Just in time for your end of year car shopping, Newsweek is launching its first-ever automotive awards. After test driving roughly 150 vehicles, the Newsweek autos team is revealing its 25 picks for best individual vehicles and brands in the Newsweek 2021 Autos Awards. There are six brand awards, and the rest are individual vehicle awards in car, SUV, minivan and truck categories.
To come up with the award winners, the Newsweek autos team rated vehicles in two ways: by test driving them and by comparing their standard and available features and specifications to those of other vehicles in the same category. Over the last year, Newsweek says its autos team drove about 150 vehicles, rating them in seven categories: performance, handling and braking, technology, cargo area, seating, interior appointments and pricing. They focused on how well the vehicles lived up to the expectations of the target customer. Newsweek asked automakers to provide vehicles for testing and only models that were available were test driven.
Best Car, SUV, Truck and Minivan category winners had 25 percent of their total rating determined by the test drive score and 75 percent by features and specifications. Brand awards were more subjective. In addition to vehicle scores, the Newsweek autos team looked at changes to the model lineup and other company activities to determine the winners. Newsweek says nearly all of the vehicles ranked are made in America.
You can see the full Newsweek report by clicking here.