The Volkswagen Golf VI beat out the Ford Fiesta and Toyota IQ for title of World Car of the Year Awarded at the New York Auto Show. In sub-categories, the Nissan GT-R won for Performance WCOTY, the Honda FCX Clarity won for the green car, and the Fiat 500 won for design.
Press release after the jump.
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The New York Auto Show is has an odd placement. By the time of the show, most of the manufacturers have already revealed their big releases for the current year and are waiting for the fall shows (Frankfurt/Paris) to tease the big releases for the next year. So one thing that has become a big deal to come out of the show is the World Car of the Year Awards.
We got the first 11 finalists back in January, and now the jury has narrowed the field to three:
Ford Fiesta
Toyota iQ
Volkswagen Golf VI.
There are also sub-categories, and one that we are particularly interested in are the three finalists for the performance car of the year are: Corvette ZR1, Nissan GT-R and Porsche 911 Carrera. For those who have gone eco-friendly, the finalists for green car are: Honda FCX Clarity, Mitsubishi iMiEV and Toyota iQ. Best design nominations: Citroen C5, Fiat 500 and Jaguar XF.
Winners will be announced April 9th.
Press release after the jump
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The WCOTY (world car of the year) will be announced in April at the New York Auto Show, but now we can narrow it down to 11 finialists:
Audi A4 / Avant
BMW 7 Series
Citroen C5 Sedan / C5 Tourer
Fiat 500
Ford Fiesta
Honda Fit / Jazz
Jaguar XF
Mazda Atenza / Mazda6
Nissan GT-R
Toyota iQ
Volkswagen Golf VI.
A jury of fifty-nine international automotive journalists representing Asia, Europe, North America, South America, as well as other parts of the world, selected the finalists by secret ballot. Usually ten are chosen, but a tie has widened the field to eleven.
Just because this was represented by international journalists, doesn’t mean the field is complete. They may have left a few cars out, so go ahead and write in your WCOTY vote here. It won’t effect the judging, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from arguing on the internet before.
Press release after the jump.
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2008 was the year of the car. The cheap speed seemed to be in full effect from 638 hp $106,500 Corvette ZR1s to 265 hp $25,000 Subaru WRXs; Lamborghini seemed to have more versions of vehicles than total production a few decades ago; and although the Nissan GT-R was our favorite last year, we didn’t get our hands on one until this year.
2009 doesn’t look as promising. The global economic meltdown has not just sent domestic automakers running for cover, but also has sent manufacturers worldwide cutting forecasts and/or looking for help. The fast and fun cars that we love usually sell in the smallest numbers and are likely the first to get slashed.
We hope our job of finding the Car of the Year may be as fruitful next year, because this year we had a fine crop to choose from. So let the dissention begin as TopSpeed’s 2008 car of the year is…
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Emotion and raw charisma can forgive shortcomings, just ask Jeremy Clarkson. He described the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 as "not built very well", in the same Sunday column that he declared his car of the year.
Those lucky enough to live in Britain have already seen Clarkson discover what fun can be had with the ZR1 on Nevada’s roads. Ferrari performance, $106,500 price and everyday usability, keeps it in the running for our car of the year.
It seems Top Gear the magazine and Top Gear the TV show have split their Car of the Year decisions. The magazine chose the the Dodge Challenger as its COTY (CORRECTION:Muscle Car of the Year), while the Clarkson, Hammond and May are sticking by the Caterham Superlight R500. The two cars are alike in that they are both retro fun, but accomplish it in two very different ways.
The Challenger is brute fun (you’ll see in our upcoming review.) Shortcomings that arise from a muscle car built on a full-size car chassis are made up for with a huge engine and badass personality.
The Caterham is the never-say-die spirit of the Lotus 7. Where the Challenger uses a big Hemi V8 to get its speed, the Superlight R500 stays true to its name and uses its svelte 1100 lbs weight (500kg) to give it speed. It also helps that its 2.0-liter Ford-sourced engine is rated at 263 hp. 0 to 60 times are in the sub-three second range.
Since its debut the Nissan GT-R won quite a few awards! And today Motor Trend added a new one: the 2009 Car of the year.
"No Nissan has been as formidable or as capable as the GT-R, and no 2009 contender crushes our criteria like the GT-R. For that, it deserves our Golden Calipers," said Angus MacKenzie, editor-in-chief of Motor Trend.
The 2009 GT-R is the sixth generation of Nissan’s flagship sports car. It is the first to come from a "clean slate" design — all the others were based on Japanese-market Skyline models — and the first to be globally marketed. A single technician in a climate controlled clean-room environment hand assembles the all-new VR38DETT 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-6 as well as the GR6 six-speed twin-clutch transmission.
Besides the Nissan GT-R, this year’s field of contenders for Car of the Year included: Acura TL, Acura TSX, Audi A4, BMW 135i, Dodge Challenger R/T, Honda Fit, Hyundai Genesis, Jaguar XF, Lincoln MKS, Mazda6, Nissan Maxima, Pontiac G8, Pontiac Vibe, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Matrix, Volkswagen Passat C
The winner for the 2009 European Car of the Year will not be announced until three weeks from now, but Fiat insiders announced that the Alfa Romeo MiTo has been voted European Car of the Year 2009 by a panel of sector journalists.
The Fiat group also took silver with the Lancia Delta. And proving that the Italians are not the only ones with soul, the Ford Fiesta is taking home third place.
A statement from the Fiat group said that the MiTo was the first time that Alfa Romeo has produced a subcompact sports car and that this project was ’’aimed at recruiting a new generation of Alfa-lovers’’. Now all they need to do is bring the MiTo across the Atlantic so that there can be a new generation of American Alfa-lovers.
The candidates for the 2009 European Car of the year have been announced today. The winner will be announced on November 17 at the Paris Motor Show.
Many candidates are already on sale in different European markets or will be soon, and therefore meet the eligibility criteria. The contenders, that could be more than 35 by September, must be new models available in at least five European countries at the time of voting, with foreseeable minimum sales of 5,000 per year.
Full list of candidates after the jump.
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The Toyota Yaris has been named Green Car of the Year 2008 by the Environmental Transport Association. The least green car is the Dodge SRT-10 sports car. The announcements come ahead of the start of Green Transport Week (14th - 22nd June).
The Environmental Transport Association has looked at over 1300 models of car currently on sale in Britain and examined their power, emissions, fuel efficiency and even the amount of noise they produce to create the definitive guide to buying the greenest vehicle.
The Car Buyers’ Guide was first published by the ETA in 1992 in response to requests from its growing membership and has since become the environmental benchmark for the car industry and the public, championing the greenest cars in Britain.
The results are as follows:
Overall Winner: Toyota Yaris
Overall worst: Dodge SRT-10
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