Ideal Vehicle Awards: Identifying Vehicles that Measure Up to Expectations
Each year AutoPacific surveys new car and light truck acquirers via mail and Internet about their new vehicle in order to learn more about their purchase experience, attribute importance and satisfaction, lifestyle, preferences, vehicle use, personal characteristics, desired features and more. The Ideal Vehicle Awards are based on scores developed using results from a part of this survey that focuses on the consumers desire to change their vehicle if given the opportunity. Respondents rate 15 attributes indicating whether they want them to be changed (larger, smaller, more or less) or not changed (stay the same) after having driven their vehicle for 90 days. The attributes all pertain directly to the product itself.
The Difference: IVAs quantitatively gauge how closely a vehicle matches an owner's expectations. An IVA is earned by those automakers that best understand their customers and are able to create the vehicle these customers demand - their ideal vehicle.
The Ideal Vehicle Awards are just one of three awards given by AutoPacific throughout the year. Each year AutoPacific analyzes the results of our New Vehicle Satisfaction Survey and identifies the top performing vehicles. These are owners talking. And who better to evaluate a vehicle than the owners themselves?
An "ideal" is defined as conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence. In the 2010 Ideal Vehicle Awards, announced today by automotive research and consulting firm AutoPacific, owners rate their new vehicles by how closely they come to their ideal. "After owning and operating a vehicle for some time, consumers often identity shortcomings, and ideas about what they would like to change about their vehicle," says George Peterson, President of AutoPacific. "The IVAs are based on owners' ratings of their new 2010 model year cars and trucks across 15 key vehicle attributes ranging from power and acceleration to interior storage. The cars or trucks that owners would change the least are the most ideal."
"In today's vehicle market, quality is expected, and car buyers take many factors into consideration - styling, safety features, fuel economy and more," says Peterson. "IVA winners deliver the most of what consumers are really looking for in their vehicles. Shoppers can use the IVAs as a benchmark for vehicles that are designed and built with customers in mind."
