A five-year-old Honda Fit has an expected 10.9 years of life left, according to iSeeCars, the used-car research company that ranked the little hatchback first among five-year-old vehicles for value. Its model puts the cost at $1,693 for each remaining year, about half the $3,310 it calculates for the average five-year-old car, which has 7.4 years remaining. Those are the outputs of a commercial study built on listing data, and they describe model averages rather than any single car on a lot.
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How iSeeCars turns a list price into a cost per remaining year
The company analyzed prices on more than 900,000 five- and ten-year-old used cars sold between July and December 2025, then divided each model’s average list price by its expected remaining lifespan in years. The lifespan side draws on odometer readings from almost 400 million used cars, gathered for the company’s earlier work on which vehicles last longest. Segment lists keep only models whose per-year cost falls below the segment average, and low-volume vehicles and sports cars were left out, so the ranking only covers cars that sell in volume.
The result is a simple ratio with two moving parts. A cheap car with a short expected life and an expensive car with a long one can land at nearly the same cost per year, which is why the iSeeCars ranking rewards neither the lowest sticker price nor the longest lifespan on its own. The study page also does not explain how the expected lifespan figure itself is calculated, and that input drives the whole result.
The Honda Fit against the rest of the top ten
In the study the five-year-old Fit carries an average list price of $18,445, an expected 10.9 remaining years and a cost of $1,693 per year, or 0.51 times the five-year-old average. The all-model benchmark for the same age is a $24,377 average list price. Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars, described the study’s purpose as making reliability and remaining lifespan the two most important factors to weigh when buying a used vehicle.
The rest of the top ten shows how differently a car can earn its place. The Kia Rio five-door is second at $1,979 a year, but with a list price of $12,977 and only 6.6 years left, it wins on being cheap. The Honda Civic follows at $2,070 a year with 9.6 years, the Buick Encore at $2,084 with 7.7 years, and the Mazda3 hatchback at $2,091 with 9.6 years. The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport ($2,104, 7.1 years) and the Hyundai Elantra ($2,162, 6.6 years) fill the next two places.
The Lexus IS 300 is the instructive outlier. Its expected 13.0 remaining years are the longest in the top ten and well beyond the Fit’s, yet it ranks eighth at $2,173 a year because the average list price is $28,213. The Volkswagen Jetta ($2,198, 7.6 years) and Toyota Corolla ($2,211, 7.7 years) close out the list. The ranking is a value measure, and a long life only helps a model when it is not bought with a high price.
Price per year, in other words, is the whole game.
Where a model average stops predicting one car
Every figure in the study is an average across a model, built from asking prices and from a lifespan estimate. An individual Fit with a spotty maintenance history, a salvage title or a hard life in road-salt country can come in well below 10.9 years, and a carefully kept one can run past it. The company also frames the lifespan as expected remaining life, not a warranty, so the number is best read as a statistical lean rather than a promise. Odometer-based lifespans also say little about how a car sounds, rides or costs to repair at year eight, and none of those details enter the ratio.
Availability matters as well. Honda removed the Fit from its U.S. lineup with the 2021 model year, according to J.D. Power’s account of the changes, so a shopper who wants this exact ranking winner is looking only at the used market, where supply is thin and asking prices reflect it. The study counts only models that sell in volume, which is a reminder that a first-place finish describes how the listings behaved in a six-month window.
Anyone comparing cars on these terms can also look at how iSeeCars ranks whole brands in its longest-lasting brands study, which approaches the question from the manufacturer side, and at the company’s broader longest-lasting cars study, the source of the odometer data. Its best used cars list gathers the rankings in one place. Each of them is the same kind of document, a commercial analysis of listing and mileage data, and each is most useful as a way to build a shortlist rather than to settle a purchase.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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