Not-so-special-edition cars

Analysis by Kelley Blue Book indicates that special edition models don't hold their value better - and often do worse - than regular cars.

Resale value surprise
Resale value surprise
Car shoppers who pony up for special edition cars hoping that fancy paint and performance upgrades will bring a higher resale price may be making a bad bet.

In trade-ins, special edition cars usually end up worth a smaller percentage of their original sticker price than regular versions. Even when they hold up better, they still don't retain their value well enough to make up for the added original cost, according to data from Kelley Blue Book..

At the request of CNNMoney.com, Kelley Blue Book looked at 14 different special edition vehicles produced since 2001. In all cases, the special edition version lost more value, in dollar terms, than the standard version. Most lost more in percentage terms, as well.

Kelley Blue Book's analysis was based on the new cars' sticker prices. Buyers usually pay less than sticker price for new cars but often pay closer to - or even more than - the sticker price for special-edition versions. That means the actual dollar gap between special-edition and plain-vanilla versions may be even wider than KBB's figures suggest.

Some of these cars might eventually be worth more than the standard car as collectibles, said Larry Batton, president of the Auto Appraisal Group. But, he said, "You're not going to have any evidence of them holding their value better until later down the road."

Following are a few examples:

Last updated February 01 2008: 4:58 PM ET

Values

Mustang

Corvette

350Z

RX-8

xB
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.