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midpoint of the Fair Market Range. It is Kelley Blue Book's estimate of what a consumer can
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typical miles and configured with their selected options, excluding taxes, title and fees, when
buying from a dealer. It's based on actual used-car transactions, plus data from other reliable
third-party sources as well as market conditions.
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2009 Kia Amanti
Review Process
Provided By:
The Car Connection is VehicleHistory.com’s trusted resource for unbiased expert reviews
of
the
vehicles you find on our site. If you’re curious about their review process, we
encourage
you to read
the “How We Rate Cars” explanation from The Car Connection’s website:
Our Approach
Our reviews are the product of decades of experience from some of the most experienced
automotive writers working today.
Our automotive experts have over 50 years of collective automotive journalism experience
writing for
outlets such as Automobile, Car and Driver, Auto Express, Edmunds.com, MSN Autos, more
than
75
newspapers across the country including The Chicago Tribune, and more. Now we have
harnessed
their talents to create a unique type of review that brings the best of the web together
in
a single
opinion that readers can act on.
Our team of experts drives nearly 200 new vehicles each year between them, including
advance
drives of new vehicles not available to the general public. The Car Connection’s experts
also travel to
the world’s auto shows to learn firsthand about vehicles nearing production.
How We Test Cars
The Car Connection’s experts test-drive completely new models as well as cars that have
been
substantially updated with new styling, new safety gear, and new engines and
transmissions.
The
team also drives some models that haven’t seen major changes as needed to refresh their
opinions of
the car. In nearly all cases, our experts have driven the vehicle in question in its
current
form, for the
hands-on experience needed to bring you the best advice.
There are a few vehicles that have not been driven by our experts due to availability.
In
those cases,
The Car Connection’s reviews bring you the highlights from the most respected sources
around
the
Web. In the rare cases where The Car Connection’s team of experts has not recently
driven a
car, we
will still bring together the consensus opinion from around the Web and update the
review
when they
get some “seat time” in the car.
What Is The Rating System
We’re rating cars based on Style, Performance, Comfort, Quality, Safety, Features, and
Green. Most
categories start at 5 (average) and go up or down from there.
Style: Points can be earned or lost based on above- or below-average
interior and exterior style;
excellent or poor interior or exterior style; and exceptional (or very poor) style.
Performance: Points can be earned or lost based on powertrain
performance;
braking and handling
performance; ride quality; and transmission. An additional point can be awarded (or
lost)
for
exceptional circumstances, i.e. off-road prowess, or supercar credentials.
Comfort: Points can be earned or lost based on comfort in the front
seats,
back seats, or third-row
seats (where applicable); good or bad interior storage; and good cargo capacity. Cars,
SUVs,
or
trucks with significant cargo capacity can earn an additional point.
Safety: Cars with official crash data gain points for a five-star
overall
rating by the NHTSA, or Top
Safety Pick status by the IIHS. Cars with Top Safety Pick+ status are awarded an
additional
point for
those advanced safety features. An additional point is awarded for cars with exceptional
safety
features such as parking assistance, surround-view camera systems, or autonomous-driving
features.
Cars with official crash data lose points for a four-star overall rating by NHTSA,
“Poor”
ratings by the
IIHS, any three-star NHTSA ratings, no standard rearview camera, poor outward vision, or
any
special
notes by the IIHS or federal testers. Cars without crash data aren’t given a rating at
all.
Features: Cars with excellent base equipment earn a point above
average.
Extra points can be
added for exceptional available features, good customization options, good infotainment
systems
with screens larger than 5.0 inches, and good warranty or service programs. Cars may
lose
points for
sub-standard or expensive features; bad feature packages; poor relative value; or bad
warranty or
service availability.
Green: Cars are assigned a rating based on their EPA-estimated highway
and
combined mileage
ratings. Plug-in and battery-electric vehicles start at 8. Electric-only cars with a
range
of more than
250 miles; plug-in electric cars with an EV range of more than 50 miles; or cars with a
combined
equivalent MPGe rating of more than 100 mpg earn a perfect score.
What’s New?
Our rating system better reflects how people look at their cars. We start in the middle,
and
add or
take away points based on features, usability and driveability. It’s pretty simple!
A clearer path to 10—and 0. Our system is designed to better identify what’s exceptional
in
new cars.
Our ratings are reviewed by experts, every week. Editors constantly evaluate every new
car
rating to
make sure we’re giving readers the best information.
We’re asking for discussion. We want to be as transparent as possible, so we’re inviting
readers to
discuss our ratings with the experts.
It’s not like grade school. Our ratings go from 1-10 with 5 being an average score. In
the
past, most of
our ratings have fallen between 6 and 8 and while our new ratings may have lower scores,
it
doesn’t
mean we like the car any less. An overall score of 5 is average—anything above is better
than
average.
How Do We Get There?
For most ratings, we start at 5 and work our way up—or down. Cars gain and lose points
based
on
feature availability, affordability, comfort, and quality relative to their competition.
Some of our ratings are based on specific criteria. Safety ratings, for example, are
based
on official
crash data from both of the major U.S. safety organizations. Green scores are calculated
on
mileage
estimates from the EPA.
All of our ratings are open to the public. Wherever possible, we’ll tell you how we’ve
rated
a car and
why we arrived at the score we did.
We’ve added an “N/A” rating. For cars without official crash safety ratings or other
data by
authorities, we’ve removed those numbers from the overall score to give readers a better
measure for
that car’s actual performance. We’ll tell you why we’re withholding a score, and we’ll
add
those in as
those become available.
We’ve factored “Green” into the overall average. We know many readers and shoppers
prioritize fuel
economy and we’re rewarding efficient cars.
The Car Connection’s experts consult these professional review sources when writing our
reviews:
Autoblog
Automobile
Car and Driver
Cars.com
Consumer Reports
Edmunds
Kelley darkBlue Book
Motor Trend
Road & Track
Top Gear
How Often Are Ratings Changed?
We re-evaluate our ratings for new cars at least once a month—if not more.
How Can I Tell If You Recommend A Car?
We’ll tell you! For most models, we’ll identify our picks for powertrain and popular
combinations we
think are important to buy.
We’re changing our rating system to better serve our readers and start a conversation
about
new cars
on the road today. We take seriously our responsibility to you and we want to be open
and
transparent.