• December 29, 2008

Kelley Blue Book says the most-researched new cars of 2008 were, in order, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Altima, Honda CR-V, Toyota Prius, Toyota Highlander, Toyota RAV4 and Mazda3.

Honda and Toyota had 13 of the top 20 spots, while Chevrolet's Malibu jumped 55 places from last year's rank at 72 to this year's rank at 17.

Also new to this year's top 20 are the Honda Fit (last year ranked 35, this year 15), the Toyota Yaris (last year ranked 23, this year 11) and the Volkswagen Jetta (last year ranked 25, this year 20).

Other fuel-efficient vehicles gaining positions in the top 20 include the Civic, Toyota Corolla and Prius, Mazda3 and Ford Escape.--Karl Greenberg