2009 mid-size

sedan

     With fuel prices on the rise and everyone turning to smaller cars, it has seemed that the mid-sized segment is becoming a more vicious playground for those who wish to enter.  Considering the most companies are pushing for a piece of the small car market, the mid-sized segment is becoming the most important sedan segment in the world.  

​             This has become the make or break segment, showing that if you create a bad car for your family, you will not shop for any thing else from that company.  This has become the biggest problem for carmakers such as Chrysler and Suzuki.  If you don’t have a winner now, you may not be able to brave this economic wind.  The bad thing about this is that some companies still rely on just quality alone.  This is not the best strategy, for any carmaker.
            This year’s winner of the AutoLooks A+ award “comes from a land down under”, but is made from a company pure at heart.  So, for this year the 2008 Toyota Aurion takes the win.  Toyota had a pretty though challenge, since most of the cars in this segment have great designs.  And that it beat out one of the best looking mid-full-sized sedans on the market today, the 2009 Mazda 6. Living up to its predecessor the new 6 is everything the previous car was, and made it better.  But why did the Toyota win, well it could be that you can get a TRD version, or that it has no hint of Grandpa or a woman, in the design of it.  Most Toyotas look slow and wrinkly, but not this one, it looks good standing still.
            For this year Rusty, AutoLooks didn’t have to look too deep.  The odd part about the award winner is that it comes from a company that prides itself on sport sedans.  It’s just too bad that its home Asian market has consumers, which purchase some of the ugliest cars out there.  So, for this year we had to name the 2009 Nissan Teana the Rusty of the bunch.  It still looks fast, but its awkward grille and attempt at luxury really take away from a car that should look much better.

​Everett J.

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Mid-Sized Contenders
 
A+        2008 Toyota                Aurion
2nd      2009 Mazda                 6
3rd       2009 Renault              Laguna
4th       2009 Alfa Romeo        159
5th       2009 Opel / Vauxhall  Insignia
6th       2009 Chevrolet           Malibu
Rusty   2009 Nissan                Teana