01What this ranking is made of
Every buyer's-guide ranking hides a judgement about what matters. Ours is a judgement too — but it is written down, applied to three measured quantities, and open to your disagreement.
| Input | Weight | What it measures | Why it is in here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five-year value retention | 50% | Share of the near-new asking price still held at five years | Depreciation is the largest cost of owning a car and the one owners budget for least |
| Market liquidity | 30% | Number of live listings of that model in our snapshot | A deep market means you can buy at a fair price and sell without discounting |
| Price consistency | 20% | How tightly asking prices cluster within one model year | A predictable price protects you from overpaying when you cannot inspect everything |
02The ranking
| # | Model | Score | 5-year retention | Live listings | Price spread | Lost per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Perodua Myvi | 84.7 | 79.4% | 14,082 | 22.2% | RM1,889 |
| 2 | Honda City | 84.5 | 77.2% | 10,226 | 18.1% | RM2,883 |
| 3 | Perodua Alza | 82.8 | 77.2% | 5,731 | 17.1% | RM3,191 |
| 4 | Toyota Yaris | 81.3 | 75.9% | 2,533 | 11.2% | RM3,078 |
| 5 | Toyota Vios | 73.7 | 72.2% | 8,631 | 17.4% | RM3,447 |
| 6 | Perodua Axia | 73.7 | 74.0% | 6,733 | 19.8% | RM1,544 |
| 7 | Perodua Aruz | 66.7 | 71.4% | 2,197 | 11.9% | RM2,539 |
| 8 | Toyota Corolla Altis | 66.7 | 73.4% | 2,486 | 17.2% | RM6,570 |
| 9 | Honda CR-V | 64.0 | 69.3% | 5,121 | 16.9% | RM8,692 |
| 10 | Honda HR-V | 62.3 | 65.8% | 5,488 | 13.8% | RM7,163 |
The Myvi and the City finish 0.2 points apart and get there differently. The Myvi wins on liquidity — 14,082 live listings is the deepest market of any model we measured — and on the highest retention figure in our entire dataset at 79.4%. The City is more consistently priced and loses a similar share while starting from a higher price, which costs its owner about RM1,000 a year more.
03What the top ten have in common
The most useful thing about this list is not its order. It is that everything near the top shares a profile, and nothing outside that profile gets close.
- Every model in the top six asks under RM70,000 near new. The most expensive car anywhere in the top ten is the Honda CR-V at RM125,152. Nothing above that clears the liquidity threshold — a thin market cannot score well on two of our three inputs.
- All ten are national or Japanese. No Continental model reaches the top ten, and the reason is structural rather than a verdict on the cars: they retain less and they sell in far smaller numbers, so they lose on both of the heavily weighted inputs.
- Road tax is trivial across most of the list. The Axia pays RM20 a year on a sub-1,000cc engine, the Myvi, City, Yaris and Vios RM90, the Alza and Aruz RM120. Only the Corolla Altis (RM279), HR-V (RM360) and CR-V (RM439) rise meaningfully.
- Volume is doing a lot of work. Four of the top ten were among Malaysia's ten best-selling cars in 2025, and that is not a coincidence — the same volume that makes a car easy to buy makes it easy to sell.
The Axia is the interesting case
It costs less to hold than anything else we have measured — RM1,544 a year of depreciation and RM20 of road tax — and yet it finishes sixth. The reason is its price spread of 19.8%, the third-widest in the top ten, which reflects a large fleet of older, high-mileage examples in variable condition. If your priority is purely the money leaving your account each year, the Axia beats everything above it. If you also want confidence that the car in front of you is priced correctly, it does not.
04What this ranking cannot tell you
A composite score is a convenience. It hides the inputs, and some of what it hides matters.
- It says nothing about reliability or running costs beyond road tax. We do not hold repair or warranty-claim data. A car that scores well here could still be expensive to fix.
- It ignores whether the car suits you. Nothing in this method knows how many seats you need, how far you drive, or whether you have to carry a wheelchair or a ladder. A Myvi is not the right answer for a family of six.
- Only thirty models were eligible. A model has to survive our full retention pipeline — two independent methods agreeing within 15 points — before it can be scored at all. Malaysia's best-selling car, the Perodua Bezza, is absent because its curve failed our quality gates.
- Liquidity is measured today. A model that is discontinued next year will keep its score here and lose its market in reality.
- Price spread partly reflects variant mix, not just condition. Nameplates covering many trim levels look less consistent than they are.
05What to actually do with this
- If you want the safest all-round choice: the Perodua Myvi. Best retention in our data, deepest market, lowest risk of being stuck with it.
- If you want the lowest annual cost: the Perodua Axia, at RM1,544 of depreciation and RM20 of road tax. Inspect carefully — the wide price spread means condition varies a lot.
- If you need space: the Perodua Alza is third overall and the only seven-seater to score this well, or the Honda CR-V at ninth if you want a larger SUV.
- If price certainty matters most to you: the Toyota Yaris has the tightest price spread in the top ten at 11.2%, which makes it the hardest car here to overpay for.
- In every case: this is a model-level score built from cohort-level data. What your specific car is worth depends on its year, variant, mileage, service history and condition.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best car to own in Malaysia right now?
On our composite of value retention, market liquidity and price consistency, the Perodua Myvi scores highest at 84.7 out of 100, narrowly ahead of the Honda City at 84.5. The Myvi holds 79.4% of its value over five years — the highest figure in our dataset — and has the deepest used market of any model we measured, at 14,082 live listings.
How is this ranking calculated?
Each of the thirty models corroborated in our retention analysis is ranked on three inputs, converted to percentiles and combined: five-year value retention at 50%, number of live listings at 30%, and price consistency within a model year at 20%. The weights are published deliberately, because changing them changes the order — weight depreciation in ringgit at 100% and the Perodua Axia wins instead.
Why are there no Continental cars in the top ten?
Because they lose on both of the heavily weighted inputs. Continental models retain less value — a median 54.0% over five years against 74.0% for national models — and they sell in far smaller numbers, so their markets are thinner. That is a statement about ownership economics in Malaysia, not about the cars themselves.
Why is the Perodua Bezza not in the ranking?
Because it never entered the underlying retention analysis. The Bezza was Malaysia's best-selling car in 2025, but its fitted depreciation curve failed our quality gates — a fit quality of 0.217 against a 0.60 floor, and a boundary-clamped band. Absence here means 'we could not measure it to our standard', not 'we do not recommend it'.
Why is the Perodua Axia only sixth if it is the cheapest to run?
Because this ranking weights three things, not one. The Axia is the cheapest car here to hold — about RM1,544 of value lost a year and RM20 in road tax — but it scores lowest of the top ten on price consistency, at a 19.8% asking-price spread within a single model year. Cheap to keep and hard to price are different properties, and this ranking pays for both.
Sources and references
- Carvaly: Understanding your Carvaly valuation
- Carvaly Market Intelligence: Malaysia Used-Car Market Report · July 2026
- JPJ Malaysia: Motor Vehicle Licence Rate Calculation Guide
- Paul Tan's Automotive News: Top 20 Cars in 2025 — Bezza Sold Over 100k Units, Saga Fourth With 71k
- data.gov.my: Car Registration Transactions