Toyota, Volvo, GMC Named Best Value Based On Ownership Cost

2011 Toyota Avalon

Bengt Halvorson Senior Editor

March 1, 2011

2011 Toyota Avalon

2011 Chevrolet Cruze (Courtesy: GM)

The Toyota brand has won Vincentric's "Best Passenger Car Value in America for 2011" award, and Volvo is rated at the top among luxury brands.

This is the seventh year that Vincentric, which supplies cost-of-ownership data to a number of companies—including Toyota—has picked out top values that have the lowest projected ownership costs.

Vincentric measures the cost of ownership by looking at eight different aspects: depreciation, insurance, repairs, maintenance, fuel, finance, opportunity cost (the cost of having your money in a vehicle instead of an appreciating investment), and fees and taxes. The company makes these calculations for vehicles, typically on a five-year basis, for annual mileages of 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 miles.

According to Vincentric, Toyota continues to have lower-than-expected ownership costs in all eight of the firm's cost categories—and the brand maintains its especially low depreciation rate. Lexus was a close second-place in the luxury segment to Volvo, but low fuel and insurance costs boosted Volvo to the top spot. Among trucks, GMC ranked at the top; it has the lowest depreciation rate of any full-line truck brand, according to Vincentric.

Audi did particularly well, with three award winners in premium segments, as did Chevrolet, with the 2011 Cruze winning its Compact Sedan segment, and the 2011 Chevrolet Volt on top in the firm's new Eco segment.

Click through to the next page to see the complete list of winners.

Vincentric's Best Value In America Award winners

Passenger Car Brand: Toyota

Luxury Brand: Volvo

Truck Brand: GMC

Subcompact: Nissan cube

Compact, Coupe: Infiniti G37

Compact, Hatchback: Honda Element

Compact, Sedan: Chevrolet Cruze

Compact, Premium: Lexus IS 350

Compact, Hybrid: Toyota Prius

Eco: Chevrolet Volt