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Fourth Annual Residual Value Awards For The Top Segment Leaders and Inaugural Brand Residual Value Awards

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Aug. 7 -- ALG's annual Residual Value Awards honor those vehicles in each segment predicted to retain the highest percentage of their original price. This year ALG added awards for the brand with the highest predicted resale value of all industry and luxury vehicles. The awards are arrived at after careful study of segment competition, historical vehicle performance and industry trends.

Heading the list this year is Volkswagen of America with the Volkswagen Brand winning the Industry Brand Residual Value Award. Volkswagen also received the award for the Midsize Car Segment with the Volkswagen Passat.

Mercedes-Benz also made a strong showing in this year's awards winning the Luxury Brand Residual Value Award in addition to the Mercedes-Benz CLK winning the individual award for the Luxury Car Segment.

BMW of North America is a repeat winner of the Near Luxury Car Segment for the BMW 3 Series. MINI USA, a division of BMW of North America, won the Compact Car Segment for the MINI Cooper in its first year of eligibility.

Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. continued a strong tradition in the Residual Value Awards winning three individual segment awards: the Tacoma for the Compact Truck Segment, Sequoia for the Fullsize SUV Segment and the Tundra for the Fullsize Truck Segment. All three are repeat segment leaders from last year.

American Honda Motor Co., Inc. received several segment awards, including: the Acura MDX for the Compact SUV Segment; the CRV for the Sub Compact SUV Segment; and the Odyssey for the Minivan Segment, a repeat winner for the past four years.

Another repeat winner this year is Porsche Cars of North America for the Porsche 911, which won the Sport Car Segment award.

"Residual Value performance has long been considered the best way to analyze the health of automotive manufacturer's vehicles. We felt that the introduction of the Industry and Luxury Brand Award rankings will provide consumers and industry professionals with a clear set of vehicle depreciation benchmarks and provide a yardstick for automotive brands to measure themselves," said ALG's CEO, John Blair.

                 Summary of 2002 Residual Value Award Winners

                    Brand Awards                       Brand

       Industry Brand Residual Value Award      Volkswagen of America
       Luxury Brand Residual Value Award        Mercedes-Benz

                   Segment Awards                     Vehicle

       Compact Car                              MINI Cooper
       Midsize Car                              Volkswagen Passat
       Sports Car                               Porsche 911
       Near Luxury Car                          BMW 3 Series
       Luxury Car                               Mercedes-Benz CLK
       Minivan                                  Honda Odyssey
       Sub Compact SUV                          Honda CR-V
       Compact SUV                              Acura MDX
       Fullsize SUV                             Toyota Sequoia
       Compact Truck                            Toyota Tacoma
       Fullsize Truck                           Toyota Tundra


                      Industry Brand Residual Value Rankings

                          Rank                Brand
                           1                VOLKSWAGEN
                           2                HONDA
                           3                TOYOTA
                           4                SUBARU
                           5                NISSAN
                           6                JEEP
                           7                GMC

     Only brands above the industry average were ranked.  Below industry
     average were the following brands (listed in alphabetical order):  Buick,
     Chevrolet, Chrysler, Daewoo, Dodge, Ford, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda,
     Mercury, Mitsubishi, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, and Suzuki.


                       Luxury Brand Residual Value Rankings

                          Rank                Brand
                           1                MERCEDES-BENZ
                           2                BMW
                           3                ACURA
                           4                LEXUS
                           5                AUDI

     Only brands above the industry average were ranked.  Below industry
     average were the following brands (listed in alphabetical order):
     Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lincoln, Saab, and Volvo.

     Note: All brands with vehicles in at least two segments and minimum
     annual volume of 40,000 units were included.  As a result of this
     requirement, Land Rover, MINI and Porsche were excluded from the above
     rankings.


Based in Santa Barbara, California, Automotive Lease Guide is a privately held company that has been forecasting automotive residual values for over 35 years in both the US and Canadian markets.

Please visit us at www.alg.com to learn more about the 2002 Residual Value Awards, or any of ALG's other products and services. For further information, please contact Matt Walker, 805-563-0777 x116, or email: mwalker@alg.com.