On Monday, January 11, awards for the North American Car and Truck of the year will be announced.

 

Among the car finalists are the Chevrolet Camaro, Buick LaCrosse, Ford Fusion/Hybrid, Ford Taurus, Honda Insight, Kia Soul, Mazda3, Subaru Legacy, Suzuki Kizashi, Toyota Prius, and Volkswagen Golf/GTI/TDI. The Chevy Equinox, Subaru Outback and the Ford Transit Connect are among finalists for the truck portion of the competition.

 

This marks the 17th year that these awards have been given. Automotive journalists are selected to review the cars, and then give the awards for the car/truck based on how "different" and "better" they are from the previous model.

 

The cars are awarded based on their innovation, design, safety, handling, driver appeal, and bang for the buck. To be able to compete for the awards, the cars must be totally redesigned with respect to the previous years equivalent model.

 

The awarding journalists represent many differing environments, such as radio, television, newspapers, Web sites, magazines, and more.

 

Several General Motors cars have won these awards recently. The most recent GM awards were for the Chevy Malibu in 2008, and the Saturn Aura in 2007.

 

Source: General Motors