Sunday, December 13, 2015

SPOILER! Motor Trend Car/Truck/SUV of the Year!

MOTOR TREND "___OF THE YEAR" ISSUE


Motor Trend magazine annually picks their Car of The Year, SUV of The Year,  and Truck of The Year. This latest copy of the periodical rolls all three into one gigantic issue as seen in the photo above. I encourage you to go out and buy the latest issue, or even subscribe, or just attend one of their car shows soon and get a free one year subscription like I do! Either way, the Motor Trend folks pretty much cover all things automotive.

In describing their Car of the Year process, they state that they limit the competition to new or newly updated 2016 cars, and put a price cap of $150,000 on cars under consideration. I'm in no position to really nit-pick a bunch of professional journalists, but one of the cars they evaluated was a Mercedes AMG that with options priced at $152,000 and change. Believe it or not it got a great review and was chock full of awesome performance! At the price of more than 4 average cars ( average retail of new vehicles in the US is now about $31,000 or so) I should hope it's a nice ride!

Anyway, from reading so many magazines, one thing that I appreciate is when the reviewer finds a new or funny way to describe a car. There are already too many articles that state a car was fast, quick, handled like butter, or just lists the top speed, 0-60 times, and can quote the gas mileage, so a unique turn of a phrase always catches my eye. In this issue of MT, one of the reviewers describes an automatic transmission in a car with this great phrase, that the transmission is always changing gears, and "hunts more than Ted Nugent"! That's funny right there!

SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

Just to get to the bottom line, their Car of The Year is the 2016 Camaro, the Truck of The Year is the Chevy Colorado, and the SUV of The Year is the Volvo XC90. In honor of our NMS 1999 Miata, I must also let you know that Motor Trend states that the new Miata was just one point shy of taking their Car of the Year title, so we'll take that as a resounding "Miatas still rock"! They also considered the new FIAT 500X in the SUV category, so way to go FIAT!

HEMMINGS SPORTS AND EXOCTIC CAR......FORZA

If mainstream American car mags aren't your thing, branch out a bit and try these two that are a bit more specialized for particular automotive interests, Hemming's Sports and Exotic Car, and Forza. While the former typically focuses on foreign sports cars like the Jaguar XK140 on the cover, this issue also includes an article on the Honda Insight, a more recent and less sporty/exotic car than the Jag. On the other side of the coin is the all Ferrari FORZA!

TOP GEAR................................CAR

Speaking of British imports (like the Jaguar), if you've got a few more dollars to spend on your search for automobile education and reading enjoyment, try these British imports; Top Gear and Car. The Top Gear caught my eye for the awesome looking orange McLaren on the cover (another British import on my list-to-buy-when-I-win-the-lottery), while Car features the red Alfa Romeo Giullia. One of each would look great under my Christmas tree, I thank you very much! My wife even liked the look of the McLaren, so if you can only buy one super car this year for me, make it that one!

Feel free to check out the Motor Trend winners, or go pick your own winner.

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