The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro is one of three finalists for International Car of the Year. Notably ICOTY choose no Japanese products in either truck or car finalist categories.
Detroit overwhelmingly dominated the choice of finalists for the International Car and Truck of the Year awards while Japanese brands were notably absent from the top six picks.
The selection suggests that while the Big Three still have their struggles ahead, they’re beginning to put out a host of increasingly competitive products.
General Motors and Ford Motor Co. each placed one of the three finalists, with Hyundai and Volvo contributing the other picks.
The nominees for Car of the Year include:
On the Truck of the Year side, ICOTY’s judges picked:
- Chevrolet Equinox
- Ford Transit Connect
- Volvo XC60.
(Click on the highlighted links, above, to read TheDetroitBureau.com’s own reviews.)
The ICOTY judges are told to look at a variety of features, including innovativeness, performance, quality, and that hard-to-describe emotionally compelling factor.
The 2010 Ford Transit Connect is one of three truck of the year finalists.
“The awards are not centered on power and performance,” said Courtney Caldwell, ICOTY’s founder, and one of several dozen judges. “It’s about how cars reflect our personalities, lifestyles and self image, an attitude most consumers identify with.”
This year, the Car and Truck of the Year awards will be handed in December, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, rather than the Detroit Auto Show, as had been the case since the ICOTY program was founded.
So the seven-year-old Transit Connect is nominated for International Car of the Year because it got a new grille this year? How much did Ford pay for that?