Posted by katrina on May 30, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Owners of the
Ford Explorer Sport Trac ranked the sport utility truck a winner in the Compact Pickup Segment of the 2008 Vehicle Satisfaction Awards. While the Sport Trac received high marks virtually across the board, Exterior Styling and Overall Quality and Reliability were standout features, according to owners.
Honda Ridgeline owners’ satisfaction rankings produced a 2008 Vehicle Satisfaction Award in the Compact Pickup Segment. Owners are very satisfied with Ridgeline’s Brand and Vehicle Reputations, coupled with the vehicle’s Reliability, Safety, and Overall Quality.
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Posted by katrina on May 30, 2008 at 10:54 am
Owners claim the all-new Accord raised the bar even higher this time, taking home a 2008 VSA win in the Premium Mid-Size Car Segment. With updated looks and personality, the Reliability/Dependability, Power and Acceleration
Honda has packed into the new Accord got high ratings from owners. Those factors, along with high marks for Driver’s Seat Comfort and the Brand’s Reputation, helped cement the Accord’s win against Premium Mid-Size Car’s serious competition.
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Posted by Stephanie Brinley on May 29, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Cadillac Top Brand, Mercedes-Benz S-Class Top Car, Toyota Sequoia Top Truck and Top Vehicle
Tustin, California, May 29, 2008 – A study released today by noted automotive consulting firm
AutoPacific, Inc. summarizes the results of its 2008 model year vehicle satisfaction research. AutoPacific’s Vehicle Satisfaction Award (VSA) is an industry benchmark for objectively measuring how satisfied an owner is with their new passenger car or light truck.
In a year that promises to be the toughest in a decade, owner-based awards like AutoPacific’s Vehicle Satisfaction Award will help customers make their purchase decisions.
The brand with the highest satisfaction rating is Cadillac. The vehicle – car or truck – registering highest overall satisfaction in 2008 is the new-for-2008 Toyota Sequoia Large Sport Utility Vehicle. The passenger car with the highest overall satisfaction score is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
There are twenty-eight Vehicle Satisfaction Award categories. At the manufacturer level, multiple top ranked award winners include:
General Motors (eleven categories), Toyota (nine categories), Ford (six categories),
Volkswagen (four categories),
Honda (three categories) and
Hyundai (two categories).
“Cadillac wins the Vehicle Satisfaction Award as the top brand in a close race. Strong satisfaction performance by Cadillac cars and trucks has Cadillac winning over other leading luxury marques including Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW says AutoPacific president George Peterson. “Top ranked finishes by Cadillac’s Escalade, CTS and DTS helped cement their industry topping position.”
Peterson continues, “Vehicles that are all new received top rankings in several categories: Cadillac CTS, Honda Accord, Mitsubishi Lancer, Scion xD, Toyota Sequoia, Audi Q7, Buick Enclave, Hyundai Veracruz, GMC Acadia, Saturn Vue and Nissan Rogue. These new-for-2008 vehicles were strongly rated by their owners showing that the industry continues to improve as new vehicles are added to the hotly contested American car and light truck markets.”
From a vehicle type perspective, Traditional Sport Utility Vehicles received the highest ratings as a class closely followed by Crossover Sport Utility Vehicles. Peterson says, “Clearly, SUVs continue to be one of the most popular and satisfying vehicle types available in the USA today. Even with skyrocketing gas prices, SUVs are attractive and Crossover SUVs fill the bill for most SUV buyers with better fuel economy.” Cars scored slightly below industry average followed by minivans and pickup trucks.
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Posted by katrina on April 21, 2008 at 8:12 am
April and long past time to get spring started. The crummy weather made it almost possible to believe I was setting out on some kind of adventure through a hostile environment. That’s just what the folks at Honda wanted: for drivers to imagine they were taking off in some kind of Adventuremobile instead of what the Pilot feels like – a more-or-less serviceable crossover tarted up as the answer to all your problems.
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Posted by Dan Hall on March 19, 2008 at 11:24 pm
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We’ve liked the Fit since it was first imported from Japan for US Sales in April 2006. Conceptually very good, but lacking a sporty look. The second generation of the Fit for US sales gets a lot better looking, as well as some package improvements to make it more compelling. “The goal is to provide entry-level vehicle customers with functionality and refinement that’s a class above,” said Dick Colliver. “Buying a Fit is a choice, not a compromise.” Ah yes. A nod to the aspirational small car.
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Posted by Deborah Grieb on January 25, 2008 at 9:39 am
Honda unveiled their much anticipated Pilot prototype at the 2008 NAIAS in Detroit. Conveying the design features of the production 2009 Pilot, set to make its debut this spring, this 2nd generation Pilot is tougher, smarter, larger, roomier, stronger, bolder, cleaner and safer than its predecessor.
While the specifications of the new Pilot are impressive, there was wide comment about its styling. Tougher-looking, yes, said many auto journalists, but ugly. Some of the descriptors were: “Styled by Isuzu”, “third world styling”, “bland”, “worst looking production vehicle of show”. Sometimes these things grow on you. Most folks have become accustomed to the weird styling of the Ridgeline SUT. Maybe that will happen with the new Pilot.
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Posted by Dan Hall on January 23, 2008 at 10:57 am
According to AutoPacific’s annual survey of new car and light truck acquirers, the BMW 3-Series, Acura MDX, Lexus RX, Honda Accord, and Infiniti QX56 attract the most tech savvy buyers. Tech savvy consumers made up approximately 5% of the new car buying population in 2007, up from just 2% in 2006. As Gen Y matures and enters the new vehicle market in greater numbers, AutoPacific expects these numbers to continue their growth. Tech savvy car buyers were defined utilizing a collection of data filters from AutoPacific’s Research Suite® database.
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Posted by Keagan Patrick on September 4, 2007 at 11:19 pm
The Honda CR-V is one of only two vehicles that have won all three AutoPacific awards in 2007 – the Ideal Vehicle Award, the Vehicle Satisfaction Award and the Motorist Choice Award with IntelliChoice. This is an extremely rare occurrence. Honda CR-V buyers like their exterior size, passenger room, cargo room, and level of technology. Some owners would prefer more visibility, and some CR-V owners would prefer more power and acceleration, but overall, CR-V is an Ideal, satisfying Mid-Size Crossover SUV that meets the requirements of the buyer.
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Posted by Stephanie Brinley on August 26, 2007 at 6:25 pm
In September 2007, the eighth-generation 2008 Honda Accord sedan and coupe go on sale, bearing a look previewed by the 2007 Detroit show’s Accord Coupe Concept. The standard for premium mid-size sedans has rested with the Accord and Toyota’s Camry for many years, as clearly as the BMW 3-Series is the luxury sport sedan to beat. Last year, the Accord accounted for 354,500 of the 1.3 million cars and trucks Honda sold in the United States. Beyond the volume it brings, Honda’s Accord carries much company history. The Accord was the first car Honda built in the States, starting twenty-five years ago, and the first Japanese product to be built in the USA.
The third-generation, launched for 1986, showed us we could have a smart and savvy midsize sedan instead of a simply boring one. The third-generation Accord had a very low cowl and pop-up headlamps – very sporty for a Mid-Size Car of its day. The following fourth-generation car took Accord in a more elegant, upscale direction. Then, Accord began to struggle a bit.
Along the way, Accord never lost its rational element, but stylish, fun-to-drive elements were watered down. For 2008, Honda looks to revive that image with the eighth-generation Accord and raise the bar against the sporty and stylish
Nissan Altima and the finally expressive segment icon Camry.
Honda targets Altima and Camry directly, but competition also includes Saturn Aura, Ford Fusion, Hyundai Sonata, and even Chrysler’s Sebring and Dodge Avenger. Chevrolet’s latest Malibu goes on sale later this year with a stronger, more modern exterior and a much-improved interior. In a hotly contested market, Honda is looking to again provide buyers
the smart, stylish, fun-to-drive option. Honda also is looking for sales above the 400,000-unit mark, something Accord hasn’t seen since 2001.
We had the chance for a short drive following a presentation of the new bread-and-butter car. Honda has brought another terrific mid-size sedan, but we’re not convinced the bar is raised significantly. We didn’t have a chance to drive the coupe, but the two-door brings style to Accord’s coupe line that hasn’t been seen before. The Accord coupe should hold its own from an image standpoint against coupes in the Nissan Altima and Pontiac G6 ranges.
Most competing brands offer a mid-size and a larger sedan (Avalon, Maxima, Azera, and Taurus), but Honda’s top model is the Accord. The new Accord is bigger, nearly as long as the Maxima overall and with wheelbase and width nearly the size of the Avalon. The new Accord is about five inches longer than Camry and Altima (only an inch between the axles). The larger exterior allowed for interior space large enough for Accord to be classified as a Large Car in EPA ratings, and Accord now may be better able to straddle the line between mid-size and large.
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Posted by George Peterson on July 27, 2007 at 8:00 am
The Motorist Choice Award is in its second year and is a collaboration between
AutoPacific and
IntelliChoice.com. AutoPacific, widely known for its industry expertise and research, and IntelliChoice, known for its comprehensive cost of ownership information, designed the Motorist Choice Award to help consumers identify the most satisfying cars and trucks that are also the least expensive to own.
Using data from AutoPacific’s national Vehicle Satisfaction research and the IntelliChoice Best Overall Value information, AutoPacific and IntelliChoice have developed a unique tool that can be used by consumers to help them sort through the myriad of choices in today’s automotive marketplace.
Here are the 2007 Winners of the 25 individual segment awards:
SEGMENT – Winner
Aspirational Luxury Car – Lexus IS
Compact Car – Mazda3
Compact Crossover SUV – Chevrolet HHR
Compact Pickup – Toyota Tacoma
Compact Sport Utility/ORV – Toyota Tacoma
Economy Car – Honda Fit
Image Compact Car - Volkswagen GTi
Large Car – Toyota Avalon
Large Heavy Duty Pickup – Chevrolet Silverado HD
Large Light Duty Pickup – Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Large Luxury Car – Cadillac DTS
Large Sport Utility – GMC Yukon XL
Luxury Crossover SUV – Acura MDX
Luxury Mid-Size Car – Nissan Maxima
Luxury Sport Utility – Land Rover Range Rover Sport
Mid-Size Car – Volkswagen Jetta
Mid-Size Crossover SUV – Honda CR-V
Mid-Size Sport Utility – Toyota 4Runner
Minivan – Honda Odyssey
Premium Luxury Car – Lexus LS
Premium Mid-Size Car – Nissan Altima
Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV – Nissan Murano
Premium Sports Car – Lexus SC
Sports Car – Porsche Boxster
Sporty Car – Scion tC
The press release can be found below the fold.
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