Here’s your ultimate list of best-buy cars, trucks, SUVs and EVs for 2024

Plus: The most and least reliable car brands for 2024, according to Consumer Reports

Best new model

2024 Toyota Prius

The ultra-efficient Toyota TM, +1.47% Prius has head-turning style and newfound power. It nets 57 mpg combined and is engaging to drive.

Be sure to read: A hybrid just won ‘vehicle of the year.’ Here’s why the EV case has been hard to crack.

Best in class

Best subcompact SUV: 2024 Hyundai Kona

Bigger, more refined, and a better value than ever before, the Hyundai Kona offers a stunning amount of tech, safety, and convenience features for its low starting price.

Best compact SUV: 2024 Honda CR-V

The Honda HMC, +1.26% CR-V combines exceptional practicality, satisfying driving dynamics, and a proven reputation for reliability and resale value.

Best 3-row midsize SUV: 2024 Kia Telluride

The Kia 000270, -0.11% Telluride has a full roster of standard tech, safety, and convenience features, a terrific starting price, and a spacious, upscale interior.

Best full-size SUV: 2024 Ford Expedition

The 2024 Ford F, -0.75% Expedition combines incredible capability with refinement, comfort, and useful tech.

Best 3-row EV: 2024 Kia EV9

The Kia EV9 is a roomy, practical 3-row midsize SUV that’s fun to drive, and also has a range of up to 304 miles.

Best electric vehicle: 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5

The 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 blends technology, practicality, and value in an electric vehicle that feels at once futuristic yet approachable.

Read: How electric vehicle tax credits will work in 2024, and a list of cars that qualify

Best compact car: 2024 Honda Civic

Honda has perfected the compact car formula, with the features, pricing, and dependability small car buyers demand. And the Honda Civic is a delight to drive.

See: The 2024 Subaru Impreza vs. the Honda Civic: How these compact cars compare

Best midsize car: 2024 Honda Accord

Comfortable, refined, and spacious, the Honda Accord backs up its fun driving manners with excellent practicality, outstanding resale values, and a wide variety of trim levels, including hybrids.

Best minivan: 2024 Toyota Sienna

With a roomy, family-friendly interior, excellent standard safety features, known reliability, and hybrid power that saves on fuel costs, the Toyota Sienna is a terrific choice for families.

Best compact truck: 2024 Ford Maverick

The 2024 Ford Maverick is everything you want in a compact pickup truck: It can carry 1,500 pounds of payload, tow up to 4,000 pounds, is fuel-efficient, and easy to maneuver and park around town.

Best midsize truck: 2024 Toyota Tacoma

The all-new Toyota Tacoma blends refinement, comfort, and excellent road manners with tough-truck capability and incredible power, and keeps that familiar Toyota feel.

Best full-size truck: 2024 Ford F-150

Whether you need a basic work truck, a luxurious people mover, a capable off-roader, or something in between, there’s a Ford F-150 for the job. The 2024 Ford F-150 is loaded with technology that helps when towing or off-roading, too.

Best electric truck: 2024 Ford F-150 Lightning

The Ford F-150 Lightning, the all-electric version of the Ford F-Series, is a great buy for its reasonable pricing, impressive range, and advanced tech features.

Don’t miss: Survey: This is the most popular electric truck—except that it doesn’t exist

About KBB’s best buy awards 

Finding the one vehicle that best meets your needs and wants can be a daunting task in a market with an abundance of good choices. That’s where Kelley Blue Book steps in to help make that major purchase as well-informed and easy as possible. It’s in that spirit that we present our annual Best Buy Awards. For 10 years running, our experienced and trusted vehicle review staff has put the latest vehicles through their paces to determine which models are tops in their segments. 

As the market evolves, so do we 

In response to the continuing growth in electric vehicle models and sales, we’ve added another EV award for 2024. Families that need a 3-row vehicle and want to go electric have a new and highly compelling choice this year, one that’s also a Best Buy Award winner. 

But even as the vehicles under consideration continue to evolve, unchanged are the key criteria the Kelley Blue Book editors rely on to help determine which models are eligible for consideration and, ultimately, which take home the trophies. Most of our winners have a reputation for lower total ownership costs and fewer headaches than the bulk of the competition. We’re also looking for overall appeal, of course, with important factors like comfort, convenience, technology, and driving refinement factoring into our final judgment.  

Also see: 10 of the cheapest new 3-row SUVs for 2024

How we choose the winners 

Much of the initial information needed to qualify and evaluate vehicles for our annual Best Buy program comes from the vehicles driven, evaluated, and reviewed by the Kelley Blue Book vehicle review staff throughout the year. 

This extensive hands-on experience with new vehicles provides the basis for our written and video reviews, including the vehicle ratings driving our Best Cars rankings. Based on this coverage and data gleaned from our proprietary resale value insights and 5-Year Cost to Own data, we determine which all-new or extensively redesigned vehicles we will consider as Best Buy candidates. 

You might like: 10 new cars worth waiting for

The list of participating vehicles is finalized during the summer, with testing at our Irvine, California, headquarters starting in September. The previous year’s category winner is tested side by side against the crop of the latest challengers. We evaluate seating comfort, ease of entry and exit, luggage space, amenities, and infotainment systems. In addition, we look closely at build quality, cabin materials, pricing against the competition, and expected resale value and operating costs. We also get behind the wheel and test drive the vehicles over a series of loops involving everyday traffic and road conditions to experience the cars as an owner would. A manufacturer’s reputation for quality, reliability, durability, and various warranties, including bumper-to-bumper and powertrain, also factor into our decision. 

For 2024, the Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Awards go to the best in categories that encompass nearly the entire range of vehicles that meet virtually all automotive needs. We also recognize the year’s Best New Model. Our awards are a powerful tool to help you make the right new vehicle choice. 

This story originally ran on KBB.com.