• by Karl Greenberg , February 7, 2008

Snow is falling in Chicago, during the auto show there. But if IntelliChoice is right, a ray of sunshine is glinting off of The Tubes a few hundred miles to the east, in Detroit. The Chicago-based auto research Web site says General Motor's battle to boost value with lower fleet sales, incentives, and higher product appeal may be paying off.

Value is a problematic term. The idea of value has, in the broader world, become an amorphous extension of price, as in "Great values this weekend only!" But in the auto business the meaning of value is a lot closer to its Webster's definition: what a car or truck is actually worth. And that worth is measured not only in terms of what you paid for a car or truck, but what it costs you to own it, and what you're likely to get for it when you sell it three or five years later.

IntelliChoice defines value as "every facet of what it costs to own and operate a vehicle over time." Says James Bell, editor and publisher of IntelliChoice, the company bases its numbers--predictions, really--on a lengthy ownership period. "We look at everything a car can cost. We don't fixate on sticker price. Our message is, the best deal includes five years down the road and looks at things like depreciation, retained value, maintenance, repair, gas price, and insurance."

In the firm's just-released "Best Overall Values of the Year" award, which examines 2008-model vehicles, Toyota division had nine winners, Chevrolet had eight, Honda had three and Mini will have two.

The study, in its 22nd year, said Toyota Prius was the best car under $24,000. Chevrolet's Corvette convertible was the best car over $24,000, and General Motors and Toyota also split the overall truck winners, with the Chevy Silverado the best truck value over $27,000, and the Toyota Tacoma best truck under $27,000.

Bell says Toyota and GM account for more than half the total list of winners. "Toyota is a perennial leader in quality and value, but these findings also speak to the tremendous strides that GM has made in recent years in delivering desirable, durable, and high-value vehicles."

Says Bell, "GM's strategy of pulling out of fleet is paying off. Among SUVs, the Honda Pilot is the only one that is not a Toyota or Chevy nameplate." He says the numbers suggest consumers are shifting perception of GM vehicles as merely good deals--in which the idea of value resides entirely in getting the lowest sticker price possible.

"The thing that's interesting is that for GM, there is a more healthy degree of desirability from the quality and design standpoint. They are starting to nail it down. It's a big surprise," he adds. "When I first joined IntelliChoice, it was Honda and Toyota. Toyota has continued strong and carries momentum, but GM has chewed away at what Honda and the domestics and Toyota have done; in some respects GM has slipped into that area that would normally be seen as Honda's spot."