For the better part of the past 100 years, Kelley Blue Book has served as an invaluable resource for consumers looking to properly assess the value of new and used automobiles. It has also become a valued touchpoint in the consumer ratings arena, with many in the market for a new car, truck, or SUV seeking insights from KBB when researching their prospective purchase. 

Kelley Blue Book also offers annual rankings of major automobile manufacturers in the market through awards. The KBB awards are, however, dubbed as a Consumer Choice celebration, with the faction basing its results on insights from real-world shoppers. The Consumer Choice Awards for 2026 were recently announced by Kelley Blue Book, and according to the outlet, shoppers crowned neither Ford nor Toyota as the top brand in any of the key categories, with Honda Motor Company instead running the table in the Best Brand category.

The Best Overall Brand is, perhaps, the most important of those wins, with Honda taking that coveted KBB honor for a fifth consecutive year. The Japanese automaker — whose vehicles retain solid resale value — was also named Most Trusted Brand and Best Value Brand, as well as Best In-Vehicle Experience, Best Performance, and Best Car Styling. According to Kelley Blue Book, those results are based on opinions culled from “more than 12,000 in-market, new vehicle shoppers, tracking 14 key factors” including affordability, safety, reliability, durability, and interior layout, among others.

Honda also chalked up a win in the Best Overall EV/Hybrid category, based on the strength of its CRV, Accord, and Civic models. While Honda cleaned up on awards in the general brand categories, the automaker did not take home an award in every Consumer Choice category offered by Kelley Blue Book for 2026.

In any case, another Japanese auto brand performed particularly well across the various luxury car categories, as Lexus — which is owned by Toyota — earned top marks in three of the six categories, including Best Overall Luxury Brand, Most Trusted Luxury Brand, and Best Value Luxury Brand. As for the other three categories, Mercedes-Benz won the award for Best In-Vehicle Experience. The iconic luxury brand also took top honors for Best Car Styling Luxury Brand.

Rounding out the luxury categories is the award for Best Luxury Performance, which ultimately went to the Volkswagen Group-owned German manufacturer Porsche. The final category in Kelley Blue Book’s 2026 Consumer Choice Awards is for the Best Overall Truck Brand. If you’re familiar with Ford’s dominance in truck sales, you might be surprised to learn that the brand did not earn top marks from KBB consumers. That honor instead went to the Ram brand, which clearly wowed the consumers tracked by Kelley Blue Book’s Brand Watch Study.