2013 Brand Image Awards

Our visitors have spoken, and the trophies have been engraved. Our sixth annual Brand Image Awards recognize what KBB.com shoppers perceive to be the most outstanding automakers in a number of categories. Here we count them down, starting with the Luxury Brand awards and finishing with what our visitors identified as the Best Overall Brand of 2013.

The key research vehicle for the Brand Image Awards is Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence’s Brand Watch study. Brand Watch is an online study that taps into thousands of in-market new-vehicle shoppers who do their research at KBB.com. Representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public, the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards recognize automakers’ outstanding achievements in creating and maintaining brand attributes that engender enthusiasm among new-vehicle buyers.

Best Overall Brand

We saved the biggest award for last, but after its wins in the Best Value Brand and Most Trusted Brand categories, Honda’s win as Best Overall Brand among non-luxury shoppers hardly comes as a surprise. We admire the refined and reliable vehicles, but also the manner in which Honda promotes itself. You do too, apparently.

Most Trusted Brand

This is the second year we’ve asked visitors to name their Most Trusted Brand, and it’s the second year they’ve named Honda. With a reputation that precedes it and vehicles that seemingly never fail to deliver on the promise, Honda is like the perpetual motion machine of brand trust.

Best Value Brand

Affordability, reliability and good resale value are key facets of new-car value, and Honda scores at or near the top in all three, earning from KBB.com visitors another Best Value Brand award.

Best Car Styling Brand

Ford’s new design language seems to work on every new vehicle that gets the treatment, and if anyone wants to call the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion and Escape the best-looking vehicles in their respective categories, we wouldn’t argue. The gorgeous new Fusion, in fact, is our Best Redesigned Vehicle of 2013.

Most Refined Brand

The traditional luxury brand of non-luxury brands, Chrysler combines an air of confidence with a sense of flair. The result is a lineup and a brand that feel a class above their competitors.

Best Performance Brand

When every car you make can be described as small and sporty, you have the inside track to our Best Performance Brand award. Mini keeps pumping out new variations on a theme, but never wavers one degree from its laser-like focus on fun.

Best Overall Truck Brand

KBB.com visitors who identify themselves as truck shoppers have named Toyota this year’s Best Overall Truck Brand. Cars can get you to work, but people depend on trucks to actually do the work. When livelihood is on the line, any brand synonymous with dependability and reliability has a real advantage.

Best Overall Luxury Brand

BMW didn’t win any of the individual Luxury Brand awards, but it takes home the title of Best Overall Luxury Brand on the strength of a well-rounded image that appeals to young and old, sporty and showy alike.

Most Trusted Luxury Brand

With the most proven and celebrated record of dependability and reliability in the entire industry, it would only be a surprise if Lexus didn’t win the award for Most Trusted Luxury Brand.

Most Trusted Luxury Brand

With the most proven and celebrated record of dependability and reliability in the entire industry, it would only be a surprise if Lexus didn’t win the award for Most Trusted Luxury Brand.

Best Car Styling Luxury Brand

This is a fitting award for the maker of arguably the most iconic and enduring car design of all time, the 911. Even the newest Porsche, the Panamera, sports a unique but recognizable design that at once reinforces and expands Porsche’s legendary mystique.

Most Refined Luxury Brand

KBB.com visitors who identify themselves as luxury-car shoppers — the group who determined all our Luxury Brand awards — have voted Mercedes-Benz as this year’s Most Refined Luxury Brand. Refinement is harder to measure than performance or value, but you know it when you see it. And you really know it when you drive it.

Best Performance Luxury Brand

BMW wrested this trophy from Porsche a couple times, but this is essentially Stuttgart’s award. Even when Porsche’s entry isn’t the fastest car in the class, it’s always the winner in driving feel. And feel equals fun, which is the purest point of performance.