CAP identifies the “Big Five” giants of the company car world as Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Ford Mondeo, Mercedes C Class and Volkswagen Passat.

CAP's future used car value forecasting experts – whose "Gold Book" residual value forecasting tool is the industry's independent benchmark for tomorrow's second hand prices – claim new Passat will retain 37.4% of its value after three years and 60,000 miles.

It means the completely re-engineered Passat is expected to lose just over £13,400 over three years, compared with £15,880 for the equivalent Mercedes C-Class, £16,970 for the Audi A4 and £17,445 for the BMW 3 Series.

CAP is forecasting a three year old car to be worth more than its BMW and Audi rivals at the same point.

‘People might reasonably assume that a Volkswagen would generally be worth less as a used car than the equivalent models from more traditionally premium image manufacturers, like Audi and BMW,’ commented CAP senior forecasting editor, Dylan Setterfield.

‘In reality, though, we are anticipating the new Passat to be worth £10,900 in the trade market, after three years, which is £325 more than our forecast for the Audi A4 and £725 above the BMW 3 Series.

‘Volkswagen have kept to their ethos of evolution rather than revolution, with the new Passat. Even though everything has changed under the skin, there'll be no question of unsettling the existing Passat fan because the outward changes remain quite subtle.

‘It's fair to say that this new model will keep the loyal Passat chooser happy while tempting those drivers who want a premium car without the premium new price tag to try a Volkswagen for the first time,’ he added.