Blue Book recognizes interior style
Drivers increasingly seek creature comforts
Some of us spend more time in our cars than we do in our living rooms.
Therefore, why shouldn't our vehicles have interiors just as functional as our best-equipped living rooms and seats as comfortable as our easy chairs?
The good news is that many of today's cars offer interiors that rival the comforts of home, and consumers are embracing that concept.
Consumers who want to determine who has the best vehicle interiors can look to the 2007 winners of "best interior styling" awards from the Kelley Blue Book and its marketing-research arm.
The rankings are based on the results of the interior design segment of Kelley's latest consumer automotive perceptions research study, known as Brand Watch.
The top winners: Mercedes-Benz in the convertibles/sports cars segment; GMC among trucks; Cadillac in the luxury SUV category; and
Domestic automakers fared well in the survey -- particularly
The GM truck interiors are so good that they took the top three spots in the survey, which awarded honors for first, second, and third place in each of the seven surveyed vehicle classes.
Best among the trucks was the GMC brand, followed by Chevrolet and Cadillac.
Conspicuously absent from the list were
Pickups have come a long way in just a few years. Today's trucks are often used as primarily family and commuting vehicles just as much as they are as workplace tools.
For that reason, truck interiors have been made quite carlike, with cushy seats, awesome audio systems, amenities such as dual-zone automatic climate control, and even rear seats that can accommodate the rest of the family (and entertain them with DVD movies).
Just 10 years ago, most pickups were sold in the regular-cab design, with room for a maximum of three people and no rear seat.
Today, the mix is completely opposite: Most trucks sold now are either extended- or crew-cab versions with a rear bench seat. They can hold five or six adults, and some even have captain's chairs available for the rear passengers.
Among luxury SUVs, the survey has Cadillac in the top spot, followed by Lexus and BMW.
Here again, the surprise is that a domestic brand outscored such luxury imports as Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Acura, and Jaguar.
Cadillac's top rating was the result of the great interior of the redesigned 2007 Escalade, which has one of the most comfortable and functional interiors in the industry. The same interior is used in the Cadillac pickup, the Escalade EXT .
The competition was tough: Lexus has great interiors in the full-size LX 470 as well as the midsize GX 470 and the RX 350 crossover. And Mercedes offers a variety of creature comforts in its ML-class midsize SUVs.
Toyota can crow about the wins for its well-designed interiors, especially in the Sienna minivan, Camry sedan, and Highlander SUV.
"Though some car reviewers have been critical of Toyota interiors, it is obvious they are a big hit with the public at large," Kelley Blue Book executive editorial director Jack R. Nerad said.
During the survey, "active" new-vehicle shoppers were asked to rank the interior styling of the various vehicle brands "based on overall comfort, headroom, and legroom, as well as interior design throughout the cabin, including intelligent layout, quality materials, convenient compartments, and superior ergonomics," Kelley Blue Book said in revealing the winners.
Individual vehicles were not identified, but in some of the segments, manufacturers had only one entry.
In the minivan segment, the Toyota Sienna was first, followed by the
Dodge, of course, gets credit for its nifty stow-and-go seats. Both the second and third rows can be folded to create a completely flat cargo floor from the back of the front seats all the way to the tailgate. Most of the other minivans offer this feature only in the third row, if at all.
Among nonluxury SUVs, Chevrolet came in second behind Toyota, and Ford was third. 