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Ford, Toyota clean up in Best Car For The Money Awards

The U.S. News Best Cars for the Money Awards picks winners by looking at the average transaction price, five-year total cost of ownership, the regard a car has from the automotive press, reliability figures from J.D. Power and Associates and safety data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The result, according to the magazine, is "the best combination of critical acclaim and long-term value."
Ford nabbed six of the 21 categories that received awards this year, the Focus, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Taurus, Escape and Edge getting trophies. Toyota and its Lexus and Scion sub-brands took another five, the Tacoma and Tundra owning the two categories given to pickup trucks. The other ten awards were split between Honda with three, Buick with two, and one each for Subaru, BMW, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Mazda.
Follow the link to see all the winners and read about why they were chosen.

2013 Acura ILX Hybrid

This Is Not The Acura You're Looking For
Mid-level luxury brands have always had to do a bit of leg work to distance themselves from their more common cousins. Thanks to generation after generation of pervasive badge engineering (much of it from the Big Three), buyers can't be blamed for looking at brands like Buick, Lincoln, Infiniti, Lexus and yes, Acura as tarted up versions of Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Honda products. For much of its lifetime in the automotive landscape, however, Acura has excelled at putting distance between its offerings and that of its parent company thanks to cars with superior driving dynamics, quieter cabins and clean, attractive aesthetics.
Yes, outliers and dull spots can be found in the company's recent track record, but by and large, Acura products remain situated well above the Honda rabble. When the brand announced it was getting serious about the luxury small car game with the ILX, those of us with a set of the company's keys in our past couldn't help but envision an honest successor to the long-dead Integra. Turns out, that wasn't what Acura had in mind.

Acura Type S Concept looks even better in the Monterey sun

A few days ago, Acura showed its Type S Concept in an album of dramatically lit press photos. It is our extreme pleasure to report that the Acura Type S Concept on display at The Quail, with no shadows nor Photoshop to hide in, is even more pleasing to the eye than it was in those photographs. This is the sedan the brand said "sets the stage for re-introducing Type S performance variants to the Acura line-up after a decade hiatus, and will heavily influence the character of the upcoming, second-generation TLX Type S." Our hope is that the phrase "heavily influence the character of" is code for the word "be," and Acura's simply not ready to admit it yet. From the new rectangular "Jewel Eye" LED headlights to the front fascia that could double as an Orc weapon, the flanks with a pentathlete's balance of muscle and leanness, those Halo beam rifle taillights, and the mortar-launcher quad-pipes, this concept is the bee's knees. Acura calls the design language "Chicane," and this expression of it is everything a fan wants to see from the brand. The Double Apex Blue Pearl paint, forged carbon accents, and functional vents only make the sculpture better. We're promised two new Type S offerings in the next two years, an RDX Type S presumed to follow the TLX version. They can't come soon enough. We encourage you to check out the gallery and enjoy every angle of the preview for Acura's coming attractions.