Posted on Thursday 7 June 2007
Influential auto resource Kelley Blue Book and its marketing research team have compiled a list of the brands with the best interior styling according to the results of its consumer automotive perceptions study. Toyota brands have topped the rankings for four vehicle segments, with two of America’s Big Three taking a top spot as well as one German.
Lexus took out the luxury sedan category, while Toyota took out the best non-luxury sedan, non-luxury SUV and minivan categories. The remaining spots were taken by Mercedes-Benz for best convertible or sports car, GMC for best truck interior, and finally Cadillac, with the best luxury-SUV cabins.
A similar study was run by automotive industry publication Wards Auto, which polled thousands of readers including more than 1400 professionals to find the individual cars with the best interiors. Of the 34 cars, which were picked from 11 different categories, four came from the Big Three and two were Hondas.
The cars were judged based on comfort, safety, and design harmony, and the model that beat out every car on the market was the Lexus LS 460L, which took home the ‘Best Overall Comfort’ award.
Click ahead to see a list of the top three brands in each segment as rated by Kelley Blue Book as well as the top seven models picked by Wards’ staff and the industry at large.
Kelley Blue Book Brand Watch Study: Interior Styling
Convertibles/Sports Cars
1. Mercedes-Benz
2. Porsche
3. Lexus
Trucks
1. GMC
2. Chevrolet
3. Cadillac
Mini Vans
1. Toyota
2. Honda
3. Dodge
Luxury SUVs
1. Cadillac
2. Lexus
3. BMW
Non-Luxury SUVs
1. Toyota
2. Chevrolet
3. Ford
Luxury Sedan
1. Lexus
2. Mercedes-Benz
3. Infiniti
Non-Luxury Sedan
1. Toyota
2. Volkswagen
3. Honda
Wards Auto Best Interiors
| Award Category | Ward’s Staff | Industry At-Large Vote |
| Economy-Priced Car | Honda Fit | Dodge Caliber |
| Popular-Priced Car | Saturn Aura | Saturn Aura |
| Premium-Priced Car | Volvo S80 | Lincoln MKZ |
| Popular-Priced CUV | Honda CRV | Saturn Outlook |
| Premium-Priced CUV | Cadillac SRX | Cadillac SRX |
| Popular-Priced Truck | Chevy Silverado | Chevy Silverado |
| Premium-Priced Truck | Lincoln Navigator | Cadillac Escalade |
I am really surprised at some of these - especially since Toyota’s interiors have started looking rather cheap. Honda/Acura, on the other hand, seems to make very nice interiors but they don’t seem to be well represented here.
What happened to Audi? Have you guys looked inside what is generally acknowledged as the car industry’s best interiors? Nowhere on your list at all? Admittedly this is a totally subjective rating, but really you are missing the boat on this one.
Cheers
All of this is inacurate!! Lets judge the cars most driven today, yes audi has almost perfect interiors, but you dont see many on the road, as far as manufacturers today, FORD has the best put together interiors, and have had for a really long time, GM, not so great, they use heavy materials that dont seem to last in the long run. On the other hand, I have seen more ford vehicles over a 10 year span that interiors were bar none, the best overall. TOYOTA, Has the cheapest interiors, interior accents, yada.. HONDA Interiors are not user friendly, very unconventional, nothing is in the best location, and little nic-nacs are cheap. As far as american vehicles, I have to say Chrysler has the ugliest, cheapest, most unreliable interiors in the nation, from window buttons, radios, door handles, etc. I dont want you to agree with me but you really need to test all interiors before you go tagging a honda, toyota, as best interiors, anyone who knows anyhting about cars, ALL CARS, will disagree. And Last but not least if I had to implement interiors and styling, NISSAN, is really close to ford on user friendly-ness, styling, functionability, longevity, buttons, overall interior space. So my vote is, NISSAN & FORD are at the utmost top. If you disagree you are probably a 12 year old wanna be reporter, and again if you do dis-agree, go to your local dealership, get behind the wheel of a F-150, play with controls, get a feel, then go to your nissan dealer and get behind the wheel of a new maxima- I promise you will change your mind. thanks