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cliff notes:
The Honda Accord was named the North American Car of Year at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Monday.
The Accord shared the award with the Volvo XC60 and Lincoln Navigator, which were named Utility of the Year and Truck of the Year, respectively.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/15/and-...e-year-is.html

 

Finalists:

Car of the Year
Honda Accord
Kia Stinger
Toyota Camry

Utility Vehicle of the Year
Volvo XC60
Alfa Romeo Stelvio
Honda Odyssey

Truck of the Year
Lincoln Navigator
Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
Ford Expedition

 

The NACOTY are basically the auto press voting and rewarding whatever vehicles they deem worthy of the spotlight. They bill themselves as the "Oscars of the Auto Industry", lol. As we know, consumers and the auto press can often be at odds with each other. There have been some questionable choices in the past but also some good ones too.

Chrysler Cirrus won in the nineties, and so did the Dodge Neon... er the PT Cruiser in 2001. But then Corvette, Honda Ridgeline and Ford F150 have also won.

Nevertheless it's a nice win for the XC60 which just aced the Euro NCAP crash/safety tests. One of the safest cars in the world with their stringent testing.

 

I can't comment a whole lot here because, except for the Stinger (which I just reviewed) I haven't seen most of these vehicles close up...I hope to do so at the upcoming D.C. Auto Show. But, at least from what I've seen in the images and specs, the Navigator may indeed have been a good pick.

 

Glad to see the Accord and not the KIA was the winner.

 

Don't understand why expedition and navigator are jn the 'truck' category.

 

 

Why? Because you think that me and maybe a few others here are over-hyping the Stinger?

 

Interesting outlook. Personally I couldn't care less who won or didn't win. I do find the list and contenders in each category interesting though.

 

Decades ago, before the Age of the Internet, car forums, and social-media chat about cars, the Motor Trend COTY award was a big deal. Unfortunately, it was given, several times during 70s and early 80s, to vehicles that looked good on paper, initially drove and performed well, and seemed to significantly add to the state of the auto industry, and then significantly embarrassed both Motor Trend and Consumer Reports by causing their owners a great deal of grief in poor quality and frequent repairs. Those included the 1971 Chevrolet Vega, 1976 Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen, 1978 Plymouth Horizon/Dodge Omni, and 1980 X-body compacts by GM (Citation/Phoenix/Skylark/Omega). The 1974 COTY, the Pinto-based Mustang II, was not necessarily unreliable, but was considered by many to be a joke. The COTY award no doubt added to the initial sales of these vehicles, almost all of which sold extremely well, but quickly became unreliable lemons.

Car and Driver magazine later admitted they were duped by the fact that GM gave them special hand-built prototype X-bodies to test and evaluate, then later rushed through sloppy-assembled and poorly-engineered versions down the assembly lines for general production. Yep, those were the bad old days.