Earlier this week we shared Cars.com's 2026 Best Value New Cars award winners. The awards cycle continues with Kelley Blue Book's 2026 Consumer Choice Awards. While Cars.com's awards focus on affordability and value, KBB's awards focus on consumer perception, highlighting which brands car shoppers are most enthusiastic about.
KBB says it's vital for brands to understand consumer perception because it undeniably factors into vehicle purchase decisions. The awards "recognize automakers' outstanding achievements in creating and maintaining brand pillars that earn the attention and enthusiasm of new-car shoppers."
This year, Honda swept the non-luxury brand awards for the first time ever (last year it only lost one category to Dodge.)
"Honda is an absolute standout this year in Kelley Blue Book's Consumer Choice Awards, sweeping all of the non-luxury brand wins along with the top EV/hybrid brand honors," said Vanessa Ton, senior research and market intelligence manager at Cox Automotive. "This data-driven award sweep demonstrates new-car shoppers' high opinions of Honda on everything from trust and value to styling, performance and more. Meanwhile, Lexus dominates among luxury marques, snagging the overall luxury brand award and two additional luxury wins for trust and value. These Japanese automakers' first-class engineering, innovation and quality are leading the way. For truck shoppers, Ram claims the top spot."
The awards are based on KBB's Brand Watch data of in-market luxury and non-luxury new-vehicle shoppers who plan to purchase within the next 12 months.
2026 Kelley Blue Book Consumer Choice Winners: Non-Luxury Brands
- Honda - Best Overall Brand
- Honda - Most Trusted Brand
- Honda - Best Value Brand
- Honda - Best Performance Brand
- Honda - Best In-Vehicle Experience Brand
- Honda - Best Car Styling Brand
2026 Kelley Blue Book Consumer Choice Winner: Truck Brand
- Ram: Best Overall Truck Brand
2026 Kelley Blue Book Consumer Choice Winner: EV/Hybrid Brand
- Honda: Best Overall EV/Hybrid Brand
2026 Kelley Blue Book Consumer Choice Winners: Luxury Brands
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Lexus - Best Overall Luxury Brand
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Lexus - Most Trusted Luxury Brand
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Lexus - Best Value Luxury Brand
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Mercedes-Benz - Best In-Vehicle Experience Luxury Brand
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Mercedes-Benz - Best Car Styling Luxury Brand
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Porsche - Best Performance Luxury Brand
KBB's Brand Watch is a comprehensive online brand and model perception tracking study which taps into more than 12,000 in-market new-vehicle shoppers annually on KBB.com.
Photo: Honda
