You’ve heard it time and time again: “A new car loses half its value the moment you drive it off the lot.” That’s an exaggeration, but like all good adages, it conveys a truth: Because of assured depreciation, the purchase of a new car is always a flex and never an investment. But if you want to flex from a fiscally responsible position, certain models are holding their value exceptionally well right now.

Automotive search engine iSeeCars analyzed nearly 1 million 5-year-old used vehicles sold from March 2025 to February 2026 and calculated their depreciation. The findings show that today, cars from 2020 and 2021 model years resell for 58.2 percent of their original sticker price on average—a 3.8 percentage-point gain over 2025.

“This recent reduction in 5-year depreciation rates suggests rising used car demand and/or insufficient supply over the past 12 months,” iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer said of the 41.8 percent average depreciation, per Road & Track. “We’re not back to pandemic levels, but with used cars retaining more value in every major vehicle segment, there’s clearly been a shift in overall used car value. Likely factors include ongoing new car price hikes and drops in consumer confidence, both of which are driving more used car demand.”

While pure EVs and full-size luxury SUVs are the highest depreciators—the Nissan Leaf and Infiniti QX80 are trading for just 36.9 percent and 37.2 percent of their original MSRP—the Porsche 718 and Porsche 911 are arguably the best new cars to buy from a value-retention perspective. More wise sports car purchases include the Chevrolet Corvette, Subaru BRZ, and the Toyota Supra, while others on this list seem to earn their keep through reputations for reliability. Check out the top 10 lowest depreciators below, and head to iSeeCars for the full breakdown.