AutoPacific Announces 2008 Ideal Vehicle Awards

Porsche Top Premium Brand, Ford Top Mainstream Brand, Mercedes-Benz S-Class Top Vehicle, Lincoln Navigator Top Truck

TUSTIN, CA - June 30, 2008: 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 2008 model year cars and trucks by how closely they come to their ideal, as measured by 15 key vehicle attributes. 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-eight segment winners and overall winners for premium brands and mainstream brands.

The top-rated premium brand overall is Porsche, out-scoring Jaguar and Buick for the most ideal premium vehicle brand honors. The top-rated mainstream brand is Ford, out-scoring GMC for top mainstream brand results.

The top-rated vehicle (and top-rated car) is the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, a Premium Luxury Car. The second and third top-rated cars are from Ford Motor Company -- the Mercury Sable and the Ford Taurus, both in the Large Car category. The top-rated truck is the Lincoln Navigator, a Premium Luxury SUV, closely followed by the Ford Taurus X, a Large Crossover SUV, and the Ford Expedition EL, a Large SUV.

Ford Motor Company leads the industry with a total of fifteen segment winners (including three for Volvo). General Motors has six segment winners. Ford won no less than five sport utility vehicle categories with Expedition EL, Taurus X, Edge, Escape, and Lincoln Navigator.

Including eight ties, of the twenty-eight Ideal Vehicle Award (IVA) categories, American brands have twenty segment winners, European brands have nine, Japanese brands have six and Korean brands have two winners.

The top-rated product segment is Large Crossover SUV, confirming that Americans continue to value large, comfortable vehicles suitable for suburban driving and longer distance highway cruising, but without the fuel consumption of heavier, traditional SUVs.

2008 Ideal Premium Brand: Porsche

2008 Ideal Mainstream Brand: Ford

2008 Ideal Product Segment: Large Crossover SUV

Top-rated 2008 Ideal Vehicles:

  Passenger Cars:
  Premium Luxury Car                    Mercedes-Benz S-Class
  Aspirational Luxury Car               Cadillac CTS/Volvo C70
  Large Luxury Car                      Mercury Grand Marquis
  Large Car                             Mercury Sable
  Luxury Mid-Size Car                   Volvo S40
  Premium Mid-Size Car                  Buick LaCrosse/Chevrolet Malibu
  Mid-Size Car                          Ford Fusion
  Image Compact Car                     Volvo C30
  Compact Car                           Volkswagen Rabbit
  Economy Car                           Nissan Versa
  Premium Sports Car                    Porsche 911/Cayman/Boxster
  Sports Car                            Mazda MX-5 Miata
  Sporty Car                            Ford Mustang

  Pickups, SUVs, and Minivans:
  Large Light-Duty Pickup               Ford F-150/Chevrolet Silverado
  Large Heavy-Duty Pickup               Ford Super Duty
  Compact Pickup                        Ford Explorer Sport Trac
  Luxury Sport Utility                  Lincoln Navigator
  Large Sport Utility                   Ford Expedition EL
  Premium Mid-Size Sport Utility        Chevrolet Trail Blazer/Toyota
                                         4Runner/GMC Envoy
  Mid-Size Sport Utility                Kia Sorento/Jeep Liberty
  Compact SUV/Off-Road Vehicle          Suzuki Grand Vitara
  Premium Luxury Crossover SUV          Audi Q7
  Luxury Crossover SUV                  Buick Enclave
  Large Crossover SUV                   Ford Taurus X
  Premium Mid-Size Crossover SUV        Ford Edge
  Mid-Size Crossover SUV                Ford Escape
  Compact Crossover SUV                 Subaru Forester
  Minivan                               Toyota Sienna/Hyundai Entourage

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 attributes, including: exterior styling, exterior size, passenger roominess, cargo space, driver's seat comfort, driver's seat visibility, interior technology, interior lighting, power and acceleration, ease of getting in and out, interior storage compartments, ride, handling, safety features 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 website: www.autopacific.com. To weigh in with comments concerning these results, you can comment on the VehicleVoice blog site.