The Truth About Intellichoice Awards

Frank Williams
by Frank Williams

TTAC has not been shy about its scepticism regarding the owner satisfaction and quality surveys produced by JD Power, and the commercial links to the industry that they monitor. We have also pointed out that Consumer Reports' "secret sauce" (i.e. their analytical formulae) have certain limitations. Until now, we've overlooked another source of auto manufacturers' braggin' rights: the Intellichoice awards. While you'll hear Intellichoice mentioned in the same breath as JD Power in more than a few automotive advertisements, Intellichoice's awards don't get nearly the same scrutiny. It's time to correct this oversight.

Intellichoice offers awards in five broad categories: Motorist Choice, Best Deals of the Month, Best Overall Value, Smartchoice (with six subcategories) and Best Certified Pre-Owned Programs. They subdivide each of these categories by vehicle type, e.g. car, crossover, near luxury and convertible. Many of these categories are subdivided even further. I counted no less than 240 permutations, and I could have missed a few.

If that wasn't confusing enough, cars jump from class to class depending on the award. The Toyota Yaris was named "Best Overall Value – Subcompact Class." But when it comes to the "Low Ownership Costs" award, the Yaris lives in the "Compact" category. The Chevrolet HHR is the "Small Wagon" winner for "Low Maintenance Costs" but "Compact Crossover SUV" winner in the "Motorist Choice Awards." For the same award, the Lexus IS is the "Aspirational Luxury Car" but it's in the "Near Luxury Class" as the "Best Overall Value of the Year."

Intellichoice also categorizes certain cars differently from everyone else. Did you know that the Nissan Altima is a "Premium Mid-Size Car" and the Porsche Boxster is a "Luxury Convertible"? Apparently, the Honda Accord is a "Compact" ("Lowest Maintenance Cost") and the Lexus SC 430 is a "Premium Sports Car"– except when it's a "Luxury Convertible" ("Lowest Repair Costs").

Another mystery: why do certain vehicles receive awards when the exact same model with a different body style (i.e. coupe vs. sedan) doesn't make the grade? Intellichoice names the aforementioned Toyota Yaris named "Best Value – Subcompact Class" is only the hatchback model; the four-door wasn't included. Several pickup truck awards were given to the crew cab and extended cab models while the standard cabs stood on the sidelines.

After looking at Intellichoice's wide selection of seemingly arbitrary accolades, you can't help but feel that the gongs fall into the same category as kindergarten sports awards. Both processes seem aimed at preserving the delicate self esteem of a bunch of five-year-olds. Last year, almost every company that sells a car or truck in the U.S. received at least one Intellichoice award. Even floundering Isuzu was awarded "Lowest Maintenance Cost" in the "Small Pickup" category.

This "something for everyone" mindset extends to a few of this website's Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) winners. The dead van walking Chevy Uplander won "Best Overall Value" in the "Cargo Van" category. It's almost-as-bad corporate cousin, the Buick Rendezvous, won an Intellichoice award for "Lowest Maintenance Costs" in the "Midsize Crossover" class. And the TWAT-worthy Aveo5 won in the "Subcompact Class" of the same category.

It's obvious that a lot of awards given out by various magazines and newspapers are influenced (if not totally driven) by the pursuit of the almighty advertising dollar. But even though there are links to get free quotes on vehicles, and links to finance and insurance companies, Intellichoice's website doesn't offer any direct links to automakers' sites or car ads. There's no indication of any outside influences that would entice the organization to devise such convoluted awards and then hand them out like candy.

That is, until you realize Intellichoice.com is owned by Primedia, the same company that brings us Motor Trend and Automobile magazines. While each of these magazines has their own (dubious) annual awards for a variety of vehicles, neither of them approach Intellichoice in number or complexity of awards. But both of them enjoy plenty of lucrative automobile manufacturer advertising revenue. These same manufacturers also drop big bucks for advertisements in other Primedia's other magazines.

Running a web site as timely and data rich as Intellichoice is an expensive business. Not to belabor the point, but the money to run their site comes from Primedia, which gets the majority of its revenue from advertisements. You don't bite the hand that's feeding you. Intellichoice has to keep Primedia's advertising clients happy. And if that means coming up with a few hundred awards to give out (some on a monthly basis), then so be it.

And there's the fundamental problem. Just as an award for "Most Improved Left-Handed Pattycake Player" only resonates with the recipient's mother, the awards handed out by Intellichoice mean nothing to anyone but the manufacturers. Considering the low profile of most of these awards, you have to wonder if they mean anything at all.

Frank Williams
Frank Williams

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  • Hltguy Hltguy on Aug 03, 2007

    This all sounds like the awards the entertainment industry is constantly giving themselves. Every week another awards show. Every b grade actor or singer gets an award at one time or another, and if they can't figure out what award to give them for a "performance", they get a "humanitarian award" or "lifetime achievment award" or "I'm 21 years old, filthy rich, sick of life and hooked on crank award". In the immortal words of Sally Fields "You like me, you really like me"

  • Hltguy Hltguy on Aug 03, 2007

    LOL on the hamburger/cheeseburgers awards in Flint.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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