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2007 Ideal Vehicle Awards
By George Peterson
September 5, 2007
AutoPacific Announces 2007 Ideal Vehicle Awards
Lincoln Top Premium Brand, Mercury Top Mainstream Brand, Mercedes-Benz S-Class Top Vehicle, Nissan Titan Top Truck
Tustin, California, September 5, 2007 An ideal is defined as an excellent or perfect example. In the annual Ideal Vehicle Awards (IVA), announced today by automotive research and consulting firm AutoPacific, owners rate their new 2007 model year cars and trucks by how closely they come to their ideal. The cars or trucks that owners would change the least are the most ideal.
The conclusion to be drawn from AutoPacific?'s IVA results is that carmakers that best understand their customers create the vehicles that are ideal for their core buyers.
There are twenty-five segment winners and overall winners for premium brands and mainstream brands.
The top-rated premium brand overall is Lincoln, out-scoring Buick and Porsche for the most ideal premium vehicle brand honors. The top-rated mainstream brand is Mercury nudging out Hyundai for top mainstream brand results.
The top-rated vehicle (and top-rated car) is the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, a Premium Luxury Car. The second and third top-rated cars are from Ford Motor Company the Mercury Montego and the Ford Five Hundred, both in the Large Car category. The top-rated truck is the Nissan Titan, a Large Light-Duty Pickup, closely followed by the new Ford Edge, a Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV.
Ford Motor Company led the industry with a total of nine segment winners. General Motors and Hyundai have four each. Ford won five sport utility vehicle categories with Expedition, Explorer, Edge, Lincoln MKX and Range Rover.
Including two ties, of the twenty-five Ideal Vehicle Award (IVA) categories, American brands have twelve segment winners, European brands have six, Japanese brands have five and Korean brands have four winners.
The top-rated product segment is Large Car confirming that Americans continue to value large, comfortable cars suitable for suburban driving and longer distance highway cruising.
2007 Ideal Premium Brand: Lincoln
2007 Ideal Mainstream Brand: Mercury
2007 Ideal Product Segment: Large Car
Top rated 2007 Ideal Vehicles:
Passenger Cars
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Premium Luxury Car
Aspirational Luxury Car
Large Luxury Car
Large Car
Luxury Mid-Size Car
Premium Mid-Size Car
Mid-Size Car
Image Compact Car
Compact Car
Economy Car
Premium Sports Car
Sports Car
Sporty Car
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Mercedes-Benz S-Class
Infiniti G35
Mercury Grand Marquis
Mercury Montego
Lincoln MKZ
Hyundai Sonata
Saturn Aura
Audi A3
Hyundai Elantra
Toyota Yaris
Porsche Cayman
Porsche Boxster
Ford Mustang/Volkswagen Eos (tie)
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Pickups, SUVs, and Minivans
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Large Light-Duty Pickup
Large Heavy-Duty Pickup
Compact Pickup
Minivan
Luxury Sport Utility
Large Sport Utility
Mid-Size Sport Utility
Compact SUV/Off-Road Vehicle
Luxury Crossover SUV
Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV
Mid-Size Crossover SUV
Compact Crossover SUV
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Nissan Titan
GMC Sierra 2500
GMC Canyon
Hyundai Entourage
Land Rover Range Rover
Ford Expedition/Chevrolet Suburban (tie)
Ford Explorer
Suzuki Grand Vitara
Lincoln MKX
Ford Edge
Honda CR-V
Hyundai Tucson
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In addition to identifying segment winners, IVA also establishes numerical ideal vehicle ratings for virtually every passenger car and light truck in the United States market. This results from calculating owner input across 15 specific areas related to a vehicle's exterior size, passenger roominess, cargo space, drivers seat comfort, drivers seat visibility, interior technology, power and acceleration, ease of getting in and out, interior storage compartments and tires and wheels.
AutoPacific is a future-oriented automotive marketing and product-consulting firm. Every year it publishes a wide variety of syndicated studies for the automotive industry. The firm also conducts extensive proprietary research and consulting for auto manufacturers, distributors, marketers and suppliers worldwide. Company headquarters and its state-of-the-art automotive research facility are in Tustin, California, with an affiliate office in the Detroit area.
Additional information can be found on AutoPacific's websites: http://www.autopacific.com and http://blog.vehiclevoice.com. To weigh in with comments concerning these results, you can comment on the VehicleVoice blog site.
CONTACT: George Peterson or Dan Hall @ AutoPacific, 714.838.4234 or 800.576.AUTO
AutoPacific, Inc.
2991 Dow Avenue
Tustin, California 92780-7219
gpeterson@autopacific.com
dhall@autopacific.com
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