Honda and Mazda are among the most reliable car brands on the market today. They, along with the likes of Toyota and Subaru, have routinely ranked highly in reliability studies. Because of this, Honda and Mazda models are able to hold on to more of their initial value as the years pass on. Toyota vehicles are the gold standard, but when it comes to Honda and Mazda, it’s quite a competition to see which brand is able to hold their value better after five years.
By the slightest of margins, that honor goes to Honda. CarEdge estimates that a Honda will retain 60.5% of its original value after five years on average. Meanwhile, a Mazda is narrowly behind it with a retention percentage of 59.7%. The good news is that both of these brands outperform the 54.6% retention of the average popular brand and the 52.4% retention of the industry as a whole after five years.
Between the two brands, the Honda Civic and Honda CR-V are the two models that hold their value the best after five years, still keeping 71%. Those rates earn them 13th and 14th place, respectively, among all popular-brand cars. The Mazda CX-30 earns the top spot for its brand with a five-year value retention of 64.2%. That is a much starker difference than the brand overall, but the five-year retention floor for a Mazda is the 46.8% for a CX-90, while the Honda Prologue goes all the way down to 36.3%.
A flip after 8 years
For some, five years is long enough to have a car before cashing out and selling it on the used market to get something else. Others might not be so keen on a five-year turnaround and want to maximize the value of their vehicle after owning it for a long time. For those on that side of the fence, maybe getting a Mazda is the better option for you.
Once you get to the eight-year mark of owning a vehicle, CarEdge shows a change in its estimations, and all of a sudden, the average Mazda has an ever so slightly higher retention percentage from its original price than a Honda. That year, a Mazda will keep 48.3% of its value, while a Honda is just below it at 48.2%. That is a minuscule difference, but by year 10, that gap has widened to 41.7% and 40.9%, respectively. While there’s still less of a percentage point between the two, just remember that it was less than a percentage point the other way at five years.
The Honda Civic remains the top model after 10 years, keeping 53.3% of its initial value, but the Honda CR-V can no longer keep up with it, staying at 46.3% of its value. Meanwhile, the Mazda CX-30 leapfrogs it in the standings with a 46.7% retention, which the CX-50 and CX-70 also manage to keep after 10 years. At the low end, the Mazda CX-90 can hold 31.7% of its value, while the Honda Prologue flounders at just 24.6%. There are some Mazda models with some truly great resale value, and that only becomes more apparent the longer you have them.