2009 Hyundai Elantra GLS

2009 Hyundai Elantra GLS

Today AutoPacific announced their 2009 winners of the Ideal Vehicle Awards (IVA). If you are like me, the first thing you are asking yourself is, ‘How did they come up with the ratings to award one car over another.’ The answer: The IVAs are based on owners’ ratings of their new 2009 model year cars and trucks across 15 key vehicle attributes. The results may actually surprise you.

Since I am biased to small car news let’s look at what cars are deemed the most ideal. The small car categories are as follows: Economy Car, Compact Car, Image Compact Car, Sports Car and Sporty Car. As I said before, the winners might actually surprise you, especially with the focus there has been lately on hybrids and electric cars. Your IVA winners for the above small car segments are:

 

2009 Porsche 911 Carrera

2009 Porsche 911 Carrera

It is also noteworthy to mention that Porsche was named as the 2009 Ideal Premium Brand with Ford taking the 2009 Ideal Mainstream Brand award. From the results above, the brand to watch is Hyundai. It will be interesting to see if they will keep the top honors with the release of the 2010 Kia Forte (see my take here). Also, it is interesting that the Honda Fit beat out cars like the Smart ForTwo and Toyota Yaris. Another interesting thing about the IVA awards is that there isn’t a hybrid or other alternative energy category. It makes me wonder, if there were a category would there be enough differentiation or are consumers really locked into only a few choices right now? My hunch is that for small hybrids the Toyota Prius would be an easy choice with the new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid taking a mid-size hybrid category.

Be sure to check out the rest of the IVA awards including luxury, full-size and truck segments. Also, stay tuned to AllSmallCars.com for more news, reviews and more. Did you know you can find local dealers, auto parts and services in your area through our site too? Check it out our auto parts, dealers and services links. 

Have a comment? Leave it right here on the site via FacebookConnect or drop an email to JEMblogger at Gmail dot com.