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AutoGuide 2021 Awards - Ford and Hyundai dominate


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AutoGuide has released its 2021 awards for best new vehicles. It had 8 categories: Car of the Year, Utility of the Year, Truck of the Year, Luxury Car of the Year, Luxury Utility of the Year, Family Vehicle of the Year, Performance Car of the Year, and Green Vehicle of the Year.

 

Ford won 3 categories (Truck, Utility, Green Vehicle) as did Hyundai/Genesis (Car, Luxury Car, Luxury Utility). Stellantis won 1 (Family Vehicle) as did GM (Performance Car).

 

The surprise? Ford nabbed the Green and Utility Awards with the same vehicle: the Mustang Mach-E. The green vehicle win is unsurprising, but AutoGuide argued that not only did the all-electric MME beat out all other EV utilities, but it beat out all other utilities of any type. The Utility Award blurb notes: "The Mach-E isn’t just good for an EV, it’s a great crossover, full stop... The cabin is bright and airy, and there’s enough rear-seat headroom for adults even with the sloping roofline. Ford’s latest SYNC infotainment system, presented here in a large portrait orientation, is snappy and intuitive. More than that, the Mach-E provides a smooth, quiet ride—but can still entertain the driver when asked. 'The Mustang Mach-E will have many folks reconsidering their stance on EVs,' said lead road tester Kyle Patrick in his first drive review, 'offering a compelling package that doesn’t sacrifice anything from a ‘normal’ car.' "

 

Here's the article and the winners:

 

https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2021/04/autoguide-2021-awards-winners-announced.html

Car of the Year - Hyundai Elantra

Utility of the Year - Mustang Mach-E

Truck of the year - Ford F-150

Luxury Car of the Year - Genesis G80

Luxury Utility of the Year - Genesis GV80

Family Vehicle of the Year - Chrysler Pacifica

Performance Car of the Year - Corvette Stingray

Green Car of the Year - Mustang Mach-E

Edited by Gurgeh
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With Farley in charge, the media tide against Ford has certainly turned. Not many negative stories against Ford in last year or so whether it be about its stock or products, particularly Mach E, Bronco Sport, and Bronco. The new F150 had a blip with surface rust issues, but even that story has subsided a bit. Too bad about chip shortage because Ford seems ready to fly higher. 

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22 minutes ago, FordBuyer said:

With Farley in charge, the media tide against Ford has certainly turned. Not many negative stories against Ford in last year or so whether it be about its stock or products, particularly Mach E, Bronco Sport, and Bronco. The new F150 had a blip with surface rust issues, but even that story has subsided a bit. Too bad about chip shortage because Ford seems ready to fly higher. 

It's hard to know how wide-spread the rust issue is when truck inventories on dealer lots are almost non-existent.  Would it be more wide spread if there were more trucks to buy? What has been done to correct the issue in Dearborn?

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5 hours ago, FordBuyer said:

the media tide against Ford has certainly turned

 

Yes sir FordBuyer, the reason for that is that Ford as a company has turned. Ford is no longer behaving as if it's "been going out of business for 50 years" (to paraphrase Alan Mulally) which was the case prior to Jim Hackett becoming CEO in 2017.

 

The fitness regimen and design thinking philosophy Hackett introduced to Ford is finally starting to pay off. There's still a lot of work that Jim Farley has to do to ensure Ford survives and thrives in the next 10, 20, and 30 years, but at least Ford is now headed in the right direction.

Edited by rperez817
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Ford has a good PR team now and that is why you see positive articles being written about Ford and why it is winning awards. When you have a good PR operation, you can cuddle the media and spoon feed them talking points and dictate the narratives. I have a good friend that works at a major automotive publication and he told me that Ford went from one of the worst PR shop to one of the best over the last two years. They used to be combative and full of contempt for West Coast people (which is the majority of automotive press and ad people... they all live around Los Angeles area) but now Ford is one of the most media-friendly PR team. Notice the endless mention of Ford's horrid below average cheap interior materials have all but disappeared? Ford hasn't actually made the interior of Bronco Sport much better than Escape - they are pretty much the same. It's that the PR team have managed talking points much better. 

 

Hyundai also has one of the better PR team in the business right now and it's no coincidence that its HQ is located in the LA area. That was one of the things that went unnoticed by a lot of people when Nissan moved its HQ to the sticks... All of a sudden, the media narrative about Nissan became really negative and they became the rental car fleet queen and all their vehicles have horrible CVT that doesn't drive well etc. Meanwhile Toyota and Hyundai were actually selling more cars to rental fleets and also have CVT in most of their cars but they weren't being written about it in the same way. 

Edited by bzcat
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