Are you a smart shopper who also likes smart shortcuts? You’ve come to the right place. The 10th annual Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards highlights the standout cars, trucks and SUVs that KBB recommends for top shoppers across segments.
Every year we spend thousands of hours driving and evaluating hundreds of cars and determining our comprehensive rankings of the best cars. These Best Buy Awards are the purest distillations of these efforts. Our awards cover a wide range of vehicle sizes and prices, and we place extra weight on financial considerations such as resale value and reliability. Our goal, as always, is to make it easy for you to shop like an expert.
Plus: The most and least reliable car brands for 2024 according to Consumer Reports
Best new model
2024 Toyota Prius
The ultra-efficient Toyota TM,
The Prius has striking style and renewed power. It returns 57 mpg combined and is engaging to drive.
Be sure to read: A hybrid just won ‘vehicle of the year’. This is why the EV case has been hard to crack.
Best in class
Best subcompact SUV: 2024 Hyundai Kona
Bigger, more refined and more affordable than ever before, the Hyundai Kona offers a stunning amount of technology, safety and convenience at a low starting price.
Best compact SUV: 2024 Honda CR-V
The Honda HMC,
CR-V combines exceptional functionality, satisfying driving dynamics and a proven reputation for reliability and resale value.
Best 3-row midsize SUV: 2024 Kia Telluride
The Kia 000270,
Telluride has a full range of standard tech, safety and convenience features, a great starting price and a spacious, luxurious interior.
Best full-size SUV: Ford Expedition 2024
The 2024 Ford F,
Expedition combines incredible capabilities with refinement, comfort and useful technology.
Best EV with 3 rows: 2024 Be EV9
The Kia EV9 is a spacious, practical 3-row mid-size SUV that is fun to drive and has a range of up to 500 kilometers.
Best electric car: 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5
The 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 combines technology, functionality and value in an electric vehicle that feels simultaneously futuristic yet approachable.
Read: How electric vehicle tax credits will work in 2024, and a list of eligible cars
Best compact car: 2024 Honda Civic
Honda has perfected the compact car formula, with the features, pricing and reliability that small car buyers demand. And the Honda Civic is a pleasure to drive.
To see: The 2024 Subaru Impreza vs. the Honda Civic: How These Compact Cars Compare
Best mid-range car: 2024 Honda Accord
Comfortable, refined and spacious, the Honda Accord backs up its fun-driving manners with excellent functionality, excellent resale values and a wide variety of trim levels, including hybrids.
Best minivan: 2024 Toyota Sienna
With a spacious, family-friendly interior, excellent standard safety features, renowned reliability and hybrid power that saves fuel costs, the Toyota Sienna is a great choice for families.
Best compact truck: 2024 Ford Maverick
The 2024 Ford Maverick is everything you want in a compact pickup: it can carry 1,500 pounds of payload, tow up to 4,000 pounds, is fuel efficient, and easy to maneuver and park in the city.
Best mid-size truck: 2024 Toyota Tacoma
The all-new Toyota Tacoma combines refinement, comfort and excellent handling with rugged truck capabilities and incredible power, while retaining that familiar Toyota feel.
Best full size truck: 2024 Ford F-150
Whether you need a simple work truck, a luxury people mover, a capable off-road vehicle or anything in between, there’s a Ford F-150 for the job. The 2024 Ford F-150 is packed with technology that also helps when towing or off-roading.
Best electric truck: 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning, the all-electric version of the Ford F-Series, is a great buy because of its reasonable price, impressive range and advanced technical features.
Do not miss it: Survey: This is the most popular electric truck, except it doesn’t exist
About the best purchase prices from KBB
Finding the one vehicle that best suits 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 make that big purchase as informed and easy as possible. It is in that spirit that we present our annual Best Buy Awards. For 10 years in a row, our experienced and trusted vehicle review staff has put the latest vehicles to the test to determine which models are among the top in their segments.
As the market evolves, so do we
In response to continued growth in electric vehicle models and sales, we have added another EV award for 2024. Families who need a three-row vehicle and want to go electric have a new and very attractive choice this year, one that is also a Best Buy Award winner.
But even as the vehicles in question continue to evolve, the key criteria that Kelley Blue Book editors rely on to help determine which models qualify for consideration and, ultimately, which ones take home the trophies, remain unchanged. Most of our winners have a reputation for having a lower total cost of ownership and fewer headaches than most of the competition. We are of course also looking for overall appeal, with important factors such as comfort, convenience, technology and driving refinement playing a role in our final assessment.
Also see: 10 of the cheapest new 3-row SUVs for 2024
How we choose the winners
Much of the initial information needed to qualify and evaluate vehicles for our annual Best Buy program comes from the vehicles driven, evaluated and rated throughout the year by Kelley Blue Book’s vehicle evaluation staff.
This extensive hands-on experience with new vehicles forms the basis for our written and video reviews, including the vehicle ratings that determine our Best Car rankings. Based on this coverage and data collected from our proprietary trade-in value insights and five-year Cost-to-Own data, we determine which all-new or extensively redesigned vehicles we will consider Best Buy candidates.
You may like: 10 new cars worth the wait
The list of participating vehicles will be finalized over the summer, with testing at our Irvine, California headquarters beginning in September. Last year’s category winner is tested side by side with the crop of the newest challengers. We assess the seating comfort, getting in and out, the luggage space, the amenities and infotainment systems. In addition, we carefully look at build quality, cabin materials, prices compared to 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 2024, the Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards recognize the best in categories that cover nearly the entire range of vehicles to meet virtually all automotive needs. We also recognize the best new model of the year. Our awards are a powerful tool to help you make the right new vehicle choice.
This story originally continued KBB.com.