FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Edmunds.com Announces Most Wanted Awards for 2002 Model Year; Mini Cooper Named Most Significant Vehicle of the Year
Santa Monica, CA; October 17, 2001 - Edmunds.com, the Web's leading consumer resource for unbiased automotive information, today announced the winners of the fourth annual Most Wanted vehicle awards and named the Mini Cooper the Edmunds.com Most Significant Vehicle of the Year.
"The Most Wanted awards recognize the current model year vehicles the Edmunds.com editors would choose, for each of 30 popular vehicle categories, if we were spending our own money," explains Karl Brauer, Editor-In-Chief of Edmunds.com. "For this task, our demographically diverse editorial staff is guided by passion, not science, choosing vehicles we'd love to have in our own driveways."
The 2002 winners in each category are:
| Economy Car -- Under $13,000 | Hyundai Elantra |
| Small Sedan -- Under $20,000 | Volkswagen Jetta |
| Small Coupe/Hatchback -- Under $20,000 | Volkswagen Golf |
| Small Station Wagon -- Under $20,000 | Mazda Protege5 |
| Econosports -- Under $20,000 | Volkswagen Jetta 1.8T |
| Midsize Sedan -- Under $30,000 | Nissan Altima |
| Midsize Coupe -- Under $30,000 | Chrysler Sebring |
| Midsize Station Wagon -- Under $30,000 | Volkswagen Passat |
| Large Sedan -- Under $30,000 | Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis |
| Entry-Luxury Sedan -- Under $40,000 | BMW 3 Series |
| Midsize Luxury Sedan -- Over $30,000 | BMW 5 Series |
| Large Luxury Sedan -- Over $30,000 | Lexus LS 430 |
| Luxury Station Wagon -- Over $30,000 | BMW 5 Series |
| Sport Coupe -- Under $30,000 | Toyota Celica |
| Sport Luxury Coupe -- Over $30,000 | BMW 330Ci |
| Sport Sedan -- Under $30,000 | Subaru WRX |
| Sports Car -- Over $30,000 | BMW M3 |
| Convertible -- Under $30,000 | Mazda Miata |
| Convertible -- Over $30,000 | BMW 3 Series |
| Small Pickup | Toyota Tacoma |
| Large Pickup | Ford F-Series |
| Small Crew Cab Pickup | Dodge Dakota |
| Large Crew Cab Pickup | Chevrolet Avalanche |
| Small SUV | Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute |
| Midsize SUV | Nissan Pathfinder |
| Large SUV | Toyota Sequoia |
| Luxury SUV -- Over $30,000 | Acura MDX |
| Minivan | Honda Odyssey |
| Large Van | Ford Econoline |
In conjunction with the Most Wanted award announcements each October, Edmunds.com also selects the Most Significant Vehicle of the Year. This category recognizes a vehicle that changes the rules of a given segment, creates a brand new niche or redefines an automaker's image. The Mini Cooper exemplifies this, as it has been transformed by BMW into a technologically advanced, low-priced vehicle that retains its head-turning heritage despite being all new this year -- its first substantial update since the 1950s.
Details on all award winners are listed at http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/mostwanted/2002/index.html and video clips are available at http://www.edmunds.com/video/.
About Edmunds.com
Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA, Edmunds.com is the Internet's pioneer and leader in providing free, third party automotive information, tools and services for consumers. Edmunds.com empowers, educates, and engages visitors by providing them with straightforward information on key aspects of buying, selling, and owning a vehicle. For example, Edmunds has launched its True Market ValueSM products to inform the general public of the actual transaction prices of cars and trucks while the Edmunds.com PowershopperSM offers car shoppers the opportunity to research and pursue online and offline purchase options in the informative, consumer-friendly environment of the Edmunds web site. Visitors are also provided extensive automobile reviews, consumer information, safety updates, incentive and rebate news, expert analysis of developments in the automotive world, and the Town Hall, an interactive community of more than 500,000 members. Many of these resources are powered by Edmunds Data Services, which provides a complete automotive data set to the Edmunds.com Web site and licenses such data to third parties. Edmunds.com was ranked number one in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal, rated number one automotive and second overall web site in the Dialscore loyalty study above Yahoo!, Amazon and Mapquest, was named as one of Yahoo! Internet Life's 50 Most Incredibly Useful Sites, one of Money's 50 Most Useful Financial Websites, and is regularly mentioned as a valuable resource in these and other publications.
