Mercedes-Benz V-Class wins the Large Car Autovista Group Residual Value Award 2023
28 June 2023
The Mercedes-Benz V-Class has been crowned the residual value (RV) champion in the Large Car category. This marks the third Autovista Group Residual Value Award for the German carmaker, following the success of the CLA and GLA in their respective categories.
Powered by Autovista Group data from 17 European markets, the awards celebrate real-world value retention. This ensures relevance for key automotive players such as fleet managers, leasing companies and carmakers. Six RV champions have been crowned so far, with one more to go.
Diverse category
The Large Car category considered vehicles with any powertrain from the D and E-segments, excluding SUVs. A total of 33 models made it into the top five rankings at least once across the 17 markets under review. This underscores the diversity of choice within the category.
Examining value retention among brands, premium and incumbent carmakers dominate the segments. The likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen (VW) and Audi lead the pack thanks to their brand strengths and model offerings.
The V-Class was not Mercedes-Benz’s only RV success story in the Large Car category. The luxury brand took second place with the C-Class and fifth place with the E-Class. BMW also performed well, with the 3-Series and 4-Series ranking third and fourth respectively.
‘The V-Class is the overall winner and performs particularly strongly in Germany, France, the UK and Switzerland,’ said Dr Christof Engelskirchen, chief economist at Autovista Group. ‘Although an electrified van, the EQV, is available, it could not steal the thunder from its diesel-powered sibling in this award category. Elegance, brand identity and versatility make strong sales arguments on both the new and used-car markets.’
Impressive indexed performance
Project lead, Christian Schneider, explained in an Autovista24 podcast how Autovista Group experts identified the pan-European RV champions, such as the V-Class. Used-car market data from February to April 2023 was examined with forecast trade RVs of 36-month-old cars at 60,000km.
By excluding vehicles with exceptionally high or low horsepower, alongside those with especially low or high price points, the awards concentrated on the automotive mainstream.
Autovista Group analysts identified the version of each model with the highest RV, expressed as a percentage of retained list price (%RV). Models were indexed by dividing their %RV by the average %RV in that category, in each available market.
The Autovista Group Residual Value Awards were given based on a category’s average index across the selected countries. This was weighted against each country’s new-car sale volumes so that extraordinary results from high-volume markets were represented.
With the average indexed %RV from the Large Car category presented as 100%, the Mercedes-Benz V-Class scored over 120% in five countries. This includes the UK (150%), Romania (129%), France (128%), Switzerland (127%), and Germany (126%). Slovakia was not far behind, recording an indexed %RV of 116%.
Top of its class
‘The Mercedes-Benz V-Class remains at the top of its class and a market leader in the luxury MPV sector, with choices of diesel and petrol engines, long and extra-long wheelbases and enormous amounts of space and practicality. The Mercedes-Benz EQV also benefits from the innovations implemented in the V-Class,’ a spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz told Autovista24.
The V-Class comes in two lengths – 5.1m and 5.3m but both versions keep close to a height of 1.9m. This is important for city use, allowing the model to move freely around tighter streets and under lower bridges and tunnels, while its dimensions also make the V-Class the perfect long-range premium travel utility.
There is only one more RV champion to crown as part of the Autovista Group Residual Value Awards 2023. The winner of the Large SUV category will be announced exclusively on Autovista24. To stay up to date, subscribe to the Autovista24 daily email and follow the Autovista24 page on LinkedIn.
