CarCast+Edmunds - Edmunds Top Rated Award Winners for 2026

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Hello, welcome to the Edmunds CarCast Podcast. I'm Matt, the moderator of the Andrew here with

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Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER. This is an exciting big episode. A couple of weeks ago,

maybe a week or two ago, we went through the Edmunds top-rated finalists,

but today's the day. We've got a special episode. Goldberg's even taken the day off to let this

have this moment, all kinds, so we could talk about the Edmunds top-rated.

The only time in my life that I've used Bill Goldberg, so it's quite a case.

Yeah, this is exciting. All this work that you guys have put in, but also we're really curious

and seeing what the results are. I mean, we went through the finalists, so we'll go through some

of them because the finalists sort of become highly rated. They're also recommended, but

if you have to pick best of the best, we want to be able to see that list.

You can set this up again, but unlike other awards, this isn't the best new cars for the year.

This is the best cars available today, whether it's a year old or not. What I mean is,

it's not a 2024 model. It's a new model, but if a car hasn't debuted as something fresh and new,

new platform, facelift, or whatever, what's available from the dealer as a new car today?

Yeah. I think in the text, we've done it a little bit more succinctly than that, but

maybe I should just read. Maybe to hire you as a copywriter.

Yeah, I mean, it's a long story short. Typically, awards of every description,

including the Oscars, are all about what happened in the previous year. We took a look at the whole

market and said, actually, this isn't massively beneficial if you're shopping for a new car

because you end up rewarding the car that perhaps isn't the best in the class.

We see that. I'm a juror on Nactoy, North American Car of the Year, which is a great and

fabled institution, but it's all about what's happened here and now. It's all about,

this is the best car that happened to come out this year. Edmunds talk rates are a little bit

different. We're interested in advising people which car to buy. Our list is, these are the

best cars on sale. That's why we can and do have repeat winners, because what we don't want to say,

to give one away, is we think the best electric car on sale is a Model 3, but because the Model

3 is now a couple of years old, we should give it to a choose your car that happened to come out

this year. That's a key differentiator. We know from the way people use the site and the way people

use the information. If you're wanting to shortlist a bunch of new cars to choose from, this is just

a great way of doing it. We know that people who maybe aren't as interested in cars as you and I,

and perhaps a lot of our audience, just go to this list. This is their shortlist. They start the

research there, and then they proceed from there. As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, 17 finalists,

that's distilled into six category winners and then overall best of the best, which is more

about recognizing innovation and impact. One of the category winners becomes the best of the best.

That wasn't supposed to sink tithering. I've done this like a hundred times. Basically,

it's the six best cars on sale, one winner for gas, one winner for electric, and then an overall

best of the best, which is the car with the most impact. There you go. All right. We're going to

go through them. The categories are best truck, gas or electric, gas and electric. Those are two

categories. Best SUV, gas and electric, and best car, gas and electric. Those are your six categories.

Can you tell I've been up since the early hours like making sure all this is working?

Yeah. Okay. We're going to start with electric SUV, and I'm going to bring it up as we're doing it.

For those of you watching, here we are. That's a truck. This is the truck. Yeah,

that's what I meant, truck. Yeah, we're going to do a truck. We're going to do a truck. I have an

order to it. I do. I do have an order for it. This is the best electric truck. Stay with us,

people. It's going to get better. Maybe, maybe not. I can't guarantee that. I messed something up the

other day and one of my teams said, don't worry. It makes you appear relatable. I was like, I'll

cling on to that. Not incompetent. I'm relatable. Electric truck. This is actually a tough category

because honestly, there aren't that many electric trucks that we would recommend today. The Ford

Lightning, the F-150 Lightning, as you well know, is heading to the clouds in the sky.

Not a big fan of the Tesla Cybertruck. Normally, we have two highly recommended, one winner.

In this instance, we've got one highly recommended, the GMC Sierra EV, and then the winner, the Rivian

R1T, which again is a, is a repeat winner of this award. And it's just, we just like this truck. I

mean, I think they've done a really good job over the years since it was launched of just kind of

iterating it. There was a sort of facelift, but it was pretty subtle. But with all of the over-the-air

updates and all the hardware updates, it's just got better and better. The build quality's got

better. The software's got better. Just lots of little nuances that have improved it from our

original launch edition to where it is today. And you know, where I live, there are lots of Rivians

knocking around. And although the SUV sells better than the truck, this is still a, it's a really

nice way. And it's a good size too. It's not too big. It's kind of beat, it's a sort of between a

mid-size and a full-size, but it just means it's a little bit more manageable, particularly if you

live in an urban area. Yeah. And you're right. Some of the revisions and things they've made

to it, the subtle things to it. I think overall, is it just more compliant on the road? I think

when it came out, it was like, it was a little stiff, a little truck-like. And I don't know if

the SUV has this shared same suspension, or is the SUV softened up a little bit more compared

to the truck? I mean, they'll all be retuned because it always got slightly different purpose,

different kind of weight distribution, things like that. But I mean, they're essentially,

they're essentially very similar. You're right. The early vehicles didn't ride that well. They've

improved that. There was little things like the rear tailgate used to have one motor to open the

cover. And then they realized that actually you need two otherwise over time, it kind of

starts to pull it, it starts to malfunction because you kind of, if you think about the

vectoring, you're sort of pulling it, you really need two motors. So, you know, they've changed

little details like that. But a lot of the core design, we're showing the gear tunnel there,

which is just a great way of storing additional kit. It's a, what I think they've done really well

is, you know, they've used a lot of industrial design principles, and they've come at it with

a fresh perspective than perhaps somebody like Ford has done, but they've done so in a way that

actually works. And as they've kind of grown in experience and refined some of the, you know,

processes, it's just got better. And, you know, Rivian's had a tough time of it, you know, the

whole EB markets down, you know, they've shed, sadly had to shed some of their workforce and

things like that. But, you know, their product is good. And obviously the R2 is on its way as well,

which is the smaller SUV. That'll be a kind of Tesla Model Y rival. And that's, you know,

that's the big vehicle for them, because that will be the, that will be the big seller. But yeah,

R1T, we're still big fans of. Yeah, and you're right, though, we're kind of limited on electric

truck. There's not a lot of players out there, certainly more SUVs now than truck.

So it's kind of expected to see something like Rivian score very highly. The Silverado,

I just don't know that it caught on quite as well, even when it came out like fantastic range

sharing some of that giant battery technology like they have with Cadillac and GMC. But I don't

know that the sales really reflected. I mean, we would decide to go with the GMC Sierra, because

we just think it's kind of got a nicer interior. It's just about they're very obviously they're

fundamentally the same thing, but we just think the GMC tech not, you know, takes the

nod really for its kind of, you know, for its interior, its kind of look and feel.

You're right, they both, I think it's one of only four or five vehicles to go for 500 miles in the

Edmunds EV range test. That was a big part of giving it a highly recommended. It's massive,

it's versatile, you know, and they solve the range thing by just giving it a massive battery. I mean,

it's over 200 kilowatt hours and you think a Model 3 battery top of my head is about what, 60,

60, 70? Yeah, it's almost like three times what you would get.

What's my truck like 130? 130? Yeah, it's about 130. So it's just basically it's got a massive

battery, but it weighs 10,000 pounds. You know, it's kind of just a triumph of excess.

I mean, it'd be interesting. One of the challenges we've got and we've got to look at

this over the next few months is, you know, what does next year look like when we've got all these

kind of extended range EVs? And we'll talk about the other cars in a moment, but, you know, the

hybrid, we've lumped in with gas because we kind of said, look, if it's powered by gas, if it's

hybrid, it's still really a gas engine. Yeah, that's a good point. But why do we put range

extenders? Well, maybe that's a fit sender. And then we'll see because the scout that we've

been waiting for has been delayed another year. That was just announced today.

I saw that news. Yeah, which is a shame because that vehicle looks good to go.

I know, but when I say it was delayed a year, it was 2027 and now it's 2028. It wasn't delayed

till next year. It's delayed till 2028. That's what we're hearing from them so far.

But yeah, it's never a good sign when it's delayed again.

Yeah, they're running into some technical issues of what I understood.

So Rivian is the winner for electric truck, but keeping that theme of truck,

the winner for gas truck is, and I'll bring that up, Ford Maverick.

Well, Ford had a clean sweep of the gas truck category. So we always try and judge these

things in isolation, but you ended up with the F-150 being a preferred large truck,

the Ranger as the midsize, and then the Maverick as the compact. And we're going to get a bit

of pushback on this. People say the Maverick isn't a truck, blah, blah, blah, because it's not a

ladder frame chassis and it doesn't go climbing the mountains and all the rest of it. But the

reality is we think for most people, this is just as much truck as you would need. And also now you

can get all-wheel drive and hybrid, it's got better. They've done a facelift, so the interior's

nicer. The interior space is basically the same as a Ranger over as a Ranger, not quite as big as

a Ranger as a Ranger in the back. And it's just a nice truck and you think everything's got bigger.

So this is kind of what Tacoma used to be. So we just think for most people, this is plenty of

truck and it's, it drives well, it's economical, interior's good, technology's good. It's a nice

thing. And you know, it comes in at a price point. Like if you're driving it every day and it's your

only vehicle, there are nicer trim levels as you can imagine with pretty much every car.

But to be able to get a base model version as a work truck or a second vehicle for under 30,000,

basically 30,000, it's not bad. Well, that's right. And I think the big part of these awards is,

you know, he's looking at kind of value and affordability because the average transaction

price according to our data is now over 48 grand. And I think five of the six winners

are all under that. You know, and this is a, this is a 30 grand truck that actually, and it's not

30 grand where you're like, oh, you'd never buy that model. You know, 30 grand gets you a decent

little truck. So it's, yeah, it's a, we bought one. I mean, we have a the all wheel drive hybrid

version. And it's, it's just a nice thing. Yeah. You know, like I said, good features. And in the

truck world, you don't have to have all of the features, especially if you are getting like

a small around town work truck, if you know, this is, this is perfect for that. And you're right,

the all wheel drive version, the hybrid versions, somewhere up to 40 miles per gallon. Yeah. You

know, yeah, it's great. And I think it works for different people. You know, if you're a,

particularly if you're in an urban area, like you're in LA, you know, as a plumber or a

florist or anything, that kind of handyman, that kind of profession is great, but it's also sort

of fun as a leisure vehicle. Check the mountain bikes in the back or the surf boards. And as you

say, you know, some people might even have it as a second car. And now we, we talked about this on

the show, you know, getting rid of our family car. And I said, maybe we'll just get, maybe we'll just

get a Maverick because it'll be fun. You know, we don't really need a truck, but it's kind of fun

to throw the bikes in the back or, you know, have a picnic in the bed. It's kind of fun.

All right. So moving to the next category of SUVs, electric SUV. And this is becoming a more

competitive category, right? We talked a lot about like Ioniq nine and, and, and some of the

other competitors out there. You guys have picked the Hyundai Ioniq five.

Just have a little like drum roll effect. Yeah, again, another car where you'd sort of go, well,

you know, we sort of see, but again, another car that's had a sensible midlife refresh.

So now we've got the kind of Tesla next charging port. You know, the, the, some of the technology

it's got super fast charging is great. The range is pretty good. You know, the entry level price

point has been brought right down to about starting I think around 36,000. So yeah, 36,600

is there in the, it's there in the copy. So, and if you look at it on a lease at the moment,

I mean, here in California, they're offering like $1.99 a month without an awful lot of money down. So

it's a great value proposition. There's tons of space. It drives well. It's got great technology.

It's just a, you know, a really good all-round proposition at a price that people can actually

afford. And so, you know, I don't think Hyundai's making an awful lot of money on these cars at

the moment, certainly not on $199 lease deals, but it's, you know, for the consumer, it's a great

buy. At least bigger than you think. In the pictures, it looks like a hat, like a quite a

small hatchback reality. It's pretty, it's pretty big. Lots of room in the back.

And it's bringing a lot of attention to the brand.

Yeah. That's right. And it's, you know, you see a lot of them on the road and, and rightly so. And

of course, this is the sister car, the Kiri EV6, Genesis GV60, but the Hyundai is a great all-round

proposition. And then highly recommended Hyundai Ioniq 9, another Hyundai, again, 399 lease

deals where I live on those great, great bargain. And that's a brand new 3-row. We love the Kiri

EV9. That's a previous best of the best winner. Ioniq 9 is the sister car, slightly newer.

It's a bit of a toss-up. I prefer the looks of the EV9, but the Ioniq, the Ioniq 9 just,

you know, as an all-rounder, just is marginally ahead in the kind of objective testing.

And then the other highly recommended is more of a luxury pick in the BMW iX, which,

you know, you can love or hate the looks. And I still can't quite make my mind up,

but it's got a fantastic interior. It's great to drive. You know, it's, it's, it's just a really

nice kind of luxury SUV. So that started about 76,000. Yeah, that's not cheap. But again,

there's some pretty decent lease deals. Everybody thought when the lease, when all the tax breaks

were up, the lease deals would go away, but you know, they still need to shift the metal. So

although it's quite a chunky MSRP, there, you know, there's some deals to be had on iXs.

Yeah. Okay. Then moving on to the gas category, SUV, top-rated SUV gas engine.

Gas, like you mentioned, includes hybrids as well.

Yeah, so Palisade hybrid, perhaps no great surprise. Big fans of it. You know, it might look like the

tons of space, fantastic interior quality that really feels like a luxury car inside. Tons of

space, drives well. We sort of ummed an art a little bit about, you know, the hybrid or the

non-hybrid, but the reality is it's about $2,000 more. And we just think in this class of vehicle,

it makes a big difference. Yes, it's more economical, but it's also better to drive. Lots of

low-down grunt. And you know, just for what American families need, this is just a great,

great vehicle. And it's not cheap. I mean, it starts at just over 45. You know, most people

will be paying probably just over 50 and even a little bit more for them. But you do get an

awful lot of car for your money. So it's not the cheapest car in our lineup, but it's still what

we'd call a good value. Yeah. And it can go up even further. This calligraphy version that I think

the one that we're looking at now, I think it was the one that I drove and that was probably

like $60,000. Yeah. But then when you think that a lot of the kind of luxury alternatives and there's

a lot of talk about, you know, I think Genesis is going to bring out an EV version, but there's

lots of talk of, you know, other cars coming out or, you know, thinking about a Mercedes GLS or

BMW X7, you know, that similar size vehicles in many ways, but, you know, a lot more money than

that. So, you know, if a lot of people say, oh, it's a Hyundai badge, it's not a luxury badge,

but it feels like a luxury alternative. It's actually a big problem for Genesis because

And I think you're right. The investment here is in the hybrid version. You get better gas

mileage and more power and you feel that on the road. So I think you kind of skip over maybe the

pure gas engine version and just go to the hybrid. I agree with you guys on that one.

And I think probably it will protect your residuals a little bit better as well.

And then on the small SUVs, another Hyundai, I mean, Hyundai kind of had unprecedented results

here. So Tucson hybrid, you know, another car that's had a sensible mid-life update.

We like that. We like its sister car, the Sportacare Sportage hybrid, but the Hyundai

just got the nod. Again, really nice interior, decent amount of space. That hybrid's got a really

good power train and starts at 35 grand. So it's a good family car. And let's face it,

this size of car is, you know, it's what the RAV4 is. It's what the Honda CR-V is. So

hugely popular in the US. And then at the other end of the scale, Ford Expedition is huge. We

just bought one. I spent a couple of weeks in it the other week. It's, you know, they're a big

truck-based SUV. But for a lot of families, you know, big families or people doing big miles,

you know, it's a good way to, it's a good way to travel.

You know, and I would say they've really stepped up their game on the new Expedition. If you're

thinking about a large SUV and you're cross shopping, even Lincoln or Cadillac, look at the

Expedition. What they've done on the interior, its functionality, that big screen across the dash,

like everything in it is, and there's trim models that get you up into that really nice high-end

version to compete with Cadillac, if that's what you're looking for. It can get to be pretty

expensive at that point. But Expedition has given Lincoln a run for its money.

That's right. And I think we talked about Hyundai having a problem with Genesis, or Genesis having

problem with Hyundai. I think that's also true of Lincoln and Ford, because particularly if you go

for a higher trim version, then the Expedition's got such a nice interior. And a lot of the

underpinnings are the same as well. So, you know, the Lincoln might have it. What's the,

what's that sort of cabin effect it's called, you know, where it turns it into a forest or

something? I'm not sure I'd ever use it. They're kind of clutching it straws a little bit.

It has like, yeah, like this spa mode or something. I'm not quite sure what it is,

but it kind of leans you back into a chair and it turns the seat massages on and plays some

spa music and lighting and all kinds of stuff. It's kind of interesting, but it's kind of fun.

It's a neat little thing. I tried it out when I was up at Monterey Car Week, and Adam ruined it for

me, Karola. He went, I went out to the parking lot. We were at a Lincoln event. I went to the

parking lot like, you got to try this mode and I was doing it. And then he was just like coming

back across the parking lot. I don't know, maybe went to the restroom or something. And he just

sees me in the truck and he just like opens the door. He's like, what are you doing in there?

And they're like, you ruined the whole spa mode. Thanks.

Your moments are a bit of a sandwich at car week. Yeah. So then I got kicked out and then he got

in it and I was just like, all right, fine, you do it. All right. So we're going to get into cars

as well, but let's take a quick break and then we'll get into those and the big overall winner.

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Okay, here we are down to the Edmunds top rated two more categories and the overall winner.

And now we're looking at top rated electric car.

Yes, I'm going to bring it up. Perhaps no, no great surprise here, but it has again,

another car that's been gradually improved over time. Tesla Model 3, you can say it's a few years

old now, but it had a really good midlife refresh. And then last year they brought in the standard

model, which reduced the entry level price point without really compromising too much.

It's still, you know, it's still the default electric car. It's, it's sensible value. It's

got great technology. It drives well. It's got probably enough space for, for most people,

obviously, so to stand, not an SUV, but it's, you know, it's, it's proof that you,

it's a clean EV market, it pays just to kind of take a fundamentally sound product and then

just chip away as it deficiencies. And, you know, some of the early criticism against

things like build quality and cabin noise, they've got improved both of those.

The material choice is better than it was. It's just a good all-round vehicle.

And price, like when it, when it was announced years ago, they had an entry level price that

was pretty affordable. And then the reality was as it came out, it was a bit more expensive. But now,

coming out with the Model 3 standard, that version, that trim model, it,

it is the most affordable version of this car they've had yet, right?

If you allow for inflation, yeah. I mean, there was a $35,000 version at one point,

but that was kind of a bit like in an outburger. It was sort of off menu.

But yeah, I mean, all of them now, I mean, we did the range test, 338 miles on the, on the standard

version. As you know, we've owned a dual motor version. We've owned the performance. The

performance is an absolute bargain for, you know, what it, what kind of outfit offers you for. I

mean, it's basically 9-11 GT3 quick in a straight line for a fraction of the cost or what are,

these days is probably a quarter of the cost of a 9-11 GT3. So, you know, whichever one you choose,

I mean, we think the standard version is more than enough for most people. And it doesn't feel,

the model Y standard feels like, which I think they've just renamed if our memory serves,

but the entry-level model Y feels like a cut price alternative. The entry-level model 3

absolutely doesn't. So, you know, yes, it's been around a while, but I think it's still

the default electric car and still the best kind of all-rounder for the money.

On this latest revision of the car, did they make some adjustments to the suspension?

Just here in where we are in Los Angeles, there are so many Uber drivers that have the model 3

and just being in the back of that car, it's a little, it's a little stiff. It's a little rough.

It is. I mean, the model Y was always worse than the model 3 because they had to control for the

higher body. But you're right. They all, Tesla's always gone for this kind of sporty dynamic.

They want very aggressive steering response. And in order to do that, they tend to stiffen it up

so you don't get much body roll. You've got pretty, you've got a pretty stiff spring. So,

as you, as you turn, you get that kind of very nice, crisp response and it feels like a sports sedan.

The trade-off is, you know, once you got past the early adopters, the people buying them just

wanted, like me, they just wanted a comfortable family car. And then everybody's complaining

it's a bit too stiff. So, I think they've got better over time. They've got more sophisticated

in the kind of damping that they use as well. So just better at building a compromise between

how the car drives and how the car rides. So it's a good all-round car. Even in some areas

of the country, they're pretty ubiquitous. And then the highly rated ones. Audi A6, Sportback.

It's kind of crept up on us a little bit because, you know, the recent Audi's haven't been all that

great. And the first time I got in there, I thought this interior quality is not quite

necessarily what I expected from Audi's of the past. But it drives really well. It's got a really

good range, 392 miles on our EV range test. So there's lots of things in its favor. It's

big and spacious. It's comfortable. It's like a proper old school, you know, executive sedan in many

ways. But, you know, I think the next generation of Audi's, I think the quality will pick up a

little bit as good as it is. And, you know, it's an intriguing pick if you want to kind of executive

express. And that's a good range. I'm not sure where Audi advertised it at with sort of range

that they were promoting. But 392 is now we're getting to do some pretty impressive range.

Absolutely. And I think that's a big part of why it made our cut. It's nice to drive. It's very refined,

big range. It does a lot of EV things really well. And then the other one is another old favorite,

which is BMW's i5. Obviously a rival to the i6. The i5 is the sedan. The a6 is effectively a

hatchback. So, you know, you can take your pick in versatility. i5, we ran one for a year. Super

comfortable, very capable. You know, it's a BMW 5 Series in electric form. It's, you know,

if that's your everyday car, it's just a nice way to travel. The i5 is one in particular that you've

been speaking highly about for a while. It is. And it's another one of those where maybe people

don't think about too much. I mean, the i4 is obviously cheaper. But the i5 is kind of where

they just did a nice sweet spot. I mean, obviously the BMW 5 Series has been around forever.

And the electric version just works really well. Yeah.

Fantastic seats too. We always talk about Volvo having the best seats, but BMW has these kind

of like memory foam seats. They're so comfortable. All right, getting into gas engine car. This is

the last of our six categories. And the winner here. Again, last year's best of the best, Honda

Civic Hybrid. Yeah. We've talked about this on the show quite a bit because I know you borrowed

one over Christmas during the holiday season. Yeah, I did. I had the Hyundai Palisade and then

this car and I was like, look at the hybrid SUV from Hyundai and look at the hybrid

Civic hatchback from Honda. And both cars are super impressive.

It is. I mean, it's sort of, you know, 30 grand-ish or you can have it as a Dan or a hatchback.

Hatchback gives you a bit more versatility. It's just one of those cars that it's not,

there's not sort of one area to say that's like truly groundbreaking or it's just,

it gets the details right. It's hard to find serious fault on it. You know, the Civic's got

bigger over the years. It's almost as big as what an Accord used to be. So there's decent

space inside. The technology is good. That hybrid system works really well. It's economical. It's

faster enough. It's refined. The quality is good. There really isn't much to fault. And

it's weird. Sometimes manufacturers just kind of just get it right. And I think the Civic

Hybrid is one of those occasions where everything just comes together and you end up with what is

a really nice proposition at, you know, a price tag that's just over 30 grand.

Yeah, I agree. When I drove it, it did everything well. We did a long trip,

you know, to like Arizona and back six plus hours there and back. And it wasn't, you know,

it wasn't like overly loud with road noise. Some of you would expect on the lesser priced

vehicles doesn't have, you know, it's not, you know, Lexus quality sound deadening and stuff

like that. But it still just did everything right. It was comfortable. It had plenty of power. We

got decent gas mileage, even at highway speeds. And yeah, I just don't think you can go wrong with

with a car like this. I mean, honestly, it is kind of, you know, it might not have the,

might not look sort of futuristic, you know, but it has, it's hard to look at it and say,

I need more car than this. It's a great all rounder really is.

And then the highly recommended Toyota Camry, right? And we talked about this before. We like

Camry. We like Civic, but we don't talk a lot about Accord and Corolla like the different

sizes of cars, right? We've got, we like little Honda and mid Toyota, but less, I mean, not that

they're bad cars. They're still good cars, but little Toyota Corolla and bigger Honda Accord

just didn't quite make it into this conversation. Yeah. The Camry is just another one of those cars

that, you know, it's not a sexy choice if you like, but for American families, it's big, it's

spacious, it's hybrid only, it's economical, it's pretty cheap to buy, it's got plenty of tech.

It's just a good family car. And, you know, for the majority of people, you know, everybody

talks about SUVs, everybody wants SUVs, but really a Camry kind of meets the needs of almost

everyone. And if you like the Civic, but want a bit more space for what is actually not a lot

more money than the Camry is a great alternative. And then the other one is from the luxury market,

the E-Class is another one of those that slightly slips under the radar. You know, again, we talked

about me driving the wagon a few weeks ago. Just it is Mercedes Heartland, isn't it? The E-Class is

what you think of when you think of Mercedes. And they've just done a really nice job, super

comfortable, super refined, good space, great lineup, just a really nice way to travel.

Yeah, I like it as well. And you can get it in the hot hatch, right? The wagon.

You can get it, you can get an AMG wagon. In fact, we just tested one. If you go to

Edmunds.com slash news, there's a bit of a report on it.

So that's the six categories overall. Like, is there, I mean,

other than we're going to get to the best of the best, but is there anything separately for you

that kind of stood out? I know you've been impressed with, I mean, certainly with all of them, but

some of them were, you know, when we talk about electric truck, there's not a lot in that category.

So we're kind of limited on what to do. But there are some big categories when you're looking at,

you know, SUV, that's such a massive category, gas engine, SUV, that's very, very competitive.

Again, because you're not picking cars that just came out or trucks that came out this year,

you're picking out everything that's for sale. Is there anything else out there that you think

was close to making the list? I mean, we look at everything in the market. And the starting

point is, you know, we have all these rankings on the site. So if you want to look for an

luxury SUV or something like that. So that's the starting point is like what's leading in each

segment. And then you can, because I mean, we test 300 cars a year, thereabouts. So basically,

you've got to start narrowing it down. So, okay, what's leading in its segment when we're doing

the judging? And then what are the standout vehicles within that subset of leaders? So you're

sort of starting with the vehicles that we think are all great. And then how do you, you know,

how do you break it down? And what are the really outstanding choices? And that's why you arrive

at 17 finalists, which are basically segment leaders in their own right. So luxury SUV,

compact SUV, et cetera. Then from there, you sort of distill it into the ones that we think

are really, are really important. Of course, we, you know, we take into account,

you know, what people are shopping for. I mean, you know, we're unlikely given award to a,

you know, McLaren with the best will in the world, because, you know, it's such a niche player.

So we want to do an awards, which, you know, I said, it's a short list of the best cars on sale.

So we do like to think that these cars, you know, reflect the market and particularly at the moment

reflecting affordability, because, you know, cars have got more and more expensive. And,

you know, I think it's great that so many of these are on the more affordable side of things.

Yeah. Okay, let's take a look at the overall winner.

Yeah, let's get some special gold aesthetic treatment. Yeah, Palisade Hybrid, Hyundai Palisade

Hybrid. It wasn't a tough decision in the end. Sometimes we really agonize over it,

but we just felt this was the real standout this year. Again, it's one of those vehicles,

a bit like the Civic was last year, where you look at and say, like, where are the real fault

lines? And it's hard to, it's hard to find too many. The interior is terrific. The hybrid system's

great. It's got plenty of punch, pretty economical. Lots of space, three row, of course.

You know, for what an American family typically needs, this is just a great, great, great car.

And, you know, at a, you know, it's sensible, you know, not cheap, but a value proposition.

And you look at that interior and honestly, you know, if you did a blindfold test, you wouldn't,

you wouldn't think that's from a Hyundai. You'd think it from a luxury brand.

Yeah, I, I agree. And the photos of it look fantastic, mostly because of this sort of

white, very, very light gray kind of interior. Maybe not the color I would pick.

Maybe not for the dogs. Yeah. Maybe not for the dogs or kids or whatever in the white steering

wheel and the, you know, fingerprints and all that stuff. But it looks great here. By the way,

we saw the same thing when we were looking at the photos of the, of the Model 3. It was just like

Model 3 with all white interior. It's like, it's perfect if your, your dogs wear shoes all the time,

maybe. Or it's a pocket dog. It looks good in a photographic studio. In fact, this looks very

regal, this kind of dark, you know, the dark blue. If you'll notice all our winners, we requested

initiative blue, which is actually harder to achieve than you might think these days when every car

is silver or gray. Yeah. But we want to go for kind of a commonality of theme. And yeah, it's,

it's an awful lot of car and awful lot of quality for what is a relatively affordable price, would

certainly call it a good value. I think, I think it's a smart choice. I think you guys are totally

right. I think you guys nailed the whole list. And I think that the Palisade hybrid, when I drove it,

even, even the calligraphy version, the top of the line version at $60,000, you're in it and you're

like, this feels every bit as nice as any, you know, any luxury brand out there. And, and that's

if you want to spend that much money, which is less than a lot of the others. Like you said,

you can get into this thing for $45,000, $46,000 and have essentially almost all of the features

that are in the top model and get yourself a really, really nice free road. There was a period

that we own a BMW X3 as part of the one year ownership fleet. And I jumped out of a Palisade

into the X3, which actually were similar cost, actually a similar purchase price. And then,

you know, there were definitely areas of the Palisade in terms of the interior quality and

the choice of plastics where you think the Hyundai is actually nicer than the BMW.

You know, so they've come on so far. I mean, I've been doing this game, been in this game for what,

remember driving, driving Hyundai's at the very beginning in my career, like the S-Coupe or the

S-Coupe. And, you know, and they were, they were quite eccentric and the quality, the quality of

the plastics wasn't great. And they didn't drive that well. And you think how far that brand, you

know, from here and then laterally, Genesis have come, you know, right now they're the brand to

beat Hyundai and Kia have been, you know, hoovering up these awards in recent times. So

yeah, it's, you know, the two big winners this year are Hyundai and Ford, Ford on the truck

front and then Hyundai in the SUVs and hybrids. So yeah, really interesting how it plays out.

Yeah, it's a great list. I know you guys got a lot into this as well. There's videos for everything

up there that we went through all of the contenders. You can go and check that out at the

Edmunds YouTube channel. And if you just go to edmunds.com slash top rated,

you'll get access to all of these things. And it's all in one nice place.

It's, there is no better use of your time.

Put the TV on for the kids, sit down and relax.

Relax. I mean, listen, like you said, it's more about being a proper shopping guide,

not just rating vehicles, you know, it's about taking that into account vehicles that you would

want to buy. So when you evaluate and you go, what is a good SUV? And, you know, if you want an SUV,

chances are you want it because you have, you know, you have a family and how is that going to

work? And it's functionality or gas mileage or price and just all of those things taken to an

account. You know, a fantastic list. It's great. You guys did a great job. Oh, thank you, sir.

You said the nicest things. You got so many blue cars. So many blue cars. So many blue cars.

I just need some sleep now. But in the end, it all looks fantastic, right? Like,

when you see it all up on this, on the screen, because you guys are putting so much content

together and shooting so much stuff. And I should say like from a, you know, I know we

had a like plug up, plug ourselves, but from a team perspective, you know, like so proud of

like the whole business. And, you know, the content team as well. I mean, we produced,

I think in a week, like over 130 different pieces of content. And we shot all that over five days.

And it's really an in-house team predominantly that does it all. So, you know, there is a huge

amount of work. And I think sometimes people behind the scenes don't see that. I mean, on YouTube,

I'll just be going complaining about the choices. But yeah, it's a big effort. You always feel like

a sense of relief when the, you know, when it launches, but hopefully we'll get some good

results and people value it. So I'm glad we've been able to do a special show. I mean, you know,

if you're tuning in for Bill Goldberg, well, I'm sorry, but... Sorry. We'll be back next week.

All right, guys. Thanks so much. I think it's fantastic. I know you've got wheels up soon.

So we're going to, we're going to wrap things up again. Check it out. Edmunds.com slash top

rated. Get the whole thing up there or just hop onto the YouTube channel, the Edmunds YouTube

channel as well. You can get the full summary there. Yeah. Until next time, keep the air and

the spare and the bag and the wheel. If you liked the show, please take a moment to rate,

review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

CarCast+Edmunds - Edmunds Top Rated Award Winners for 2026

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Hyundai Sportage Hybrid

Lincoln Expedition

Genesis

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