Toyota Dominates List of Vehicles Owners Keep Longest - But The Top Model Will Surprise You

A new study by our friends at iSeeCars.com reveals which vehicle models owners keep the longest after buying them new. It may not shock anyone that Toyota dominates the list. However, the model that is at the very top may be a bit of a surprise. In fact, you may never have heard of it.

Of all the models sold in the U.S., the iSeeCars study points to the Toyota Land Cruiser as the model owners buy new and then keep the longest. Owners of Land Cruisers keep their cars 11.4 years on average. About 27% longer than the overall average of 8.4 years. "While the average new car buyer holds onto their car for 8.4 years, there is a wide variety of cars that owners are more likely to keep longer,” said iSeeCars CEO Phong Ly.

The remainder of the list is also dominated by Toyota models. Four of the top-ten longest-kept vehicles are Toyota models. “Toyotas are known for their reliability and longevity, so owners may choose to keep them on the road because they are still running well and don’t require expensive repairs,” said Ly.

The most hilarious part of the study looked at which model is the longest kept in a list of the metro area markets around the U.S. Here, the Toyota Land Cruiser's absolute dominance comes into clear view. “The current generation of the iconic Toyota Land Cruiser dates back to 2008, and has only had a mild refresh in 2016,” said Ly. “Along with being a reliable and capable off-road SUV that lasts a long time, owners may opt to keep their older models because they don’t look dated.”

The automotive research team at iSeeCars analyzed more than 5 million vehicles sold by their original owners to identify which models are kept the longest. You can view the full study conclusions here.

John Goreham is a life-long car nut and recovering engineer. Presently at Torque News he has a focus on Toyota, Lexus, Ford Midsized Trucks, Tesla and Mazda. In the early 1990s he was part of a team that built a solar-electric race car from scratch. For 20 years he applied his engineering and sales talents in the high tech world and published numerous articles in technical journals such as Chemical Processing Magazine. In 2008 he retired from that career and dedicated himself to chasing his dream of being an auto writer. You can follow John on John Goreham Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.