Although the odds were stacked in their favor, GM didn't sweep the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards as many expected. Of the six finalists (Cadillac CTS, the Chevrolet Malibu, Honda Accord, Buick Enclave, Mazda CX-9 and Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid) four were from The General's stable. But a dark horse stole one event. Oh right, sorry. I know the tension's killing you. Right. The North American Car of the Year is the car you can't buy: the Chevrolet Malibu. The NA Truck of the Year is the crossover that thinks it's a truck the Mazda CX-9. There was a bit of murmuring about Malibu getting the award over the CTS, since the Malibu is essentially a reskinned Aura and the Aura won last year. But the judges seemed to think the new Malibu was such an improvement over the previous dismal piece of shit that it deserved recognition. (Apparently the CTS wasn't that much of an improvement.) How the CX-9 made it over the media darling Tahoe Hybrid is still a mystery– although it pays to keep in mind (so to speak) that Mazda is a Ford brand. Meanwhile, the event planners spent most of the opening ceremonies this morning patting themselves on the back, congratulating themselves on what a fine job they think they did this year. Fair enough?
[Reporters: Sajeev Mehta and William C. Montgomery]
Who the hell gets to pick the contestants and vote?
NickR :
Who the hell gets to pick the contestants and vote?
Journalists. Picked by a panel of journalists. Who then receive a week behind the wheel of all the cars nominated for the award. Which sucks-up a WHOLE lot of press cars that might otherwise go to– hang on. What was I thinking?
The car you can’t buy? Malibu production is ramping up while maintaining 100% build quality.
Toyota shoved the Tundra out the door too fast and put a dent in thier quality image.
I looked far and wide and was not able to find a towing specification for the CX-9 on Mazda’s website. Just to be sure I wasn’t missing it, I checked the site for the B-series Truck and easily found a towing spec in the same tab that held none for the CX-9. I also found out that the car is front-wheel-drive when not all-wheel-drive equipped. The only figure I was able to find that was truck-like was the car’s weight.
Let’s call a spade a spade here folks. CUV’s are simply heavy passenger cars. They generally have none of the handling qualities of a performance car nor any of the utility or off-pavement ability of trucks and proper SUV’s.
Mazda is not a ford brand, because ford doesn`t do any engineering for mazda, while mazda does most for ford. Sooner ford is a mazda brand. Just because some fat assed Murdocks have bought shares, doesn`t make the kin.
The Malibu may turn out to be a decent car. It took a long while before I started to see Fusions after its introduction.
2 NACOTY back-to-back awards with just 1 car? Must be some mind-altering substances in those press cars.
2 NACOTY back-to-back awards with just 1 car? Must be some mind-altering substances in those press cars.
Yep it’s called money.