Edmunds.com Announces Toyota Sienna Narrowly Edges Out Previous Winner, Honda Odyssey, in 2004 Minivan Comparison Test
SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 6, 2004 -- Edmunds.com (http://www.edmunds.com/), the Internet's premiere resource for consumer automotive information, today announced that the Toyota Sienna nudged the Honda Odyssey out of first place and bested three other competitors in the 2004 Minivan Comparison Test, which can be found at: http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/comparison/articles/101676/article.html.
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The Toyota Sienna was selected by the editors at Edmunds.com as the best 2004 minivan because of its excellent build quality and abundance of features and options. The Honda Odyssey was a very close second and was named the most fun to drive. The Nissan Quest, which earned third place overall, was tops in engine performance as well as driver visibility, an important safety consideration in a large vehicle. Fourth place Kia Sedona was named the best choice for consumers whose primary consideration is value; even the somewhat spartan LX model impressed the editors. Rounding out the list is the 2004 Ford Freestar, which some regarded as the best-looking of the group.
Three of the minivans tested, the Sienna, Qwest and Freestar, are new or significantly redesigned for 2004. Unlike the other manufacturers, Chrysler declined to provide their new minivan for the test.
For each segment comparison, Edmunds.com's editorial staff rigorously tests and compares competing vehicles, then ranks them based on a number of factors including: performance, features, price and the editors' individual personal preferences.
"All of our editors agree that the Toyota Sienna is nearly the perfect family vehicle," said Brian Moody, Road Test Editor for Edmunds.com, who served as head writer for this comparison test. "However, because the results were so close between first and second place, consumers should really look at the Toyota Sienna and the Honda Odyssey as the top tier in minivans."
About Edmunds.com, Inc.
Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is generated by Edmunds Data Services and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies over 800,000 pages of content for the auto sections of AOL and NYTimes.com, provides weekly data to Automotive News and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM) and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and maintains a satellite office in Troy, Michigan.
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