SANTA MONICA, Calif. — The brackets are set, the prognostications have begun, and for the next three weeks America will watch in breathless excitement as the matchups play out before their very eyes. Of course, we’re referring to Edmunds.com’s Car Madness 2012, a bracket-style tournament where both casual and passionate auto enthusiasts will help decide the most popular car on the road today.
Edmunds.com has identified 32 of the most researched vehicles on its site and assigned them to four brackets: Small Cars, Midsize/Large Cars, SUVs/Trucks and Luxury Vehicles. Vehicles with the highest research volume in each category since the beginning of the year are seeded No. 1 and continue in descending order, with eight vehicles seeded in each bracket.
Starting today, Facebook users can vote for their favorites among the first batch of early-round matchups on the Edmunds.com Facebook page. The vehicle that wins each pairing will move on to the next round and will draw one step closer to the finals. The final four vehicles will battle each other the week of March 26, with a final champion declared on April 2, 2012.
“The best part of this tournament is that users are free to set their own criteria for which cars are the best,” said Edmunds.com Executive Editor Michael Jordan. “Do you care more about the car’s fuel efficiency or its performance? Maybe you just think it’s a good looking car. Maybe you drive the car yourself, or you prefer foreign cars to domestics. As far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t matter WHY you vote as long as you vote!”
Full details of Car Madness 2012 – including a printable color bracket of the entire tournament field – can be found on Edmunds’ InsideLine.com’s Straightline blog.
Results and updated analysis of the tournament will appear regularly on Twitter@edmunds as well as well as on Straightline and Edmunds.com on Facebook.
About Edmunds.com, Inc.
Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Its acclaimed mobile site, Edmunds.com Android App and five-star Edmunds iPhone and iPad apps make car pricing and other research tools available for car shoppers at dealerships and on the go. Its automotive enthusiast web site, InsideLine.com, is the most-read car publication of its kind. Its highly regarded mobile site and iPhone app features the wireless Web’s most comprehensive gallery of automotive photos and videos. Edmunds.com Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit. Follow Edmunds.com on Twitter@edmunds and fan Edmunds.com on Facebook.