinox leading off the alphabetically ordered list. That’s unfortunate, because the rest of the list seems entirely reasonable, but we’ll get to those later. Wards Editors were of the opinion that the Equinox has a “stylish, well-built interior."

The crossover was praised “for its soft, premium materials”, and “could barely find a seam out of place” despite scouring it for fit and finish flaws. This leaves us scratching our heads, because I myself found the interior of the Equinox’s GMC Terrain twin decidedly average, if not below, observing that: “Interior quality was utilitarian at best—not because it was cloth and not leather, but because of the overall feel and fit of everything in the cabin. The clearly-not-wood plastic woodgrain trim was creepy rather than stylish, plastics were hard and coarse and some switchgear felt like it was one clumsy fumble away from snapping off.”

Okay, that’s the Terrain, so what about the Equinox itself? “While GM has upped its game for the Equinox, it’s still far from a class-leading execution. Controls are easy to use, well laid out, and material quality has increased. Still, Chevrolet’s over-reliance on chrome trim pieces, its use of a dated-looking instrument panel, and dull grey plastics certainly hold the Equinox back from being the cream of the crop.” We weren't overly impressed then. In case you think we have some kind of beef with Chevy or GM, we do not, we love many things that they do well, like pickups and Corvettes, and we’re not alone in the industry.

None other than Consumer Reports lambasted the Terrain for its “low-rent ambiance featuring lots of drab, black, hard plastic” and laid into the Equinox as well: “Even though there are some soft-touch materials and a bit of chrome scattered about, the overall feel of the interior is a bit on the cheap side, reminding us of a cut-rate rental car.” Wards Auto may have been unduly swayed by the butterscotch color scheme that we find gross, or the admittedly excellent infotainment system in top trims — the more basic system we encountered in the Terrain neither looked as slick nor worked as well — but if they think the Equinox has good fit and finish, well, we question their sense of touch and attention to detail.

Anyhow, the Equinox is not alone on the list and other vehicles that we feel are deserving are front and center. Other vehicles in the affordable mainstream bracket include the new Toyota Camry, whose funky, colorful and asymmetrical cockpit they liked. Meanwhile, the Kia Stinger and Hyundai Kona take home awards for the Korean conglomerate with good materials and feature content for their price points and easy to use infotainment systems. Representing the truck crowd is the Ram 1500, whose Limited Crew Cab trim was dressed in subtle high-tech luxury rather than an overt country theme, with a big, easy-to-use 12-inch touchscreen at the center of it all.

An unexpected spot on the list goes to Lincoln for its Navigator. Unexpected not that it doesn’t deserve to be there, but that Lincoln made such a leap from always falling short in materials quality and overall execution so many times, but finally delivers a total package, with the look and feel of American luxury finding the right places for chrome, wood, leather and large screens. Wards Auto highlights the seats and the burgundy color of their Black Label model, but I loved the astral-themed graphic in the gauge cluster marking the speed and revolution on the tach — it’s a tiny thing, but it feels special, and luxury is all about making the customer feel special.

There is no shortage of options in the luxury market, and several gorgeous interiors were left off the list, but Wards Auto definitely got it right with the Range Rover Velar, which could easily be the best of any new car. Striking modern design and well executed technology paired with sumptuous traditional materials and excellent mix of patterns and colors bring it all together. Massaging seats sure don’t hurt either. Rounding out the top 10 are the Porsche Panamera – at over $200K as tested, I should hope it’s as nice as they say – Lexus’s flagship LS500 displaying some unique textures and colors and the new Infiniti QX50 also showing off an attractive and unconventional color scheme to go along with microsuede everything.

The list isn’t perfect, and Wards Auto may be a victim of trying to be too populist, forcing the Equinox into the mix just to have another mainstream brand when other worthy options like the funky Volvo XC40 and boring but well-executed Honda Accord were on the list of nominees.

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These Brands Offer The Best Car Buying Experience

The 2018 study threw up some interesting results.

Last year, Lincoln took the number one spot in J.D. Power’s annual Sales Satisfaction Index Study in the luxury market. While this surprised some people, Lincoln had no doubt it could offer customers the best overall sales experience. Despite the continued mass investment from parent company Ford, Lincoln lost the top spot in this year’s annual study. Porsche came out on top for 2018, earning 828 points on a 1,000-point scale up from 818 points last year, which was enough to bump it up from fourth to first place.

“This achievement is the result of a customer-focused strategy that has been superbly executed by our 190 US dealer partners,” said Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of Atlanta-based Porsche Cars North America, Inc. “First and foremost, this award is for our dedicated dealers, who have invested significant time in training for their employees and committed $500 million to improving facilities in just the last five years.”

As for Lincoln, it didn’t even finish in second place, but rather tied with Cadillac in fifth with a score of 814 points – a 16-point drop. Meanwhile, Infiniti came in second with 824 points, up by three from 2017, and Lexus came in third with 823 points. The industry average was 804 points. In last place was Genesis with 736 points.

As for mass market brands, it was Mini that came out on top. Yes, really. We were surprised, too. Based on the same 1,000-point scale, Mini earned 798 points, just one point higher than GMC. Buick and Chevrolet tied for third with 792 points, Ford was in fourth with 788 points, followed by Subaru with 776 points. Last place? You just gotta know, right? Of course. That would be Kia, with 737 points, about the same as Genesis.

J.D. Power’s 2018 study also found out that general satisfaction was typically higher among owners who communicated with salespeople by text message, email, or phone call as opposed to face-to-face communication. The study found that texting was used 21 percent and 15 percent of the time by luxury and mass-market dealers, respectively.

“These aren't apples-to-apples comparisons by any means, but the scores are clear indicators of where shoppers and buyers are going, especially as the consumer base gains a larger mix of younger customers,” said Chris Sutton, vice president of the automotive retail practice at J.D. Power. Based on this, chances are you’re dealership will be more than happy to text with you while negotiating your next car purchase.

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Porsche Says These Are Its 5 Fastest Accelerating Models

Hybrid tech can be used for more than fuel efficiency.

In case you didn’t know, Porsche makes some really fast cars. The list is long and distinguished, but there are always standouts. Instead of us spending hours delving into Porsche history and looking over performance times, Porsche has done the work for us and created this latest video in its Top 5 Series. Using an abandoned airfield lined with smoking flares, Porsche brought each of these top five vehicles out for a little round of testing. And don’t think for a moment that Porsche’s fastest are only its coupes and supercars.

You see, there’s now a thing called hybrid boost technology, and Porsche has taken advantage of what it has to offer—in a Panamera and the 918 Spyder. Of course, there are some pretty fast 911s out there, specifically today’s 911 Turbo S and the GT2 RS.

Very recently, Porsche acknowledged that it’s working on a 911 hybrid. Not only will it be fuel efficient, but also the fastest 911 to date. It’s still a few years away, so for now, the 911 GT2 RS is the fastest version of the iconic butt-engined sports car you can buy today. Speaking of the GT2 RS, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves before you watch the video. We don’t want to give anything away.

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Porsche Says These Are Its 5 Fastest Accelerating Models

Hybrid tech can be used for more than fuel efficiency.

In case you didn’t know, Porsche makes some really fast cars. The list is long and distinguished, but there are always standouts. Instead of us spending hours delving into Porsche history and looking over performance times, Porsche has done the work for us and created this latest video in its Top 5 Series. Using an abandoned airfield lined with smoking flares, Porsche brought each of these top five vehicles out for a little round of testing. And don’t think for a moment that Porsche’s fastest are only its coupes and supercars.

You see, there’s now a thing called hybrid boost technology, and Porsche has taken advantage of what it has to offer—in a Panamera and the 918 Spyder. Of course, there are some pretty fast 911s out there, specifically today’s 911 Turbo S and the GT2 RS.

Very recently, Porsche acknowledged that it’s working on a 911 hybrid. Not only will it be fuel efficient, but also the fastest 911 to date. It’s still a few years away, so for now, the 911 GT2 RS is the fastest version of the iconic butt-engined sports car you can buy today. Speaking of the GT2 RS, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves before you watch the video. We don’t want to give anything away.

View the original article here