A "good value" is a vehicle whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate compared to what is expected, the better the value. Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. The vehicle is performing better than the logical expectation.

But how do we know a vehicle's "expected cost"?

For each vehicle in each class, IntelliChoice plots the vehicle's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the chart represents a specific vehicle. Generally, we find that as the purchase price increases, the cost to own and operate increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes and most other ownership costs.

This is an important concept. It's normal for ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since vehicles in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Similar Vehicles" prices shown in our results are different for vehicles in the same vehicle class.)

Using statistical analyses, IntelliChoice connects the dots to form a curve that defines, for each vehicle class, the relationship between purchase price and ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. It defines, for any vehicle in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every vehicle in the class was an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any are exactly on the curve. Some are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average values, while those that are a lot lower are excellent values. In other words, a dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a vehicle at its purchase price. Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average value, while a one that is much higher than the curve is a poor value.