Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards of 2026

The best cars for the most people in a dozen popular segments 

Are you a savvy shopper who also likes smart shortcuts? You’ve come to the right place. Our 12th annual Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards highlight the standout cars, trucks, and SUVs we recommend for the most shoppers across a variety of segments. 

Every year, we put thousands of hours into driving and evaluating hundreds of cars and determining our comprehensive Best Cars rankings. These Best Buy Awards are the purest distillations of those efforts. Our awards span a wide range of vehicle sizes and prices, and we give extra weight to financial considerations like resale value and reliability. Our goal, as always, is to make it easy for you to shop like an expert.

Best New Model

Best in Class

About Our Best Buy Awards 

Finding the one vehicle that best meets your needs and wants can be a daunting task in a market with an abundance of good choices. That’s where Kelley Blue Book steps in to help make that major purchase as well-informed and easy as possible. It’s in that spirit that we present our annual Best Buy Awards. For 12 years running, our experienced and trusted vehicle review staff has put the latest vehicles through their paces to determine which models are tops in their segments.  

As the Market Evolves, So Do We 

Every year, we strive to ensure the categories for Best Buy Awards align with current market trends. In response to the continuing growth in electric vehicle models and sales, we have multiple awards for electric vehicles. These acknowledge the best overall EV, the best EV under $35,000, and the best 3-row EV. 

But even as the vehicles under consideration continue to evolve, unchanged are the key criteria the Kelley Blue Book editors rely on to help determine which models are eligible for consideration and, ultimately, which take home the trophies. Most of our winners have a reputation for lower total ownership costs and fewer headaches than the bulk of the competition. We’re also looking for overall appeal, of course, with important factors like comfort, convenience, technology, and driving refinement factoring into our final judgment.  

How We Choose the Winners 

Much of the initial information needed to qualify and evaluate vehicles for our annual Best Buy Awards program comes from the vehicles driven, evaluated, and reviewed by the Kelley Blue Book vehicle review staff throughout the year. 

This extensive hands-on experience with new vehicles provides the basis for our written and video reviews, including the vehicle ratings driving our Best Cars rankings. Based on this coverage and data gleaned from our proprietary resale value insights and 5-Year Cost to Own data, we determine which all-new or extensively redesigned vehicles we will consider as candidates for our Best Buy Awards. 

The list of participating vehicles is finalized during the summer, with testing at our Irvine, California, headquarters starting in September. The previous year’s category winner is tested side by side against the crop of the latest challengers. We evaluate seating comfort, ease of entry and exit, luggage space, amenities, and infotainment systems. In addition, we look closely at build quality, cabin materials, pricing against the competition, and expected resale value and operating costs. We also get behind the wheel and test drive the vehicles over a series of loops involving everyday traffic and road conditions to experience the cars as an owner would. A manufacturer’s reputation for quality, reliability, durability, and various warranties, including bumper-to-bumper and powertrain, also factor into our decision.

For 2026, the Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards go to the best models in categories that encompass nearly the entire range of vehicles that meet virtually all automotive needs. We also recognize the year’s Best New Model. Our awards are a powerful tool to help you make the right new vehicle choice.