Carsales.com.au has awarded the Mazda 3, 6, CX-5 and MX-5 the titles of best used cars in their respective market categories.
Taking four out of the possible 10 used cars awards, Mazda was the resounding favourite of Carsales judges who reviewed the best 2013 buys across small, medium and large passenger cars and SUV, plus sports cars, luxury, dual-cab utes and off-roading 4x4s.
Holden’s SV6 VF Commodore took out the best large car title, Hyundai’s ix35 won best small SUV, while the Mercedes S500 (W222 series) was titled the best luxury pre-owned option.
In the rough-and-tubmle categories, the Land Rover Discovery 4 in TDV6 guise won best large SUV, the Ford Ranger XLT PX was the regarded as “just right for weekend warriors” by technical editor Ken Gratton, and the LandCruiser Prado in top-spec Kakadu was dubbed the best used 4×4.
Gratton says the Kakadu, one of which can be had on Carsales currently for as little as $43,500 with 125,000km on the odometre, offers “Toyota reliability, functionality and a high quality interior”.
The pre-loved Mercedes gets the Ken Gratton nod for “Unmatched comfort and in-cabin serenity in this sector of the market”, while the spirited MX-5 is revered for “bulletproof mechanicals and exploitable dynamics”.
Land Rover’s Disco 4, Gratton says, is a “Great looking, spacious vehicle with 4WD credentials” providing buyers “Get a good one and you are on a winner”.
Ross Booth, data services director for RedBook, describes the ix35 as a “Functional all-rounder with lots of specifications for the price, great value for money”, and suggests, providing a Mazda 3 comes with the optional safety pack in 2013, “the Mazda3 is unprecedented safety for the segment and age”.
And the CX-5, routinely popular for many years, Gratton describes as chalking up another Mazda victory in Maxx KE variant as being “a well-equipped SUV that costs little to run”.
And in the bigger passenger car segments, the SV6 is a “Homegrown hero (which) delivers great value in a comfortable, sporty package”, whilst the mid-size 6 is “Classy and smooth, but still a sporty alternative”, according to Gratton.
Key metrics considered in the judging were retained value, safety, cost of ownership, service intervals and market appeal in order to give each vehicle a “fitness score” using aggregated scores and Redbook data and three compulsory criteria: each vehicle had to be six years old, with 15,000km covered per year, and electronic stability control as standard.
In addition to Booth and Gratton, judges included used-market expert Cliff Chambers, Redbook Inspect principal Theo Cosmetatos and Carsales road test editor Matt Brogan.
