Car of The Year

Last Tuesday Motor Trend magazine announced its annual "Car of the Year" award and the winner is Honda Civic. Motor Trend considers three factors in picking the winner: (i) significance or the impact on the market, (ii) superiority or a leading level of performance in terms of both style and functionality within its vehicle class, (iii) value or what one gets in return of the money one pays.

A spokesman for the magazine said that it is giving the award to the Civic for all four of its new versions,"With the sizzling Si, a sleek coupe, an elegant sedan and a Hybrid that averages 50 miles per gallon, each model shines through with what Motor Trend looks for when crowning Car of the Year."

The Civic is the nation's best-selling compact car model. Interestingly, it was the only Honda model up for consideration for the award. Other leading contenders for the award were: (i) US: General Motors' Buick Lucerne, Cadillac DTS, Chevrolet Cobalt, Chevrolet HHR, Chevrolet Impala, Pontiac Solstice; Ford's Fusion, Lincoln Zephyr and Mercury Milan; DaimlerChrysler's Dodge Charger, Mercedes-Benz CLS and R-Class. (ii) Japan: Toyota's Avalon and Lexus GS and IS models; Nissan's Infiniti M35/M45 models; Mazda's Mazda5 (small wagon) and the MX-5 sports car; Mitsubishi's Eclipse GT. (iii) Korea: Hyundai's Accent, Azera, Sonata and Kia Rio. (iii) Germany: Audi A3, BMW 3 Series; Volkswagen's Jetta and Passat.

Chrysler 300 and Toyota Prius were the winners of 2004 and 2003 respectively. Note that Honda Civic won the best family car award from AAA and Parents magazine back in May, 2005 (read our posting )