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Honda, Hyundai and Kia get best word-of-mouth recommendations in US

Forget advertising, incentives and, yes, even our excellently crafted vehicle reviews, sometimes the best way for automakers to sell cars is still good ol' fashioned word of mouth. In an attempt to measure this "word of mouth" power, The Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting firm, has created a new study called the Brand Advocacy Index (BAI). The index takes a look at how various industries perform from person to person. Those industries include automotive, smartphones, grocery, mobile telecommunications and banking.
The study polled more than 32,000 individuals across Europe and in the US to come up with the top 55 brands in these various industries. On the automotive side of things, the top brands in the US were Honda, Hyundai and Kia, all tied at 63 percent. On a global scale, Volkswagen and Toyota scored the highest with a 65-percent BAI rating (both in France). The average BAI for auto industry players tallied 50 percent.
As for companies in other industries, Apple's iPhone was the index's top-rated smartphone, Trader Joe's was the highest recommended grocery store, Virgin was sat atop the mobile telecom industry and USAA was the top retail bank. Scroll down for the full press release on the new study.

IED PassoCorso concept is a student-designed Hyundai we can get behind

Sometimes the best ideas come from fresh eyes, and a group of design students from Istituto Europeo di Design - better known as IED - are out to prove that sentiment with this striking Hyundai PassoCorto concept. This two-seat thesis project of the Master of Arts in Transportation Design program for the Turin, Italy school will be officially unveiled at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show beginning March 4.
The concept is said to be 161 inches long, 74 inches wide and 45.7 inches tall. It rides on a 96.5-inch wheelbase, which makes sense since passo corto means "short wheelbase" in Italian. The engine is tipped to be a mid-mounted, twin-turbo, 1.6-liter four-cylinder pumping out 266 horsepower. Judging by these images, we think the design looks fantastic, with all those sharp lines and creases drawing to a point in the rear. It shows a wonderful balance of being wild enough to draw attention, yet it almost looks realistic enough for the road.
The styling comes from 16 IED students coordinated by Luca Borgogno, lead designer for fabled Italian design house Pininfarina. The students were given a design brief by Hyundai to create a vehicle aimed at young, connected people like them. All of the students submitted a proposal, and two were selected to be merged together in a final look. The entire class contributed to bringing the design to full scale. Scroll down to get the full scoop on the little sports car concept.

Which car companies are creating new jobs in America?

Since January, automakers have announced investments totaling $9.5 billion in U.S. plants, creating or retaining more than 12,000 jobs. Some of those companies have yet to announce just how many jobs will be created given their investments, with the location of many of those jobs still to be determined. Specifically, the 4,000-job Toyota-Mazda joint venture plant still hasn't announced its location, with numerous states jockeying for it. Hyundai has plans to invest $1 billion but has not announced a jobs number yet. And likewise Ford is investing $1.2 billion in Michigan without specifying a number of jobs. Volvo this week announced plans to add a second line to its factory under construction in South Carolina, spending another $500 million and adding 2,500 jobs to the 2,000 it was already trying to fill. Then Thursday, Daimler announced a $1 billion expansion to its facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala., to produce EV batteries and electric SUVs, a move that will add 600 jobs to its hiring this year. Above, we've created a handy pie chart showing you which companies have announced new jobs and how many there will be. Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit News Source: Reuters Plants/Manufacturing BMW Chrysler Ford GM Honda Hyundai Mazda Mercedes-Benz Toyota Volvo jobs