Much has been said about the current financial crisis that America’s top automakers are experiencing. Sales continue its downward trend as demand for large and midsized SUV’s fall. May sales figures were down by 4.6% compared to last year. However, America’s automakers are producing much improved vehicle models generating a lot of buzz. There have been a number of exciting new sedans and coupes introduced such as the Saturn Sky and Ford Shelby GT500. Impressive new vehicle models have also come out from Detroit’s Big Three over the last few years.
To find out which among these new American vehicles are the best, BusinessWeek.com attempts to rank the newest domestic cars of 2006 according to reported reliability, government crash-safety ratings and total cost of ownership. Data were gathered from various sources such as Consumer Reports (Reliability), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Safety ratings) and Edmunds.com (total cost of ownership or TCO). TCO refers to the ownership expenses incurred over a five year time span including such costs as financing, taxes, maintenance, operating and depreciation costs. For this list, only cars with 2006 as the base model year were considered. Not all cars in the market were compared, however, due to the lack of complete safety and reliability data.
America’s best for 2006:
Small Car – Ford Focus Sedan – Chevrolet Malibu Wagon – Ford Focus Wagon Minivan – Dodge Caravan Small Truck – Dodge Dakota Large Truck – Ford F-150 Luxury Sedan - Chrysler 300 Mid-Sized SUV - Jeep Grand Cherokee Luxury SUV - Jeep Commander Supercar/Exotic - Saleen S7 Hybrid - Ford Escape Hybrid Coupe - Dodge Viper SRT10
Source: MSNBC