The 2005 Honda CR-V was kept by more original owners for 10 years than any other vehicle in the U.S.
If you buy a new car and keep it for at least 10 years, odds are, you own a Honda or Toyota, according to a new study.
An analysis done by iseecars.com of nearly 400,000 cars from the 2005 model year sold between Jan. 1, 2015 and July 30, 2015 revealed the top 15 vehicles were all Hondas and Toyotas with the exception of the Subaru Forester.
The top domestic vehicle wasn’t even fully a U.S. vehicle: the Pontiac Vibe, which was produced in conjunction with Toyota. The top vehicle on the list was the Honda CR-V, which was kept by 28.6% of original owners.
The CR-V was followed closely by the Toyota Prius and RAV-4 at 28.5% and 28.2% respectively. Those numbers amount to twice as often as the average number of people keeping their new vehicles 10 years or more. The percentage ranged between 3.6% and 28.6% (original owner cars are cars that were bought as new by the owner).
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The overall average was 13.5%, with 39.9% of the 168 models studied above the average and 60.1% below the average. The rest of the top 15 included:
- Toyota Highlander
- Honda Odyssey
- Toyota Sienna
- Toyota Camry
- Toyota Avalon
- Honda Pilot
- Honda Element
- Subaru Forester
- Toyota Matrix
- Honda Accord
- Toyota Corolla
- Toyota 4Runner
“While it’s not surprising that many Toyotas and Hondas made the list as they have based their reputations on reliability, what is surprising is the makeup of the cars,” said Phong Ly, CEO of iSeeCars.com.
Four of the top five cars are CUVs and minivans, while CUVs and minivans dominate the overall list with 10 vehicles of the 15.
“These vehicles tend to be largely family cars, so if people buy these cars when they are just starting their families, it stands to reason that these cars would suit them for many years,” Ly said.
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Surprisingly, not on the top 15 list are some vehicles that most folks associate with durability and toughness: full size trucks. The Chevy Silverado was the top truck on the list being held for 10 years by 13.1% of owners – just under the average.
The Ram 1500 was the next truck on the list at 11.7% and the Ford F-150 at 11.4%. Ly suggested that since so many of those vehicles are used for construction, they get turned over more often. Other top-selling vehicles in the U.S. like the Honda Accord and Civic, which didn’t even make the top 15, didn’t fare as well on the list.
The bottom of the overall list was populated primarily by domestic nameplates that are known for their use in commercial fleets or the rental market, such as the Chevrolet Impala, Chrysler Sebring and the Ford Taurus, or by cars that are popular as leases, such as the BMW 5 Series.
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“All of those markets are designed for cars that are no more than a few years old, so a decade after these 2005 cars were introduced, most of them would be sold by their second or third owners, rather than the original owners,” Ly said.