2007 Kia Sedona Ex Mini Passenger Van 4-door 3.8l on 2040-cars

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Volkswagen Group, BMW Z4 top Total Value Awards by Strategic Vision

It was just nine months ago that Strategic Vision announced its 2011 Total Value Awards, but you don't have to wait until next year for the 2012 awards. The Volkswagen Group keeps its lead as the number one brand, with seven products taking top category spots: Golf, Jetta Wagon, CC, Eos and Audi A3 Wagon, Q5 and Q7. Strategic Vision says "true innovation" - "rich and impactful, intuitive, motivational, in-depth and is able to trigger description by the user in great specificity" - is the open secret of the brands with the strongest showings. Results are culled from 77,153 owners covering more than 350 new cars bought between September of 2011 and 2012 ranked in the Total Value Index (TVI).
Other notable winners are Hyundai-Kia following VW in the brand category and having the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Sorento among category winners, the BMW Z4 taking the premium roadster category and the highest overall score of any vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt continuing to gather silverware in the Special Category, nabbing the second-highest score of all and representative of "nearly perfect innovation," and Chrysler and Dodge being most improved.
Check out the press release below for your day's dose of jargon and all the winners.

2014 Kia Forte

Forte 2.0 Keeps Kia Competitive In The Compact Crop
Looking back just a few years, America's compact segment was filled with bland, uninteresting cars that traded largely on low prices and high fuel economy. In today's landscape, though, things couldn't be more different - this class now boasts some of the most attractive cars on the market, not to mention features and technologies once reserved for luxury cars.
Filling Kia's role in this important market, the 2014 Forte has helped make the South Korean automaker a contender among compact cars with the sedan launching earlier in the year and the Koup and Forte5 hatchback hitting dealers soon. When the Forte first launched in 2010, it was a much-needed replacement for the Spectra, but it still had lingering drivetrain refinement issues. In the end, the model didn't really move the needle for Kia, let alone the segment. Now the second-generation Forte sedan has arrived in an effort to bolster the company's lineup, a portfolio that includes impressive models like the Optima, Sorento, Soul and even the subcompact Rio.

Goes Both Ways: Free-trade pact sees South Korean brands losing share at home

France has been vocal, but not alone, in noting the rise of the South Korean automakers in Europe. The signing of a free-trade pact in 2011 between South Korea and the EU, along with the especially value-conscious buyers in a crisis-stricken Europe, has seen market share increases measuring in the double digits for Hyundai and Kia - analysts expect 14-percent growth for the two in 2012.
A report in Bloomberg has found that there's pain at the other end, too: The pact more than halved import tariffs on European cars headed to South Korea to 3.2 percent, and prices are now close enough to domestic offerings for more South Koreans to pay the premium for foreign luxury nameplates and the cachet they confer. Products sold by the five domestic automakers hogged 92 percent of the market last year, and sales have dropped 5.2 percent this year whereas import sales have risen by 24 percent. This will mark the first year that imports claimed ten percent of the market; compare that to 2002, when domestic market share in the world's 11th largest auto market was 99 percent.
The Germans are at the head of the arrow, counting for 65 percent of imported car sales, but every foreign maker has seen double-digit gains. Analysts think foreign makes could ultimately grab 15 percent of the market.