2010 North American Car & Truck of the Year Finalists Announced

The final contenders for the prestigious 2010 North American Car and Truck Of The Year awards has just been announced. The models which have made the final cut are the Buick LaCrosse, Ford Fusion Hybrid and Volkswagen Golf/GTi in cars and the Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Transit Connect and Subaru Outback in trucks. The winners will be announced on Jan-11-2010 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. One of the above models will be crowned as successors to the 2009 title winners, the Hyundai Genesis and Ford F150 in Cars and Trucks respectively.

The awards, which are in their 17th year, are very special and unique in North America because, instead of being given by a single media outlet, they are given by automotive journalists from USA and Canada representing all sections of the media like websites, television, magazines, etc. The awards are designed to recognize the most outstanding vehicles of the year based on factors that include innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar. To be eligible, vehicles must be “all-new” or “substantially changed” from the previous model. This year the jury considered more than 50 vehicles and finally focused on 16 cars and 10 trucks.

My bet is on the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Chevrolet Equinox to walk away with the honors for 2010 making it a clean sweep by the domestic automakers. But the jury may pull out a surprise at the Detroit Auto Show. So it's a long wait till Jan-11 to check whether my predictions and guesses are true.