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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.