Car and Driver Names Annual 10Best Winners Among Other Things
15 December 1999
Car and Driver Names Annual 10Best Winners Among Other Things ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec. 14 -- Car and Driver today announced
in its January 2000 issue winners of the 18th annual 1OBest cars sold in
America.
This year's winners are: Audi A6 2.7T/A6 4.2, Audi TT, BMW 3-series, BMW
5-series, Chrysler 300M, Ford Focus, Honda Accord, Honda S2000 and Porsche
Boxster.
Each fall Car and Driver editors gather in Ann Arbor, Mich., to spend a
week with nominees test driving, poking under the hood, checking out the back
seats and examining the construction details, including the cup holders. They
rate each car on a scale of 1 to 100. The ten vehicles with the highest
average scores become the best of the best.
"The car industry is red hot. This year's 10Best selection was a
difficult one with the high number of quality vehicles in our nominee field,"
said Csaba Csere, editor in chief.
1OBest began in 1983 with the desire to produce a list like everyone else.
However, in keeping with the personality of the magazine, the staff did not
believe that just one car would cover the diverse readership and circulation.
So, they selected 10 cars.
The competition is open to any car, pickup truck, sport-utility vehicle,
or van provided it meets the following criteria. First, it must be a regular
production vehicle sold through normal channels, at least somewhere within the
50 United States. Also, any nominee must also be for sale, or "in the stream
of commerce," as the Washington legal types like to say, by the end of January
2000. Car and Driver also insists that the vehicles fall under a price cap to
make sure that the list of winners isn't heavily weighted toward machines that
carry house-size prices. The price cap is calculated by taking the average
new-vehicle transaction price, as determined by a survey of the National
Automobile Dealers Association, and multiplying it by two and a half. As a
result, the price cap climbed to $61,000 for 2000. Note: The car price must
include base price, including freight, dealer prep, luxury and gas-guzzling
taxes.
At the end of judging, ballots are handed over, rating each entry on a
scale of 1 to 100. Because of the long-lead time for Car and Driver, the
results are kept in confidence until the magazine is released to subscribers
and newsstands.
The January 2000 issue also includes the 1OBest Winners and Losers, the
10Best Custom-Four-Wheel-Drivers, the 10Best Straightaways and the 1OBest Car
Jokes. The issue is available on newsstands today.
Car and Driver magazine, headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., is the world's
largest circulation automotive magazine and the premier source of information
for automobile enthusiasts. Content includes everything from new car
previews, road tests and features to industry news and automotive humor.
