carsales announces Best Used Cars for 2020

The 2020 carsales Best Used Car Awards have been run and won, once again revealing that used cars up to six years old represent great buying for motorists on a budget.

Staying with a tried-and-true formula, and proudly presented by Bingle, the 2020 carsales Best Used Cars are based on vehicles six years old – those sold new in 2014.

Last year, we insisted that vehicles were fitted with standard electronic stability control to be eligible, but that requirement is now redundant as the federal government mandated this important safety feature in 2014.

After its dominating performance in 2019, Mazda continued to be the leader of the pack in 2020, winning three of the 10 categories outright and achieving honourable-mention status in two other categories with the BT-50 and the MX-5.

Ford’s mechanically similar Ranger held the BT-50 at bay in dual-cab utes again in 2020, and the Toyota 86 pushed aside the Mazda sports car this year.

The categories are:

Scores were tallied in each category to settle on a winner and two ‘honourable mentions’.

All the entrants were judged out of 100 points using the same criteria. RedBook analysis constituted half the maximum points, with a score out of 50 derived from cost of ownership, safety, retained value and market appeal.

For cost of ownership, the calculations were based on an average of 15,000km travelled each year from new, with fuel just one of the factors in arriving at a figure for each vehicle.

To work out annual fuel costs, RedBook employed a fixed priced per litre and each car’s official combined-cycle fuel consumption figure.

Passive safety was determined by the crash safety rating provided by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

RedBook supplied a ‘demand and supply’ metric to establish the market appeal of each vehicle by make and model and RedBook also provided the ‘retained value’ information forming part of each car’s cost of ownership.

The RedBook score out of 50 was then combined with a rating out of 10 from each of the five judges for a total possible score out of 100 to name the winners and honourable mentions in the 10 categories.

The five judges were carsales managing editor Marton Pettendy, technical editor Ken Gratton, Redbook data services director Ross Booth, carsales used-car buying expert Cliff Chambers and senior journalist Bruce Newton.

The 2020 carsales Best Used Cars are…

Small passenger car category

Winner: 2014 Mazda3 Maxx hatchback
“Japanese-built and simple mechanicals equals a good start” – Bruce Newton

Find a used Mazda3 now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Mazda6 Touring
“Sophisticated Japanese winner which keeps delivering. Even better if you can find one with an optional safety pack, including AEB” – Ross Booth

Find a used Mazda6 now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Ford FG X Falcon XR6
“World-class family sedan with strong retained value, sadly killed off in its prime” – Cliff Chambers

Find a used Ford FG X Falcon XR6 now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Lexus NX 300h Luxury
“Luxury hybrid SUV based on RAV4 has been an immediate hit with Lexus buyers” – Ken Gratton

Find a used Lexus NX 300h now on carsales

Medium SUV category

Winner: 2014 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring
“Japanese-built, interior could be classier, but the fundamentals are sound” – Bruce Newton

Find a used Mazda CX-5 now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Ford Territory TS diesel AWD
“Quality product that will forever remain Australia’s only bespoke SUV model line” – Ken Gratton

Find a used Ford Territory now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Toyota 86 GTS
“Fun factor to the max and easy to afford used ones that haven’t done silly distances” – Cliff Chambers

Find a used Toyota 86 now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Range Rover Vogue
“Impressive, lavish and just the thing for intimidating the entire drop-zone queue” – Cliff Chambers

Find a used Range Rover Vogue now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Ford Ranger XLT 3.2-litre 4x4 Double Cab Utility
“Aussie-developed and it shows in terms of fitness for purpose” – Bruce Newton

Find a used Ford Ranger now on carsales

Winner: 2014 Toyota LandCruiser Prado VX

“Toyota reliability and functionality, with a high-quality interior and great cost to own” – Ross Booth

Find a used Toyota Landcruiser Prado now on carsales