Before the North American International Auto show opened its doors to the media preview, a group of 53 automotive journalist revealed their top car and truck for 2016. This year’s winners of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year are the Honda Civic and Volvo XC90, both of which have won the award previously.
The pool of vehicles considered for the award is culled from new vehicles for the model year, and they showcase benchmarks in their segments based on factors including innovation, comfort, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar.
The shortlist for the car and truck pool, announced at the end of last year, included:
- Honda Pilot
- Nissan Titan
- Volvo XC90
- Chevrolet Malibu
- Honda Civic
- Mazda MX-5 Miata
In the last 23 years “domestic” automakers have won North American Car of the Year 12 times and foreign automakers have won 11 times. Japanese automakers have four wins. European automakers have five wins. Korean automakers (Hyundai) have two wins.
Domestics have won the truck competition 15 times. Foreign automakers have won eight times. Of those eight wins, Japanese automakers have won four times and Europeans have won four times.
