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Market-Changing Cars Nominated by Independent Jurors

20 December 1999

North American Car and Truck of the Year Award Committee: Market-Changing Cars Nominated by Independent Jurors

    DETROIT, Dec. 17 -- Three cars and three trucks that will
change the segments they compete in have been selected by a jury of 47
independent auto journalists in the United States and Canada for the North
American Car and Truck of the Year Awards.
    Finalists for North American Car of the Year are Audi TT, Ford Focus, and
Lincoln LS.  Finalists for North American Truck of the Year are Dodge Dakota
Quad Cab, Nissan Xterra, and Toyota Tundra.
    Winners in both categories will be named at the first news conference of
the North American International Auto Show in Detroit's Cobo Hall at 7:30 a.m.
on January 10.
    The awards were created five years ago to give consumers across North
America an idea of what many of the continent's top auto writers thought were
the best new vehicles of the year.
    The awards are independent and paid for by the jurors.  While the award is
presented at the world-class North American International Auto Show, it is
not associated with the annual event.
    Jurors are asked to consider the nominated vehicles from several
perspectives, but perhaps the most important thing they bear in mind is the
impact they think each particular vehicle will have on the segment in which
it competes.  So it can be a great car or a fun car, but if it doesn't raise
the bar in its particular segment, it isn't going to make the list of
finalists.
    "The idea behind the awards is to focus the expertise of North America's
top automotive journalists on the newest cars and trucks from America, Asia
and Europe," says Christopher Jensen, the head of the 1999 organizing
committee.  "What these experts are asked to do is help consumers by selecting
the most innovative and value-packed new vehicles in their segments, vehicles
that set new benchmarks."
    Unlike other awards, in which the winners are notified beforehand, no one
but Richard Gabrys, the vice chairman of Deloitte & Touche, knows the North
American Car and Truck of the Year winners until they are announced.
    "Automakers like to talk about surprise and delight features on their
vehicles," says Jensen, the automotive editor at The Plain Dealer of
Cleveland.  "Because only Deloitte & Touche vice chairman Dick Gabrys knows
the winners, we do some surprising and delighting -- and some disappointing --
of our own when the envelopes are opened at the North American International
Auto Show."
    Jensen says that last year, "Ferdinand Piech, the chairman of Volkswagen
AG was visiting from Germany and did not want to attend our news conference
because he couldn't believe the New Beetle could have won and that we would
not have tipped off Volkswagen in advance.  But Volkswagen executives from the
United States persuaded him that the winner really was a secret and he showed
up.  Still skeptical, Piech bet one of them $20 that the New Beetle did not
win.  He was stunned -- and happy to pay the twenty bucks -- when the New
Beetle did win."
    In addition to Jensen, the other members of the organizing committee are
free-lance journalist Alex Law; Tony Swan of Car and Driver; John McElroy of
Blue Sky Productions; John Davis of MotorWeek and John Stewart of Petersen
Publications and free-lance journalists Ken Gross and Jim McCraw.