Posted by George Peterson on July 30, 2012 at 12:55 pm
AutoPacific’s Ideal Vehicle Award (IVA) recognizes the vehicle that best hits the target its buyers demand. Winning an IVA shows the product planners, engineers and designers of the manufacturer understand what their target customers want and have created the vehicle to best meet their demands.
Corvette Edges Jaguar XK for IVA Win: The 2012 Chevrolet Corvette comes closest to the ideal of any Sports Car. The Corvette edges out the second place Jaguar XK to win in the sports car class. (Porsche Boxster/Cayman and 911 scored higher in IVA calculations, but their sample sizes were to small to qualify to be included in the final ratings). Having eighty-percent or more of owners rating a characteristic ideal is outstanding. Achieving a score of ninety-percent is even more impressive. Ninety-percent or more of Corvette owners rate its exterior size, passenger roominess and ride and handling ideal. Eighty-percent or more of Corvette owners find these additional characteristics ideal: driver’s seat visibility, driver’s seat comfort and tires.
The Chevrolet Corvette also was best in class in AutoPacific’s 2012 Vehicle Satisfaction Award research.
A Few Shortfalls – Infotainment and Power and Ingress/Egress: A sports car is all about style, speed and handling and not about practicality. About 43% of Corvette owners want better infotainment technology. This may be buyer’s remorse if they did not get a package with the navigation system and Bose audio. About 36% of Corvette owners want more power and acceleration than they have now. With a base car with 430HP and 4.2 seconds zero to sixty, they should be satisfied, but sports car owners always seem to want more. Corvette is extremely low to the ground leading 34% of owners to want the car to be easier to get into and out of. About 26% want better interior storage than they presently have. About 24% of Corvette owners want better interior lighting than now. About 21% would like more daring exterior styling for an already expressively styled car. Maybe they are thinking of Ferrari or Lamborghini.
You can find an Autobytel review of this IVA award winner at http://www.autobytel.com/auto-news/awards/consumer-s-ideal-cars-revealed-in-2012-iva-awards-112116/
For a complete summary of all AutoPacific 2012 Ideal Vehicle Award results contact karin.turner@vehiclevoice.com and title your email “IVA Results”. A copy of the results will be emailed to you within 48-hours.
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Posted by George Peterson on June 10, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Best In Class 2012 Sports Car: Chevrolet Corvette
2012 Chevrolet Corvette Wins AutoPacific Vehicle Satisfaction Award
Corvette owners rate the car Best In Class without giving the car top satisfaction ratings in any category. This can sometimes, but rarely, happen in AutoPacific’s Vehicle Satisfaction Award research. It means that Corvette owners consider many characteristics more important than the owners of competing sports cars and when combined with their satisfaction with those characteristics, Corvette’s overall score is the highest. With a possible high score of 5.0 rating points, a rating of 4.6 or higher can be considered very good. Corvette owners satisfaction was 4.6 or higher in: Overall Satisfaction, Exterior Size, Vehicle’s Reputation, Brand’s Reputation, Exterior Color, Exterior Styling, Power and Acceleration, Braking, Handling, Fun to Drive, Overall Quality, and Advanced Powertrain Technology. Corvette owners value the dynamic qualities of America’s premier sports car and rate its styling near the top of its class.
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Posted by Stephanie Brinley on August 11, 2009 at 12:17 pm
“Chevrolet Corvette takes home both Motorist Choice Award and AutoPacific’s Owner Recommendation Award for 2009. Owners in the Sports Car Segment kept the Corvette on top, following a 2008 win. These wins prove, yet again, Corvette is a performance icon. High scores in the performance categories drove Corvette in front to take the overall segment win.” — AutoPacific
“The Corvette has best-in-segment ownership costs and segment-leading retained value..” — IntelliChoice
Owner Satisfaction Highlights
• Power and Acceleration
• Braking
• Handling
• Fun to Drive
• Image and Exterior Styling
Cost-of-Ownership Strengths
• Best-in-Segment Ownership Costs
• Best Retained Value
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Posted by Stephanie Brinley on April 13, 2006 at 5:52 am
Nissan GT-R Comes to the States
Video racing games and word-of-mouth have elevated prior generations of the Nissan Skyline GT-R to iconic status, though the entry has not yet been offered in the States. This finally changes with the new GT-R. Though Nissan looked long and hard at bringing the GT-R to the States through the Infiniti channel, tradition won out. At the 2006 New York auto show, Nissan announced the 2009 Nissan GT-R will arrive in North American Nissan dealers in spring 2008. A concept version was shown at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show. AutoPacific and VehicleVoice correspondents were there to see it, and here’s how it looked on Nissan’s home-turf stand.
GT-R Was Almost an Infiniti
Before the announcement, speculation reported the car as both a Nissan and an Infiniti. The primary benefit for putting the car in the hands of Infiniti dealers was the luxury brand experience and that Infiniti dealers are better-equipped to deal with customers looking for a relatively expensive, high-end sports car. Nissan has the 350Z, which comes with a base price just above $40,000 when the convertible is selected. The production GT-R is likely to play in a price range closer to Chevrolet Corvette and Dodge Viper.
Based on the same platform that spawned the Nissan 350Z, Infiniti G35, and Infiniti FX SUV, the GT-R promises to capable of taking on the likes of the Lexus SC430 and Cadillac XLR. Styling is distinct from the G35/Skyline to help enable dramatically different positioning.
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Posted by George Peterson on December 15, 2005 at 8:38 am
Every year, Car & Driver, one of the high circulation car enthusiast magazines in the United States, publishes the results of its 10Best awards. The 2006 10Best Cars awards were released in the January 2006 issue of Car & Driver and you can find them on the C&D website at (http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=33&article_id=10354)
Not having looked at the winners prior to writing this blog, VehicleVoice (http://www.vehiclevoice.com) staff conjectured about what types of cars Car & Driver would select.
We knew that, being a buff book, they’d select cars that appealed to the enthusiast, maybe throw one or two mundane winners into the mix, be heavy on import marques and generally favor smaller cars. Lets see how accurate we were?
BEST SPORTS SEDAN – Acura TSX
BEST SPORT COMPACT- Audi A3
BEST LUXURY SPORTS SEDAN – BMW 3-Series
BEST PERFORMANCE CAR – Chevrolet Corvette
BEST FULL SIZE SEDAN – Chrysler 300
BEST MUSCLE CAR – Ford Mustang GT
BEST FAMILY SEDAN – Honda Accord
BEST ROADSTER – Mazda MX-5 (Miata)
BEST SPORTS COUPE – Mazda RX-8
BEST LUXURY SPORTS CAR – Porsche Boxster
So, lets see, seven are import brands, 3 of the imports are from Germany and four are from Japan. Mazda picks up two wins with its sports cars.
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Posted by George Peterson on September 15, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Porsche 911 Wins AutoPacific 2005 Sports Car Vehicle Satisfaction Award
“The owners of the Porsche 911 have among the strongest overall satisfaction ratings in the industry. Instantly identifiable as a Porsche, the 911 is first coveted because of its distinctive exterior styling and its brand image. But its quality and driving dynamics put the icing on the cake. The Porsche 911 is the embodiment of a traditional European sports car.”
The 911 was closely paced by the new C6 Chevrolet Corvette a relatively traditional American sports car. Both cars are excellent and provide their enthusiast owners a thrilling driving experience and satisfying ownership experience.
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