Vincentric's 2007 Best Value in America Awards

SEE ALSO: Total Operating Costs by Vincentric

Honda, Toyota, and GM score big with Vincentric’s Best Value in America awards.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Michigan – January 19, 2007 – With today’s announcement of Vincentric’s Best Value in America™ awards, it’s time to expand the trophy shelf at Honda, Toyota, and General Motors. Brands from these three manufacturers combined to take home over 75% of the annual awards, which are based upon Vincentric’s cost-of-ownership analysis of over 2,000 different vehicle configurations from the 2007 model year.

Hybrids continued to show their strong value, with the Toyota Prius, Saturn VUE hybrid, and Lexus GS 450h capturing top honors. In addition, higher fuel prices also helped the new fuel efficient Toyota Yaris and the newly redesigned, General Motors truck line, with four awards going to the Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra lineup. Brands with winning vehicles were Acura, BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Honda, Infiniti, Lexus, Mazda, Nissan, Saturn, and Toyota.

Vincentric measures cost-of-ownership using eight different cost factors: depreciation, fuel, insurance, opportunity cost, financing, maintenance, taxes and state fees, and repairs. Using a statistical model, the company identified the Best Value in America™ by measuring which vehicles have a lower than expected ownership cost given their market segment and price. Each vehicle was evaluated in all 50 states plus DC using a range of annual mileage intervals (10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 per year). In addition, Vincentric reviewed different insurance profiles (new drivers, less experienced drivers and experienced drivers) and their impact on value for each vehicle.

“We continue to see a high correlation between sales success and Vincentric’s Best Value in America™ winners,” stated David Wurster, President of Vincentric. “This shows that consumers understand and continue to use cost-of-ownership data before making a purchase decision. Others see this as well, as evidenced by the inclusion of cost-of-ownership data on most major consumer automotive web sites.”

In addition to the annual Best Value in America™ awards, Vincentric compiles updated results each month to incorporate current fuel prices, manufacturer rebates and incentives, interest rates and residual values.

The categories and the winners of Vincentric’s Best Value in America™ for the 2007 model year are listed below. In addition, a synopsis showing detailed ownership costs for each winner is available at www.vincentric.com

Winners of Vincentric’s Best Value in America™

Passenger Cars and Crossovers

- Compact, over $18,000: Honda Civic Hybrid

- Compact, under $18,000: Honda Civic Sedan

- Convertible, over $29,000: Chevrolet Corvette

- Convertible, under $29,000: Mazda Mx-5 Miata

- Large: Toyota Avalon

- Luxury: Lexus GS 450h

- Mid-Size, over $23,000: Toyota Prius

- Mid-Size, under $23,000: Toyota Prius

- Near Luxury: Acura TL

- Prestige Luxury: Lexus LS 460L

- Sports Car, over $41,000: Chevrolet Corvette

- Sports Car, under $41,000: BMW Z4

- Subcompact, over $17,000: Honda Civic Coupe

- Subcompact, under $17,000: Toyota Yaris

- Wagon, over $23,000: BMW 5-Series Sport Wagon

- Wagon, under $23,000: Toyota Matrix

SUVs and Crossovers

- Crossover, over $29,000: Infiniti FX45

- Crossover, under $29,000: Saturn VUE Green Line

- Compact SUV, over $22,500: Honda CR-V

- Compact SUV, under $22,500: Honda CR-V

- Mid-Size SUV, over $30,000: Honda Pilot

- Mid-Size SUV, under $30,000: Honda Pilot

- Large SUV, over $42,000: Infiniti QX56

- Large SUV, under $42,000: Nissan Armada

Pick-Ups

- Compact Pickup, 2WD: Toyota Tacoma

- Compact Pickup, 4WD: Toyota Tacoma

- Full Size Pickup, 2WD: GMC Sierra 1500

- Full Size Pickup, 4WD: Chevrolet Silverado 1500

- Heavy Duty ¾ Ton Pickup, 2WD: Ford F-250

- Heavy Duty ¾ Ton Pickup, 4WD: Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD

- Heavy Duty 1 Ton Pickup, 2WD: Ford F-350

- Heavy Duty 1 Ton Pickup, 4WD: Chevrolet Silverado 3500

Vans

- Full Size Passenger Van: GMC Savana 1500

- Minivan, over $27,000: Honda Odyssey

- Minivan, under $27,000: Honda Odyssey

ABOUT VINCENTRIC

Vincentric provides data, knowledge, and insight to the automotive industry by identifying and applying the many aspects of automotive value. Using Vinbase™, its comprehensive, proprietary cost-of-ownership database, the company measures and analyzes the overall cost of owning and operating vehicles and its impact on the value provided to buyers. Vincentric data is used by organizations such as Yahoo! Autos, Cars.com, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Business Fleet Magazine and Fleet-Central.com as a means of providing automotive insight to their clientele. Vincentric, LLC, is a privately held automotive data compilation and analysis firm headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.