More Owners Keep Their Toyota Prius Long-Term

The Toyota Prius is the number one car on a new list that measures what percentage of owners keep their car longer than ten years. The interesting thing is, no other car is even close. According to iSeeCars.com, 32% of Prius owners keep their car for more than ten years. The next car on the list, the Toyota Avalon, is kept more than ten years by owners 21.6% of the time.

The publication that did the study reviewed data on over 2.5 million vehicle transactions to draw its conclusions. Toyota models dominate the list, with five of the top ten vehicles being Toyotas.

Torque News reached out to a local used Prius expert we know to ask why this is. Chris Eldoueihi works at his family's used car dealership, Rt. 1A Auto Sales in Walpole Mass. The dealership has been specializing in the Prius now for ten years. On most days, all the vehicles the dealership sells are used Prius cars. Chris explained that the Prius is unlike other used cars. Mileage does not seem to be an indicator of performance or the future durability of the Prius. In fact, Chris says that this is an attribute of the Prius that is getting stronger. Chris says "The third-generation Prius seems to be the most reliable."

Wanting even more data, Torque News consulted the NADA used vehicle retention value guide. We discovered that the Prius' 3-year retained value of 54.3% doesn't just top all affordable EVs, the Prius's resale value tops many popular mainstream vehicles as well. For example, the Prius has a higher retained value than the Accord (50.4%) and Mazda3 (54%).

Toyota has always focused on quality, durability, and reliability. This new list being topped by the Prius seems to validate that focus.