I revise this post as I pull my foot out of my mouth. My esteemed critics state that to be a contender, you just have to show up. So, my comment about "I coulda been a contender." may have been premature.
However, @michaelbanovsky says: "I will say that I'll be shocked if the Routan doesn't finish dead last." I don't expect the Routan to win COTY in my wildest dreams. But, outright negative comments were made about the Honda Insight, Lexus HS250H, and Mazda3. We'll see.
2010 Car of the Year - The Year the Car Biz Changed | Car News Blog at Motor Trend
Posted November 13 2009 02:19 PM by Angus MacKenzie
Filed under: Car of the Year, The Big Picture
The past 12 months has been truly apocalyptic for the auto industry. GM, once the proud symbol of American enterprise and the very engine room of American capitalism -- broke; Chrysler, the scrappy survivor that somehow always drove back from the brink with a killer new product -- bust; Ford, the company that put the world on wheels -- hanging on by its fingernails. Detroit is bruised, battered and bleeding. The icy wind blasting down Woodward Ave this winter has an especially bitter edge.
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…This was the year everything changed in the car biz. Well, almost everything: As we celebrate our 60th year, Motor Trend's Car of the Year is still the award every automaker wants to win.
Just five American cars are eligible this year, but all are heavy hitters. …
Asian automakers dominate the 2010 COTY line up, with 11 new or significantly improved cars… European brands account for seven contenders, including hugely significant cars from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche…
Motor Trend's Car of the Year is not a comparison test -- each vehicle is judged against our six criteria. The process starts at the 4300 acre, $58 million Hyundai/Kia Proving Ground in California, where each contender is put through the complete series of Motor Trend performance tests to give the judges baseline data from which to work.
Each judge drives each contender around a 13.5 mile loop that takes in the proving ground's high speed track, the freeway surfaces road, and the demanding winding road. The judges also conduct detailed static reviews, looking at design, build quality, engineering innovations, and features. Daily meetings discuss strengths and weaknesses in detail.
The aim of this first phase is not to pick the Car of the Year, but eliminate those vehicles that do not measure up against the key criteria. As always, some vehicles fall well short of the high standards required for a COTY winner. Others come tantalizingly close.
For phase two of the judging process, we move away from the controlled environment of the Hyundai-Kia proving ground, and out onto real world roads, courtesy of a 28.5 mile road loop based out of Tehachapi, California. We've found how these cars work at their limits: now we find out how they work in everyday driving conditions.
The focus here is on the detail stuff. Each judge drives each contender over the route, which includes stop-start city driving, two lane blacktop, canyon roads and freeway stretches, offering a variety of surfaces and a variety of speed and powertrain load conditions.
After all the testing, the driving, and the tire-kicking, we convene one last time to debate, discuss, and decide which of the contenders is our Car of the Year.
We'll announce the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year on Tuesday, November 17. And for the first time in history, you can be right there as we break the news to the world. How? Simply log on to motortrend.com next Tuesday at 1.30pm EST/10.30am PST, and you can watch me reveal the winner live via our streaming video feed.
I'll tell you this much now: COTY 2010 was one of the toughest ever, with four cars receiving primary votes from the judges. Our winner nailed an overwhelming majority, though, and proves that even in the midst of a most turbulent year, sweating the details on product engineering, not financial engineering, is the right thing to do.
HERE'S THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE 2010 CONTENDERS:
BMW 7 SERIES
BMW Z4
BUICK LACROSSE
CHEVROLET CAMARO
FORD FUSION
FORD MUSTANG
FORD TAURUS
HONDA INSIGHT
HYUNDAI GENESIS COUPE
KIA FORTE
KIA SOUL
LEXUS HS 250H
MAZDA3
MERCEDES-BENZ E-CLASS COUPE
MERCEDES-BENZ E-CLASS
NISSAN 370Z
NISSAN CUBE
PORSCHE PANAMERA
SUBARU LEGACY
SUZUKI KIZASHI
TOYOTA PRIUS
VOLKSWAGEN GTI
VOLKSWAGEN ROUTAN
2010 Car of the Year - The Year the Car Biz Changed | Car News Blog at Motor Trend
