TwiBlueG35

I don't see how special Genesis is. What makes it a legitimate candidate for COTY of 2009? Even it is a well made RWD large sedan for a price of a compact sports sedan, it is not good enough to be chosen in my opinion. If this is the case, Honda Fit is more bang for the buck. To me Nissan GT-R is the only car qualified to be chosen to get this award among the cars for this year. In my opinion Audi A4, BMW 1-series, Dodge Challenger, Honda Fit, Hyundai Genesis and Jaguar XF are all great cars, but not enough technology or performance breakthrough to be on par with GT-R.

LexFather

The Honda fit gets WORSE mileage than the last one and looks like a failed refrigerator. Oh but its a Honda, it must be good.

The GTR redefines performance. You don't need to spend over 100k to get over 100k performance.

The Genesis offers true luxury (lol Acura) for a portion of the price.

My longshot is the G8 as you get 360hp for 30k, a great chassis, good interior and fantastic looks.

UDel

My vote would be GTR, there has not been a performance car in a long long time that has made a impact and getting people talking and is beating its much more expensive competition and posting so many performance records as the Nissan GTR. All this for half and even half the price of most of its competitors and the GTR really does not seem to be cost cut aside from sharing basic platforms and basic engine blocks with some lesser Nissan/Infiniti cars, even the interior is high quality and nicely done and unique just to the GTR which is amazing as it would have been much easier and less expensive just to use a Z or G37 interior in the GTR. There is little to fault the GTR aside from its heavy weight which it overcomes and not so pretty looks but looks are subjective and it has a interesting unique look of its own. GTR is definitely the biggest news in the performance/enthusiast circle in a long time and deserves Car of the Year in my opinion.

I8ABMR

GTR hands down. Its going to revolutionize the sports car market around the world and raised the bar for all manufacturers. Kind of like the NSX back in the day

djyoshi626

iTrader: (5)

highly doubt that GTR will make it. It will probably be the 1 series or Genesis ...

xcntuatd77

I think it will be between new TL and Maxima, and Genesis.

all combine performance, luxury, and value for mid $35K

LexFather

The new TL from my sources has been a sales disaster so far and the only thing it should win is the Aztek look alike contest or ugliest sedan on the market contest.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Well it's hard to sell a high 30s car when the people are panicking and holding onto their money for all but essentials. Car sales are going to tank this month.

duboseq

I think the Jaguar XF has a good shot!

duboseq

I think the Jaguar XF has a good shot!

speedflex

I think the Car of the Year should be the car that made the year memorable. It should be that one car that comes to mind years from now when you talk about 2008-9. By that measure I'd say it's the GT-R.

Woogie

I laughed out loud when I read this, Mike. Acura is a joke.

ISF84

Good Point. Also, I don't see many people talking about the Hyundai Genesis' audio system. It's got a 528-watts 17 speaker Lexicon audio system, which IMO just blows away any stock audio system I've heard in a car.

Threxx

You have heard it? I heard it but they didn't have any source material so I could only play XM radio. It was good, but not great. The 2009 TL's ELS sound system and the LS460's Levinson system both sounded much better. Then again I had better source material in those cars so that may have been why.

Audio brands seem to be meaning less and less these days with car audio. The Levinson systems in Lexus vehicles are not even remotely on par with Levinson's home audio stuff. Same with Lexicon in Hyundai. It's like Harman International likes whoring out their high end brand names.

wmb

I believe it's pretty hard selling car now in the mid-30's plus the styling is not going to help. But I do no think that just because of the styling alone is tanking the TL sale.

A few have seen it in person and it's not half bad although I have not seen it in person myself.

Isn't there a saying that "Beauty is only skin deep" or "Never trust a book by it's cover"

But I think the winner will also be a G8