The cost of owning a car involves a lot more than just the purchase price. Fuel economy, depreciation, taxes, financing, insurance, maintenance and repairs are all important factors that dictate how much owning a vehicle can cost you.
As with anything that requires money, some cars and trucks represent a better value than others when it comes to keeping them on the road. Once a year, Michigan’s Vincentric takes a critical look at the Canadian car industry to find the top values in an array of vehicle categories and presents them in its annual Best Value in Canada Awards.
Vincentric says its proprietary formula looks at 2,400 individual vehicle configurations to calculate a vehicle’s expected cost of ownership. Its analysts then compare that number to other vehicles in the same class and figure out the actual cost to keep any given model on the road.
2019 Best Value in Canada brand winners
This year, Vincentric named Mazda and Toyota tops among mainstream car and SUV/crossover/van brands, respectively.
Audi is 2019’s best value among luxury car brands, and Lexus took the prize for value among luxury SUV and crossover companies.
The sole domestic-brand winner is Ford, which Vincentric named best value among truck brands.
Here’s an overview of the winning models, starting with the brands that won the most awards.
Audi
Audi wins for best luxury car brand thanks to six of its models being named best-in-class. The A3 wins in both the luxury compact and luxury convertible categories, while the A4 Allroad and A5 win for best luxury wagon and luxury coupe, respectively. The A6 wins for premium luxury mid-size sedan, and the A7 gets the nod among premium luxury large sedans. Finally, the Q7 is Vincentric’s bet for large luxury SUV.
Toyota
This Japanese brand also enjoyed a strong finish this year, with five models named best in their respective categories. The Corolla is Vincentric’s best compact hatchback and the Avalon the top-rated large sedan. The Toyota Highlander Hybrid is the winner in the hybrid SUV and crossover group while the Corolla is Vincentric’s best compact hatchback and the Avalon the top-rated large sedan. The Sienna is this year’s best minivan. Finally, the Toyota Tacoma is 2019’s best small or mid-size pickup truck.
Lexus
Toyota’s upscale Lexus brand has winners in four categories, but they belong to just two model lines. Vincentric calls the UX 200 the best luxury compact crossover, while the UX 250h is the best luxury hybrid crossover. It’s the same on the sedan side, where the Lexus ES 350 is 2019’s top luxury mid-size sedan and the ES 300h was named best luxury hybrid car.
Ford
Ford ran this year’s full-size pickup categories, with the F-150, F-250 and F-350 winning in the half-ton, three-quarter-ton and one-ton payload classifications.
Honda
Three Honda models topped their classes this year: The Honda Fit is Vincentric’s best subcompact hatchback, the Accord Hybrid is best hybrid car, and the CR-V is top compact crossover.
Mazda
Mazda also won a trio of awards this year. The Mazda3 is best compact sedan, the MX-5 is Vincentric’s favoured sports car, and the Mazda CX-3 takes top spot among subcompact crossovers.
Subaru
The AWD specialists at Subaru took home two prizes in the 2019 awards: One for the Legacy (best mid-size car) and the other for its Outback (best mid-size crossover).
Other winners
Alfa Romeo took the prize in the luxury sports car class for its little 4C roadster, while the Chevrolet Tahoe is this year’s best large SUV.
South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia each win an award for electric vehicles: The Hyundai Kona is 2019’s best electric crossover and the Kia Soul is Vincentric’s choice for best electric car.
The Lincoln Nautilus wins for best luxury mid-size crossover and Volvo takes the luxury electric crossover title for the XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid.