The Car Connection Names Best Car To Buy 2025: Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid

• Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid receives top honors from trusted car research brand
• Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Volkswagen ID.Buzz get accolades from related performance/luxury and green-vehicle enthusiast brands
• Honda Civic Hybrid, Chevrolet Equinox EV, Kia EV9, Rivian R1T/R1S take more honors

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Car Connection, the easiest place to research and shop for cars online, today named the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid as its Best Car To Buy 2025.

Related auto enthusiast brands Motor Authority and Green Car Reports also named the winners of their Best Car To Buy awards. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N took the title of Motor Authority Best Car To Buy 2025, while the Volkswagen ID.Buzz was named Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2025.

The Car Connection also named its best picks in six individual categories:

Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid: Three-row SUV sets a new hybrid benchmark

The Car Connection's expert editors chose the Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid from a competitive field of nominees. Contenders were new or fully redesigned models that achieved top scores in The Car Connection's unique "TCC Rating" system.

The 10-point TCC Rating reflects scores given to each vehicle across six categories: safety, comfort and utility, fuel economy, performance, technology, and styling.

"Hyundai continues to set a high bar for three-row SUVs with its latest Santa Fe," said Marty Padgett, Editorial Director of The Car Connection, Motor Authority, and Green Car Reports. "The Santa Fe Hybrid offers something for the driver who needs it all—space, efficiency, and style."

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N: Electric-car bona fides, hot-hatchback performance

Performance and luxury brand Motor Authority named the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N as its Best Car To Buy 2025. Editors selected the winner from new or redesigned luxury/performance vehicles made available for testing. The winner was judged to have the strongest appeal to enthusiasts with acceleration, handling, styling, and features—as well as value—with no price limit.

"Our team had big-time fun and posted some hot lap times in the Ioniq 5 N," Padgett said. "The Ioniq 5 N proves that electric-car drivers can excel on the race track, too."

"Sorry about the tires."

Volkswagen ID.Buzz: A forward-thinking people mover cloaked in a throwback look

Green Car Reports, a research and news destination for electric, hybrid, and fuel-efficient cars, named the Volkswagen ID.Buzz as its Best Car To Buy 2025. Editors chose the most significant new vehicle made widely available to shoppers during the 2025 model year, taking into account new technologies, practicality, and impact on the environment.

"The ID.Buzz carries more people, more efficiently, than anything in its class," Padgett said. "The bonus? It looks and feels like the reincarnation of the Microbus—just better in every way."

About The Car Connection

The Car Connection is the easiest place to research and shop for cars online. The site makes car research easy with its unique "TCC Rating," a clear numeric rating value based on a 10-point scale that reflects the overall opinion of our automotive experts on any vehicle.

The Car Connection is part of the Internet Brands Automotive Group, one of the largest collections of automotive properties on the Internet, including pioneering online car-buying platform CarsDirect and a collection of more than 130 online auto enthusiast communities. Collectively, the Internet Brands Automotive Group reaches more than 23 million unique visitors each month.

About Motor Authority

Motor Authority is one of the world's leading luxury and performance automotive destinations, focusing on the latest news for the finest vehicles on the market today. Since 2006, Motor Authority has delivered the very latest luxury and performance car news, reviews, spy shots, photos and videos. Motor Authority's editorial team is made up exclusively of automotive industry veterans with more than 100 years of combined experience. Motor Authority is part of the Internet Brands Automotive Group.

About Green Car Reports

Green Car Reports has been a premiere online destination for deciphering the rapidly changing world of "green" cars since 2008. Covering electric vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and everything in between, the Green Car Reports editorial team drives and reviews all green cars on the market. The result is comprehensive, up-to-the-minute coverage of the segment that keeps consumers in touch with the latest news and information they need to make an informed buying decision. Green Car Reports is part of the Internet Brands Automotive Group.

SOURCE The Car Connection