Automotive.com Consumers Vote for Best Cars of 2004

IRVINE, Calif., April 22 -- Automotive.com, a leading Internet automotive marketing company, announced the results of their New Car Awards for 2004 and the most anticipated New Car and Hybrid of 2005. After months of voting and tallying over 200,000 votes submitted by consumers in the Automotive.com 2nd annual Consumer Choice Awards, the winners have been announced.

"Consumers who visit Automotive.com range from the car enthusiast to the first-time car buyer, but all of our customers take pride in giving their opinion," said Jason Phillips, vice-president of Automotive.com. "Our visitors trust Automotive.com to offer the most up-to-date and unbiased new and used car information online. That's why we don't pick the best cars -- our customers do."

Automotive.com's Consumer Choice Awards offered the consumer the chance to vote on the "best" in 15 vehicle categories, from sports cars to minivans, picking the vehicle that they felt best represented exceptional value, superiority in its class, and overall customer satisfaction.

"We're extremely pleased with the response we received from our customers as the number of participants doubled this year," said Phillips. "The results truly represent what consumers value as the best of the best in the automotive industry."

The following models were voted as 2004 consumer "best": BMW 3-series (Best Coupe), Volkswagen Passat (Best Sedan), Ford Mustang (Best Sports Car Under $40K), Dodge Viper (Best Sports Car Over $40K), Audi A4 (Best Luxury Car Under $40K), Audi A8 (Best Luxury Car Over $40K), Toyota Highlander (Best SUV Under $40K), Lexus LX470 (Best SUV Over $40K), Mercedes-Benz SLK (Best Convertible), Toyota Tacoma (Best Compact Truck), Ford F-150 (Best Full-Size Truck), Mini Cooper (Best Compact Car) and Honda Odyssey (Best Minivan). Additional information on Automotive.com Award winners can be found at http://awards.automotive.com/ .

The Award Voting Process

The Automotive.com Awards are based solely on votes from consumers placed online at http://www.automotive.com/. Voting information is used to compile the rankings and standard industry vehicle categories are used to group vehicles for voting purposes. The number of automotive award categories is aligned with the number of model-level segments within the automotive industry. The top 5 vehicles in each category are influenced by the millions consumers across the U.S. who utilized Automotive.com for their new car buying services during the year. Rankings are in no way influenced by the opinion of Automotive.com or its staff.

About Automotive.com

Automotive.com, founded in 1999 and headquartered in Irvine, CA, is the Internet's leading auto buying portal and consumer information website. Automotive.com has helped more than 30 million consumer's research and price new cars, http://www.automotive.com/new-cars/, and used cars, http://www.automotive.com/used-cars/, leading to more than 3 million vehicle sales. Automotive.com unites the new car buyer with a local new car dealer, large dealer group or direct with the manufacturer online -- dramatically improving the way consumer's research, locate and buy new vehicles. Automotive.com is a privately held corporation. For more information, visit http://www.automotive.com/ or call 1-888-446-8742.