Auto Trends

The experts are always quick to tell us what vehicles we should be purchasing, but what about consumer opinion? That has got to be factored in somewhere, and I’m not talking about a controlled survey. We want to know real world opinion on real world cars. How they react, control, maintain, perform, and most importantly, function.

We spoke with Alan Dean and Vince Bucciachio of BrandIntel.com about their 2008 Consumer Voice Awards last week. These are basically the awards that consumers like yourselves have unknowingly contributed through various web forums and discussions on the Internet.

BrandIntel.com, uses their technology to scan various forums on the Internet and note what the discussions are taking place and what consumers are saying about the various makes and models of vehicles on the market.

The winners of these awards are based on the calculation of each vehicles popularity, sentiment, likes and dislikes, and overall opinion from the consumers who own and drive these various vehicles everyday.

Let’s open the show with the Compact Car Segment Winner for 2008:

…And the winner for 2008 was unanimously the Mitsubishi Lancer.

Consumer Comments: “The newly, redesigned “shark nosed” 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer offers aggressive styling cues and a high-performance, fun-to-drive experience.” The Mitsubishi “brand image” however, was a key detractor for some consumers, but it wasn’t enough to drop the overall sentiment of the Lancer.

Consumer ratings:

Share of overall Consumer Discussion — 10% popularity

Consumer Likes — Exterior Styling, Performance, Value, Fun, and Unique Presence

Consumer Dislikes — Horsepower, Refinement, and Image

Most Significant Rival:

BMW 1-Series
The BMW 1-Series made its North American debut this year and the consumers have been talking about it non-stop on the forums.

Consumer comments: “The twin-turbocharged 135i coupe should have great performance potential.” On the negative, mainstream consumers are critical of its styling, saying, “The front fascia does not progress smoothly into the body of the vehicle.”

The overall most popular and liked vehicles among consumers in the compact car segment was:

10^th Place— Chevrolet Cobalt 2% popularity, medium sentiment

9^th Place— Nissan Versa 2% popularity, high sentiment

8^th Place— Honda Fit 2% popularity, high sentiment

7^th Place— Toyota Corolla 3% popularity, medium sentiment

6^th Place— Volkswagen GTI 3% popularity, high sentiment

5^th Place— Mazda Mazda3 4% popularity, high sentiment

4^th Place— Honda Civic 5% popularity, medium sentiment

3^rd Place— Scion XB 6% popularity, medium sentiment

2^nd Place— BMW 1-Series 9% popularity, medium sentiment

1^st Place— Mitsubishi Lancer 10% popularity, high sentiment