BMW Wins KBB Brand Award for "Best Exterior Design"
God I hate car awards—except for ours, of course. Nine times out of ten, the fix is in. The tenth time, the methodology is Claritin clear anti-matter. Well, at least ForbesAutos isn’t making those stupid “10 Best Cars in Which To Perform a Bris” lists anymore. Anyway, here’s KBB’s most recent contribution to the genre, which names Cadillac as the Best Comfort Food—I mean, brand. And Toyota scoops the award for Least Exciting Brand That Everyone Buys Anyway Probably Because It IS So Boring (i.e., Best Value Brand). Full list after you contemplate the ability of the English language to obfuscate while pretending to offer specificity.
The 2009 Brand Image Awards, presented to the top brands in 10 categories, are based on consumer automotive perception data from Kelley Blue Book Market Research’s Brand Watch study. Brand Watch is an online brand perception tracking study tapping into 12,000+ in-market new-vehicle shoppers annually on Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com. The highly comprehensive Brand Watch report provides a detailed look at in-market new-vehicle shoppers’ perceptions of brands, and important factors driving their purchase decisions while they are in the midst of the shopping process. The results of an entire year of Brand Watch research and consumer opinions determine the 2009 Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Award winners.
Best Value Brand: Toyota
Coolest Brand: BMW
Most Family-Friendly Brand: Toyota
Most Rugged Truck Brand: Ford
Best Performance Brand: BMW
Best Comfort Brand: Cadillac
Best Exterior Design Brand – Luxury: BMW
Best Exterior Design Brand – Non-Luxury: Nissan
Best Interior Design Brand: Cadillac
Best Prestige Brand: Mercedes-Benz
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Sure they are nose-heavy, prone to spontaneous combustion and overall unreliable. But nobody makes better looking cars, right now, than Audi. Particularly the A5. BMW has had horrible looking cars since Bangle. The "Bangle butt", as a practical way to increase trunk capacity, was actually invented by Volvo. It's just that nobody noticed it until Bangle stole it from Volvo and made it ugly (Volvo's version actually looked good).
I'm glad Cadillac got best Comfort award, it's a big reason I purchased a CTS. But getting Best Interior design? Uh... It's come a long way, but I feel Lexus and Audi take this by far.
I'd excuse a bit of BMW's "design language" (a term generally used for ugly cars) if only the interiors were up to Audi standards. For a so-called premium brand, BMW interiors are seriously disappointing.
If the KBB guy who decided this had one more eye, he'd be a cyclops.