The Toyota Camry is a popular car that many families choose because it is reliable and has plenty of space. It's known for being a good value and is often updated with new features.
The Ford F-150 is a popular pickup truck that many people use for work and everyday tasks. It's known for being strong and reliable, and you can choose different styles and features to fit your needs.
MPG means how many miles a car can drive using one gallon of gas. The higher the number, the better the car is at saving fuel, which helps you save money.
A hybrid car uses both gas and electricity to run. This helps it use less fuel and is better for the environment compared to regular cars that only use gas.
The Honda Civic Hybrid is a car that uses both gas and electricity to run, which helps it save on fuel. The 2025 version has new technology and is designed to be fun to drive while being good for the environment.
The Honda CR-V is a compact SUV that's great for families because it has a lot of space and is easy to drive. It's also known for being reliable and saving on gas, which makes it a smart choice for many people.
An EV, or electric vehicle, is a car that runs only on electricity and doesn't use gas at all. They are better for the environment and can save money on fuel costs.
The Tesla Model 3 is an electric car that is known for being affordable compared to other electric vehicles. It has a simple design and offers features like self-driving capabilities.
The Hyundai Ioniq 6 is a new electric car that looks modern and is designed to be very efficient. It's part of Hyundai's efforts to create more electric vehicles.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is a new electric SUV that looks really modern and has a lot of cool technology. It's roomy inside and can go a long distance on a single charge, which is great for electric car buyers.
Tesla superchargers are special charging stations that can quickly recharge Tesla cars. They make it easier for Tesla owners to travel long distances without worrying about running out of battery.
The BMW i5 is an electric car that is part of BMW's 5 Series, which is known for being a luxury sedan. This model is designed to be eco-friendly while still providing a high-quality driving experience.
The BMW 5 Series is a popular luxury car that is known for being comfortable and fun to drive. It has been around for a long time and is well-liked by many people.
The Mercedes-Benz EQE is a fancy electric car that offers a smooth and powerful ride. It's designed to be very comfortable and comes with a lot of high-tech features, making it a luxury choice for electric vehicle buyers.
The Kia Sportage is a compact SUV that's stylish and comfortable, making it a good choice for families. It has many safety features and has been updated recently to include more technology.
A 10-speed automatic transmission is a type of gearbox that can change gears automatically and has ten different speeds for better driving performance.
The Toyota Land Cruiser is a big, tough SUV that can handle rough roads and off-road adventures. It's also comfortable and has a lot of nice features, which is why many people love it for both trips and daily driving.
A turbo V6 is a type of engine that has six cylinders and uses a turbocharger to make it more powerful. This helps the engine use less fuel while still providing good performance.
EV range is how far an electric car can go before it needs to be recharged. The longer the range, the better it is for driving without worrying about running out of battery.
The Porsche 356 is an old sports car that helped make Porsche famous. It's loved for its stylish look and fun driving experience, making it a classic favorite among car enthusiasts.
A plastic steering wheel is made from plastic instead of more expensive materials like leather. It can feel less comfortable and less luxurious to touch, which some drivers might not like.
The Chevrolet Blazer is a midsize SUV that looks sporty and is good for everyday use. Some people like it a lot, while others think it could be better, but it's still a popular choice.
The Chevrolet Equinox is a compact SUV that's good for families because it has a lot of room and is comfortable to drive. It also comes with many safety features, making it a smart choice for everyday use.
The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a new electric minivan that looks like the old VW Microbus but has modern features. It's designed to be roomy and great for families who want an electric vehicle.
The Chrysler 200 is a midsize car that was made for a few years and is known for looking nice and being comfortable. However, it didn't always perform well, which is why it's not made anymore.
Car
Hyundai EV9
The Hyundai EV9 is a luxury electric SUV from Hyundai. It's designed to be spacious and packed with technology, making it a great choice for families or anyone looking for an electric vehicle.
The Hyundai Ioniq 9 is a new electric car from Hyundai. It's designed to be stylish and high-tech, making it a good choice for people who want to drive an electric vehicle.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a smaller truck that is good for people who want the benefits of a truck but don't need something as big as a full-size one. It's designed to be easy to drive and useful for various activities.
The Ford Maverick is a small pickup truck that's budget-friendly and even comes in a version that saves gas. It's perfect for people who want the benefits of a truck without spending too much.
The Toyota Tacoma is a smaller truck that many people trust because it's tough and can handle rough conditions. It's often used by workers who need a reliable vehicle.
The Ford Ranger is a smaller pickup truck that's great for both work and fun activities. It's known for being strong and efficient, and it has modern features that make it easy to use.
Electric trucks run on electricity instead of gas, which can help save money on fuel and reduce pollution. They are becoming more common as more people want eco-friendly options.
The Chevrolet Silverado EV is an electric version of a well-known pickup truck. It offers the same utility as the regular Silverado but runs on electricity, which can save money on fuel and is better for the environment.
The Rivian R1T is a new electric pickup truck that's designed for adventure and can handle off-road driving. It's part of a new wave of electric vehicles that are changing how we think about trucks.
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From all of us at Believe, have a Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy Holiday!
Hello, we'll be the carcass on that day. As we wrap up the year, I thought it would be interesting to go back and take a look at the Edmunds Top Rated Award winners from 2025.
I know Alistair and his team have been working hard on getting the New Year's winners list done, but the best of last year are still great today. So let's throw it back to January of 2025.
Beginning of the year, Edmunds Top Rated comes out. This is all kind of exciting for the manufacturers and for people that are shopping for cars. And for you guys, it's just like a wipe of the brow going,
Thank God this is over. I've been working on this for four or five months. And after today, maybe you get like, does your editorial team get like a day off at least?
Don't put ideas in the head. Yeah, it's all of the above really. We start these projects back last summer because you have to...
I mean, we test everything, but then there's also certain vehicles that you need to get in for testing for the awards. And if you think about it, we launched the awards today in January 25, but we actually test and have to create the content at the end of last year.
So, excuse me, there's always a bunch of vehicles that come out around November time that we're kind of like, you know, scraping to get into the awards, but we think are really critical.
So, you've got all that sort of pressure you're working with manufacturers. We need this vehicle. We need it now. We need it at the test track. Every vehicle that gets considered has to be through the test track.
We have to do all that data. Then we shoot it in sort of end of November beginning of December this year. Then, of course, you've got to put it all together.
There's literally hundreds of different pieces of content, huge organization across Edmunds, all the different teams involved. And then it all goes live at six o'clock this morning.
So, I've been up since five, you know, doing a bit of like QA, quality assurance on some of it. You know, there's always a few little niggles that go, you know, a few little things, the old backslash that's not in the right place or whatever.
You know, stuff that people never see, but you just internally.
Mostly on the tech side, right? Like there's always, you know, something like, you know, a newsletter flaw or a little thing on the website. And a lot of it goes kind of unnoticed to most people.
But yeah, for the team working on it per month on end, it can get frustrating.
To be honest, it's been an awesome team effort. Like every year we try and raise the bar a little bit creatively. We try and raise the bar in terms of like what exposure we get for it. How do we do?
And we're doing some influencer stuff this year. It's like, so every year you just try and put in shit forward a little bit. I think this year, I don't know, I'm biased, but I think this year is our best, best creative.
You know, it's a fun thing to do. You know, it's the end of the year you get to shoot, you get the whole team together. We're shooting down at a studio in Long Beach.
You got all like the fancy lights. You feel a bit, you know, I think like Paris Hilton had done something like the previous week or something.
I don't know. You always feel a little bit, you know, you feel a little bit Hollywood for once. It's good.
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so all of the information is on the Edmunds website. If you go there, you'll find it. But Edmunds.com slash top rated.
But let's go ahead and run through some of the stuff. We've got some some the main categories we have for top rated are car, electric car, SUV, electric SUV, truck and electric truck.
And of those six categories, then we have the best of the best overall, the one that takes the cake for everything. So why don't why don't we take a look at car just let's let's mention the
the runners up here and
Yeah, maybe not before we should just talk at the top of like the philosophy behind this. So you get a lot of awards things like you think about the Oscars where it's like the best movies that have come out this year.
Yeah, what we're trying to do is say, actually, this is not the best cars that came out this year. This is just the best cars you can buy in 2025.
So from a kind of shop, that's a big distinction that sometimes is a little bit lost. And, you know, for a consumer, it's like you want to shortcut the best vehicles on sale. This is it.
Because the problem with doing like, hey, it's the best car that came out this year is, you know, you end up awarding something that actually, you know, you don't think is the best in class.
I remember so going off on one here, but I remember like 20 years ago, it's an award ceremony in London and we were invited by particularly manufacturing. We're all stood around it like having a gin and tonic at the beginning of the evening.
And I wonder what once because all this, no, there's no. And then like at the end of the evening, we realized that manufacturing one and nobody in the group had even said, Oh, you guys might have won.
I thought it was really mediocre. The reality was, it was like the vaguely most interesting car that happened to come out that year. It was just a bad year. So we're still really thinking, Oh, I wonder if like Land Rover won this year.
I wonder if that one, I know you guys did. That's why we, that's why there's like 20 of us in all the champagne. So anyway, a long winded way of saying it's not that this is this is just the best cars on sale.
So I'll shut up and carry on with car.
Okay, let's, let's talk about cars. So I'm going to, I'm going to show you guys this as we're, as we're doing it. So as we get into it, some of the top contenders we have.
So the highly recommended stuff is, you know, we take everything on the market and then start to distill it down. And because we only have one car award, obviously we're looking across all different segments.
So the idea of the highly recommended is to recognize really good cars that are in slightly different segments, but maybe not winning the overall award.
So Mercedes E-Class Toyota Camry, both stand out, obviously E-Class more in the luxury class, you know, it's, it's an E-Class. There's nothing that kind of, you know, it looks quite conservative, but really nice interior.
Just, you know, if you were driving on these every day, you would love it. It's not like, you don't get up in the morning, oh my God, I'm incredible. I've got an E-Class, but it's just, it's just such a great all round product.
Just a really nice way to travel. So E-Class and then Camry, you know, everybody talks about SUVs, Toyota Shields shifting 300,000 of these a year at least, hybrid only now.
They've just done a great job of updating it, really spacious, really good value, interior is miles better, looks better as well. It's just a really good all rounder.
You know, it's not the coolest thing in the world, but it's just, you know, you understand why so many families across America rely on them.
I mean, you, as you were saying, I mean, the SUVs are so popular out here in this country that they, they often take the top sales numbers, but, you know, for a car these days to sell over 300,000 units, that's, that's, that allows Toyota to invest a significant amount of time and money into making sure
that Camry is successful year after year. And not a lot of car companies have that luxury of going, we have the budget to, you know, when somebody goes, hey, Ford F-150, we have a billion dollar budget to make the Ford F-150, the next version of the Ford F-150.
It's like, yeah, because you sell 800, 900,000 of them a year. So you have a huge budget. And for something like Camry, they still have a significant budget and it makes sense for them to invest to make this, make sure this car is, is good year after year.
So it's a tough contender. It's tough to beat this car.
It is. And, you know, in our testing, front wheel drive version 45.9 MPG, and that's like in the real, in the real world on our test cycle. So that's, you know, for something as big and as spacious and as comfortable as that, that's really impressive.
So, you know, right now, you know, we're all feeling the pinch, right? Interest rates are high, cost of living has gone up, you know, none of this is new, vehicles are still, still really expensive.
So when you look at our winners, we tried to take that into account. And the Camry starts, you know, in the, in the, in the thirties, you know, we are our overall winner, which we can turn on to now starts at 30 grand for a hybrid version.
So it's, you know, we try to think about that affordability as well. And the Camry is just a lot of car for the money.
Yeah, but it didn't win.
But it didn't win.
And the winner is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid.
I could do that with a bit more fanfare. But yeah, it's, um, it's the Honda Civic Hybrid.
I was trying to do it. She'd hear my voice over by the time it'd been through the old compressions. But it's, um, it's just a great car. You know, there were moments where for whatever reason, the manufacturer just absolutely hits the sweet spot.
Yeah.
And this is one of those moments. So there's just every little detail of it is just so well executed. I mean, the Civic's got bigger. I mean, it's more like what the Accord used to be.
So there's the space inside. The tech's fantastic. Use a lot of Google tech now. So the tech's great. Then the hybrid system really elevates it.
It's fast. I mean, it's like Si fast. So you've got something that's actually quite sporty in terms of performance, but he's also, you know, returning fantastic economy.
And it's, it's, it's 30 grand. You know, you can have a, you can have one on the road for like 30,100 higher spec versions are going to be under, under 35.
So it's just a, it's just a really good all round car. And I think it's nice that we're taking decision this year to, you know, you don't have to always award something that looks some, you know, that has like some kind of, you know, ridiculous
styling or whatever. This is just a brilliant all round car. And everybody you drove it went, this is really good.
Okay. So, you know, Honda Civic is a big seller as well. I'm not quite sure if the numbers are there with Camry, but I would imagine they're, they're pretty close.
Those two cars are sort of the bread and butter cars right now for both of those companies. So I would imagine that the Civic would have been on that list.
Yeah, it doesn't sell as many as like the CRV, but it's just, you know, it's just a great all, a great all rounder. And the hybrid particularly just elevates its worth spending that, that little bit more.
You know, it's kind of interesting this year that of our three, because we do three gas, three EV and then the best, the best of the gas cars, two of the three are hybrid now.
And we took the decision that we should include hybrid in the gas, gas category because like the Camry is only a hybrid.
And, but you know, it just, I think that stigma or that associations gone, it's just a more efficient way of traveling.
You know, and I think the sales numbers will determine whether or not Honda even sticks with a gas engine and hybrid, maybe they just end up hybrid as well.
If that just ends up being the one that people buy and the numbers are leaning that way.
And as they get the price of those cars so much closer together, hybrid may be the only option.
Yeah.
All right, so let's jump to the next category to electric car.
So electric car, we were waiting to see whether, whether we get a retweet from the, from the Oval Office.
We did get a, because the Tesla Model 3 has won that award.
We should start the hall of okay, let's start the winner, we can work backwards, but the, yeah, Tesla Model 3 big update.
You know, it might look pretty similar.
It's a heavy facelift, but the changes they've made have really just addressed a lot of the concerns.
So the quality is the best we've experienced in a Tesla is good, both in terms of like the material choice, but also the build quality, the efficiencies gone up, the ride quality, which is always a bit of a challenge with the Model 3.
That's much better.
And it's, you know, the prices, particularly if you lease it are actually really, really, you know, say affordable, it's still reasonably expensive, but it's just a, it's compared to other EVs.
It's just a fantastic all round package, sensible pricing, just a really good product.
This is another vehicle where, because it's such a big seller that now Tesla is able to not just invest more into this car, but get enough feedback from owners because there's so many now to say what do we need to do to fix this car, revise this car to make it better, to make it more comfortable, better range, like all of the things that you're looking for.
That's right. And I think particularly on the, you know, on the build quality stuff, you know, when you're building hundreds of thousands of units a year, you know, you can, you can sort of finesse the details, you've got buying power, you know, there's just a lot of things that it gives you power to do.
And, you know, we like the long range, the dual motor long range, but also the performance, the performance as we've talked about on the show, if you, you know, it's supercar fast for, you know, for 60, 70 grand.
So, you know, it's not the sensible one to buy and it's also significantly more expensive to lease than the normal ones, but like a Model 3 long range is just a great electric car.
You guys bought both of them, didn't you?
We bought both of them. Yeah. Just because we thought there was enough difference to make it interesting.
No, it's the facelift, if you want to call it that, is kind of more than the sum of it parts. And it bodes well for the Model Y, which is about to have an update too.
Yeah. Okay. And then the highly recommended cars that run us up here.
Yeah. So Ionic 6, the Hyundai. This is super polarizing because it has that sort of streamliner, almost like 1930s streamliner aesthetic.
I just keep saying it's the sad face car. Like when you look at it from the side, it's just frowning, the profile of that car.
I love it. And I wanted to get one as the family car. My wife took one, look at it and was like, that ain't happening.
No. But it's just the most efficient cars we've ever tested. It charges the fastest. It's got great charging technology and it's super, super efficient.
It's very spacious, particularly in the back. Challenges, I think the looks are polarizing and they are struggling to sell them because people tend to look to the Ionic 5, which is the SUV.
But if you want something different, really spacious, really good to drive, tons of range, super efficient, charges really fast.
You know, great lease deals at the moment. Ionic 6 is as well. It's nice to stand out. It's nice to have something a bit different.
And I'm looking at your notes on it. 342 miles of range is what you guys got out of it.
Yeah. And it recharges really fast. So starting this year, you're also going to use the Tesla superchargers. That's going to help.
I just love the fact that Hyundai is doing all this different stuff and had the guts to build.
And I hope the fact that it's not selling that fast in America. I hope it doesn't put them off being bold in the future. We'll see.
So the other one is the BMW i5. And this is a car that you've spoken highly of over the past year. This isn't particularly new.
Maybe there's some changes for 2025. But in the luxury market, you've been a fan of this car.
Yeah, we run one as part of our long term, you know, Tesla by year test program.
It's almost like the inverse of the Hyundai in that the i5 is like, what we're going to do is give you a five series and it's going to be electric.
So it's not, the BMW had this idea, which now lots of others seem to be copying, which is, although we're going to do the ix as a standalone electric car,
let's just take the five series off a gas, off a hybrid, off for electric.
And a lot of engineers are that's compromised, but actually they've executed it so well that it's just a really nice.
It's a really nice thing. We talked about the E class in the in the car category.
You know, the i5 is much better than the EQE. Just a really nice thing.
It's just fast. It's comfortable, spacious, decent range, not amazing, but decent range. So yeah, it's a good thing.
Okay, let's jump to the SUV category.
This is an interesting category because it is so competitive, separate from the electric SUV category.
This is the overall SUV category.
This is the i's category. Yeah.
Yeah. This is probably the one with the gets the most attention, right?
So it does.
We look at the data is this and it's this basically that gets the gets the most attention because it's, you know, it's the category that people buy most of.
And this year, we should we should we start with the should we start with the highly recommended?
Yeah.
So Hyundai Tucson hybrid, the Sportage hybrid won won this award last year.
Obviously Tucson is its sister car, but had an update this year.
It's just a really well executed family SUV compact, small SUV, whatever you want to call it.
Honda CRV rival doesn't sell as many as that or the RAV4,
but he's arguably a better, better product overall.
And then hybrid form.
We're not a massive fan of it in standard form because the powertrains aren't amazing.
But if you go into the hybrids, yeah, really, really good.
So again, another hybrid winner.
And then more luxurious, more money, Lexus GX.
It's got that sort of judge dread styling going on.
But it's distinctive, obviously sits alongside the Land Cruiser as the as a sort of sister car.
But we're big fans of the Lexus, a little bit more luxury, you know, different, different powertrain,
3.4 liter turbocharged V6, 10 speed auto.
It's just if you know, if you want something that's a great kind of, you know, does a bit of off-roading, great on-road.
You know, if you live in, if you live in the snow belt or something like this, this would be an awesome choice.
Is this still built on like the truck platform or are they switched to a standalone thing?
This is this is this is standalone. So it's like the Land Cruiser.
And then you'll have then obviously you've got forerunner, which will be on the Tacoma platform.
So they've separated out a little bit.
Yeah, I think they nailed it on the design.
I think it's kind of cool.
And, you know, a Lexus, right?
I mean, what Lexus has always been able to do with their build quality and reliability.
This seems like a no-brainer for getting it on the list.
Yeah, I think that's right. I think you have, you know, you if you're going to do the Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser has got that kind of retro vibe going on.
Yeah.
And then the the GX is much more kind of futuristic and brutalist and you can call it.
So we're actually buying one. We're about to buy one for our test fleet to live with one for a while.
I'm quite excited. I think it's going to be a great.
I think, you know, when you get to vacation time, if it's family road trip time, I think that's going to be a popular choice.
Yeah. And then they've gone to the six cylinder, but the turbo six cylinder mated with their 10 speed transmission.
I would imagine it's going to be pretty much on par with whatever the V8, the outgoing V8 was.
That's right. But more efficient. And, you know, they've managed to set, they basically separated out the Land Cruiser and the Lexus in terms of powertrains.
And yeah, you are, you know, you are effectively getting V8 performance with more efficiency, which, you know, we all miss the V8s.
But frankly, in any vehicle like this, it probably makes a lot more sense to have a turbo V6.
You know, I drove the previous gen version.
I did a trip in it to like Arizona, then up in the mountains and then back to Vegas and then back to LA and as nice as it was.
Yeah, we're definitely stopping for gas on that V8 version.
All right. So the winner overall, here we go.
The winner is the 2025 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid.
Another hybrid.
Another Toyota.
Another Toyota.
It's just, you know, this is not massively groundbreaking.
It's not like massively sort of polarizing or anything else.
It is just a really, really well executed family three row at a, you know, at a very sensible price.
It's just what Toyota does well.
And Toyota's refreshed nearly their whole range in the last year and they're really on a roll at the moment.
Grand Highlander selling really well.
Big, comfortable, you know, starts at, you know, not much over 45 grand.
It's just, it's just a really well executed family car.
You know, it's one of those, because it's a bit like the Civic Hybrid in a way that, you know, they just, it's hard to pick fault in it.
It does everything really well.
And to your point, I think they've got a, you know, they're going to sell a ton of them.
They've got good R&D budget behind it.
They've just honed every detail.
And, you know, I remember driving it in Hawaii of all places the first time I drove it and just thinking this is, this is just really good.
And then, you know, we've had it back in, back in LA for proper testing and just a great all rounder.
Okay.
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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We'll jump to the next category, electric SUV.
Now we're getting to the point where this category is starting to grow, right?
Electric trucks, electric SUVs.
So this is kind of interesting what falls into this category.
Here we go. We've got the top rated. These are your two runners up.
Yeah, so Equinox EV, Volkswagen ID buzz.
So Equinox EV was this was one of those where like, you know, you want to recommend cars that are, you know, affordable.
We can all say all right, you should buy a Pagani. Great.
But, you know, the Equinox EV camera is like 35 grand for an EV with a, you know, a ton of range.
We did 350 miles on the Edmunds EV range test, which is fantastic.
You know, 356 miles, you know, at an affordable price.
It's as big as a blazer. It's got space.
It's, you know, it's there's a lot of tech.
There's a lot. There's a lot of things to like about it.
The driving experience isn't great.
And also there's a few little details like that just sort of slightly great on you.
Like it's got a plastic steering wheel, you know, little bits of cost cutting.
You're like, why have you put a plastic steering wheel?
That's the bit that you touch all day.
Yeah.
And you've kind of cost cut in those areas.
There's a few irritations.
The biggest it was close to winning.
And the reason it didn't in the end is because when you actually looked at most people are leasing these vehicles.
When you look to the lease rates, the reality is you can have something like Ionic five for about the same money on a lease.
Even if it's even if the MSRP starts higher, you got to think about how people are buying them.
And when we got when we started to look at that data, it was like equinox is good.
But if you know, it's it's just if you're going to buy, if you're going to be able to lease that Ionic five for the same money,
you're going to take the Hyundai, even if the starting MSRP is higher.
So it's good.
And it will just be interesting to see how all the prices level out over the next year, particularly if they take away the tax credit,
which is going to shake up the market or perhaps when they take away the tax credit, how that how that shakes up the market.
So equinox might yet have its moment in the sun.
But, you know, the blazer was a bit of a disappointment.
You know, we had all sorts of problems with it, but also, you know, it was very expensive for what it was equinox is much more convincing.
So well done.
Well done Chevy.
And then the other one ID buzz.
Yeah.
It was like category is a go into like, you know, it's like, well, SUV is what is it?
But we got to put it somewhere.
But also, if you think about SUV, SUV is sports utility vehicle.
This is a sports utility vehicle.
Right.
So who cares?
You know, it's like it, it competes with the Kiri V9, it competes with all those guys.
It's the three row family SUV with a sliding door, as far as I'm concerned, looks cool, drives well, tons of space.
Kids loved it.
Yes.
The only thing against it is, you know, all of these that they're quite expensive.
And it's also, you know, it's a big uni.
I wish we talked about it before.
I wish they'd brought in the two row and sold it as a Model Y rival.
They haven't done that.
But I think, you know, it's, it's, it's a cool thing.
It's, I haven't driven, I barely driven a vehicle in the last year that's created more attention.
We had about the first one in the country.
I parked it outside my house.
All the neighbors are asking questions.
Like last week as of the birthday party.
Oh, was that you with the ID buzz?
We're looking at that.
Looks cool.
So, you know, I think Volkswagen's got an opportunity here.
And yeah, it's a, it's a cool thing.
The kids loved it, which, you know, has always got to account for something.
Have you done the full testing?
Do you know what kind of range?
Yeah, we did.
We, to be in the wards, we have to do the full testing.
And that's one of the things that counts actually counted against it.
I haven't got the exact figure inside me, but in front of me, but it was in, I think the 200s rather than the 300s.
So it's, it's okay, but not, not great, which perhaps.
I recall you saying when we talked about this car before.
Yeah, I can probably just look it up as we, as we talk.
But, and that's ultimately what tipped the balance in favor of our winner, which, you know, might not have the instant cool factor of the ID buzz.
But he's, but, you know, it's just a great all around ID buzz did to to 62 miles, Matt, which is, which is good, but not great.
Yeah.
And the, and the Kear EV nine is just a fantastic vehicle.
This was our best, the best last year.
Again, it's another.
So that even the new vehicles that have come out can't topple the EV nine.
The EV nine still stands out as the best electric SUV.
That's right.
It's just last year's winner.
One again over 300 miles of range.
And they care at the moment, they're just, they're smashing it.
It's just, it's, I love the way it looks.
It's very distinctive.
It fills up market.
The interior is like a luxury car.
Lots of clever tech charges really fast drives really nicely over 300 miles of range.
The MSRP is, you know, chunky starts at 56 grand goes up to nearly nearly 80 70, you know, 75 plus, but the lease deals can be competitive.
So it's, you know, even if you think, oh, that's expensive, you know, have a look at where the deals are, have a look at what the lease deals are in particular, because it's a great vehicle.
It really is.
We have all, we have one on our test fleet and I'm very fortunate position.
We get to drive all these different cars and, you know, if I, if it's, if I'm not going like crazy miles, that's our family road trip car.
It's great.
Okay.
Not surprised by that next year will be kind of interesting because if we start to get some of the things that we saw at the auto shows this year, like LA auto show and, you know, the, the, the, the Hyundai SUV, their luxury SUV, that's kind of like the EV nine.
It'll be interesting to see where this category falls next year.
Yeah.
Because the ionic nine from Hyundai is basically the EV nine in Hyundai form and looks really, looks really appealing.
I know Ford has stopped to cancel the three row EV, but you know, there's others that are going to hit the market.
So yeah, interesting, interesting times.
Okay.
To talk trucks.
Yeah.
Let's get into it.
Let's talk about the truck market.
This one is well, the top rated, the two, the runners up, this is interesting.
You have an F 150, which I'm not surprised about.
It's always seems to be at the top of the, the class, but, and then Hyundai Santa Cruz.
These are the two.
Yeah.
One sells a lot.
One doesn't sell any.
Sells any.
I mean, they're obviously different ends of the market.
But Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz had an update this year.
This obviously is a rival to the Ford Maverick as a sort of compact trucks.
So it makes me laugh.
Cause every, every time you see, you know, like a handyman or a gardener around my life, everybody's driving like age old Tacomas because they're so reliable.
And you know, just get beat them up and they keep coming back.
And in some ways, the Santa Cruz is basically the same size as a Tacoma used to be.
It's a really good truck, particularly if you don't need like massive bed, but you want a truck rather than SUV.
Good to drive, not massive inside.
But, you know, there is a place for smaller trucks and, you know, there's basically the Santa Cruz against the Maverick.
And, you know, we prefer the Santa Cruz.
It's a nice, it's a nice vehicle and it's perhaps a nice vehicle.
People who wouldn't naturally cut, you know, consider a truck.
Yeah.
Okay.
And then F 150, which has been revised for 2025.
It is.
And this was, you know, this was a tough call as to whether it would win overall.
It's been revised, sensible update.
You know, nothing, nothing truly groundbreaking, but it's just, it is America's workhorse, isn't it?
You got, you can specify pretty much whatever you want.
You know, it's good to drive, comfortable, spacious.
You can choose so many different options so you can kind of, you know, fit it to exactly what you need, work play.
It is, you know, there's a reason they sell so many of them and, you know, and across such a broad spectrum of price range as well.
So right up to, you know, right up to kind of a luxury car rival.
So it's, yeah, it's, it's still a great, great full-size truck.
And then our winner though is the 2025 Ford Ranger.
So Ford taken two of the spots.
Yeah, it did.
And if you remember last year, the Colorado, the Chevy Colorado won this award and then, but the Rangers come out this year.
And so if you look at the, the, the, the sort of mid-sized truck market, pretty much everything's been updated.
You had new Colorado, you had new Tacoma, new Ranger.
So all the big players are new.
And, you know, the Ranger in the past, you know, didn't perform terribly well in the U.S.
It was strange because you had the F-150 and the Maverick was doing okay.
And the Ranger was always like the ugly duckling, but it's really flourished now.
It's a really good vehicle, really comfortable on the road.
There's all the truck stuff.
Well, it's tight.
I mean, the Tacoma, particularly if you get it to hybrid, Tacoma is really good.
Colorado last year's winner, still really strong.
So it's not like the Ranger is kind of, you know, quantum leap forwards, but when you look at it overall, it just, just sneaks away.
Yeah, I think that's a worthy winner.
It did well there.
All right.
So let's, um, last category, electric truck.
Electric truck.
So this truck, not, not a lot of, not a lot of choices here.
Yeah, it's like, what are the, what are the, what are the choices?
I mean, obviously there are, what, what are the electric trucks out there where you've got obviously Silverado EV, Cybertruck, Hummer, F-150 Lightning, Rivian.
I missed anything.
No, that's about your lot, isn't it?
So it's like, so, you know, it is a smaller category.
Um, you know, the, the Ram isn't, isn't here yet, but it probably will be by next, by next year.
And we're still, you know, as, as I highly recommended, we had the, the Lightning was our best, the best couple of years back one last year.
Yeah.
Highly recommended this year.
As you know, as an owner, it does a lot of F-150 stuff really well.
If, you know, if you're not towing and hauling when it, you know, when the, the, the range and stuff starts to let it down a little bit.
You know, if you just want an electric truck, and of course you got the benefits of the front trunk and everything else, it's an F-150 in electric form and, you know, a well-executed one.
All right.
Then the winner overall is the Rivian R1T.
And this is mostly due to some of the changes that they've made this past year, although it looks pretty much the same.
It looks pretty much the same.
No bad thing.
I think it's pretty cool looking.
Fantastic wheels on the car that we shot in the studio as well.
Yeah.
They've just, it's a little bit like what we're, you know, what, what we're talking about earlier with the Model 3, where they've just gone through it.
Then a lot of over the air updates with the software, but with the, with the sort of face, if you want to call it that, they've improved some of the hardware as well.
So, you know, it goes further.
It drives better.
It's more comfortable.
There's just, just lots of kind of marginal gains that add up to something, you know, really substantial.
Yeah.
A lot of people say it's more of a kind of lifestyle truck than, you know, something that you're going to see on a construction site.
And that's okay.
You know, it's a, it will do trucky stuff.
It's not as big as an F-150, but it's still, you know, it sort of sits between like where rain, if you think of in gas terms, sits between a Ranger and an F-150 in terms of size.
Yeah.
But great to drive, tons of tech, tons of range, you know, and also a good, a better lineup of models now, more, more choice at different price points.
I mean, it's far from cheap, starts at just over 70 grand, goes to over 100.
But unfortunately, none of the electric trucks are cheap, so it is what it is.
And I'm not surprised by this.
I, you know, we talked a little bit before on an earlier show about some of the changes that they made and some new battery tech and that were sort of welcome additions to the, you know, upgrades to the vehicle.
I'm curious, Silverado didn't even make the list and it seemed like that was coming out.
It was going to be quick and it's kind of sharp looking and it's supposed to have good range, but we haven't really had much of a conversation about the Silverado and how it tested and how it compared to some of these other vehicles.
But that's going to be a question for sure.
It's like, how did Silverado not even make the list?
Yeah, you're right, Matt.
We took a decision to just give one highly recommended on the truck category because we feel like this is an award, so you shouldn't almost just like get in by default if you haven't got that bigger category.
Yeah, maybe we'll save it for another show.
The biggest challenge also with the Silverado is when we ran these tests and still, you could only get the top model, which is 100 grand.
Or I think there's a work truck coming on board.
So I think, you know, the Silverado will almost have like another chance because the range will expand and you'll get sort of cheaper versions coming.
So that was part of the thing as well.
Like the only one you can buy is over like 100 grand and, you know, and Cybertruck as well, you know, we look at our Redmond's rating, which is the bedrock on which all this bill.
And, you know, if you're not getting over eight out of 10, you really shouldn't be in the mix.
So we didn't want to just say stick the Cybertruck in there because we should have two.
We just didn't feel like the right decision to make.
Right. This isn't the participation ribbon.
No, it's not. It's not like it's not like your kids school.
If you, you know, it wasn't like that in my day.
My day.
My school was pretty brutal, but you don't get the you don't get any participation awards here.
Yeah.
I mean, it's called top rated.
It's not.
Yeah.
These are the most recommended vehicles from you and your team.
And then we have the best of the best.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Best of the best.
So the best of the best, we have to return to the beginning of the conversation, which is the Honda Civic hybrid.
And it's been really interesting watching the reaction this morning.
And as we record this show, it's only just starting to filter in, but we've had some nice feedback from people saying, you know, like,
thank you for actually recommending a sensible car rather than just something that looks wacky or goes really fast.
It's just, it's just hard to fault.
I mean, for all the reasons that we talked about at the beginning of this conversation, great to drive, fuel efficient, loads of tech, you know,
decent space for families, you know, and 30 grand in a market where, you know, the average car is still, you know, in the high 40s.
Everything's got really expensive.
This is just a great all round car for 30 grand.
So it's, it's, it is the sweetest part.
I'm just looking at our copy there, you know, 200 horsepower, 49 MPG.
And that's in our testing.
That's not on the, not in the laboratory.
That's in our testing.
So just a really, a really good all rounder.
Yeah.
And it looks good.
It looks sharp.
Yeah.
And if you, you know, you've got different choices, if you go for the higher trim models and you start to get, you know,
nicer trim and Bose high fives and all that sort of, all that sort of good stuff that, you know, adds that extra livery luxury.
So yeah, well done Honda.
Well done Honda.
Okay.
I think, I think we're going to wrap things up again.
Go to Edmunds.com slash top rated.
Of course you can find it on the YouTube channel, I believe as well.
You can.
There's a, there's a sort of, if you don't, well, you just listened to the 45 minute version.
But if you want the 12 minute version with lots of fancy pictures, then watch it on YouTube.
Yeah.
A little bit more visual.
We'll put this one up on, on YouTube, but yeah, get more of the details, dig into the test results.
You can see more of the comparison by going to Edmunds website as well and, and dig into, you know, the other top rated cars,
the runners up that we, that we went through as well.
But yeah, I, I, I agree.
I think it's a good selection of cars.
I think you guys did a great job.
I know it takes a lot of work to get this there.
But yes, I, I, I agree with, with all of these.
Splendid.
That means a lot.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Not that you asked.
Now I feel validated in every way.
Yeah.
I'm not going to send you like an angry tweet or something.
How dare you?
All right.
Let's, I know you've got us still a lot to do today.
We're just rolling all of this out today.
So I appreciate you taking the time to jump on.
We, we missed Goldberg today, but he's, he's, he's prepping for some other projects.
So we'll get him back hopefully next week.
I'm going to be heading out to, to Parrot Jackson as well.
I'm going to do a quick trip there.
So maybe when we regroup, we'll have a little bit of conversation about that as well.
That sounds good.
Well, as your head to Parrot Jackson, I'm going to NADA, which is the, the dealer show down
in New Orleans.
So we're both on our, on our travels just to, we can talk about next week, the dealer show
is just going to get a sense of scale of the American, you know, retailer, automotive retail
industry, just, just the, you know, it's, it's, it's, I think people outside the industry
would just be blown away by the scale of this, this show that happens every year.
Last year at Vegas this year, it's New Orleans, although apparently it's just dumped a ton
of snow.
So I'm getting updates saying, uh, you know, keeping an eye on your flight.
So we'll see.
Yeah.
Hopefully I'm making the New Orleans snowing in Florida.
Yeah.
It's just getting pounded out there with just the weather all around.
And by the way, out here with, you know, we got more fires and, and now in San Diego
and, and stop, and we're, we're, we're going to get a little bit of rain over the weekend,
which means mudslides are coming.
So, but I mean, honestly, like, you know, I fled the UK to escape the rain.
And then, you know, and right now in, in, in California, it's been such a tough couple
of weeks that, you know, like looking, I looked at my phone this morning and said rain coming
on Sunday.
And I was like jumping for joy.
I told the kids, rain's coming.
It's just funny how, funny how life treats you.
But yeah, thanks for listening, everybody.
Hope you enjoy the, hope you enjoy the awards.
Send us some notes as well.
Like if you vehemently disagree, then, you know, do, do tell us.
And if you, if you agree, happy to be, happy to be validated.
All right.
Thanks guys.
We appreciate it.
Until next time, keep the air and the spare and the bag and the wheel.
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After reviewing the show this holiday season, it really helps the show grow.
From all of us at Believe, have a merry Christmas everyone and a happy holiday.
About this episode
A nostalgic look back at the Edmunds Top Rated Award winners from 2025, this episode highlights the best cars, trucks, and SUVs available at that time. The hosts discuss the rigorous testing process behind the awards and share insights on standout vehicles like the Honda Civic Hybrid, which took the overall winner title. Other notable mentions include the Tesla Model 3 for electric cars and the Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid for SUVs. The conversation also touches on the evolving automotive market and the importance of affordability in today's economy.
