IOL Motoring Staff
Detroit Motor Show - The new Honda Civic has been named North American Car of the Year, while the Volvo XC90 is the region’s Truck of the Year. Yes, as refined as they are, SUVs still fall under the competition’s 'Truck' classification.
The Civic won the car category with 203 points, ahead of the Chevrolet Malibu (181 points) and the Mazda MX-5 (146), while the 'truck' front-runners were the Nissan Titan XD (109) and Honda Pilot (111 points).
The Volvo scored the highest points in the competition, having garnered 310 points.
Last year, the Volkswagen Golf and Ford F-150 won the North American car and truck of the year awards.
According to the Car of the Year guidelines, "the awards recognize the most outstanding vehicles of the year based on factors including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar."
To be eligible, vehicles must be “all new” or “substantially changed.”
The competition, which has been running since 1994, is judged by 53 journalists from a wide variety of motoring publications in the USA and Canada.