Superiority - GT-R
Significance - Fit
Value - G8

Toyota Caroola for being in touch w. the market. Actual unit sales should be the correct answer.

Genesis will take the crown.

The MT Car of the Year award has already proven itself worthless. Just a sample of previous winners to ponder:

2005 CHRYSLER 300
2002 FORD T-BIRD
2001 CHRYSLER PT CRUISER
1997 CHEV MALIBU (i guess the import sedans were crap)
1996 DODGE CARAVAN
1995 CHRYSLER CIRRUS (musta been a world beater I forgot)
1983 AMC ALLIANCE
1981 CHRYSLER K CARS

As you can plainly see, winning the MT COTY award has nothing to do with picking a well designed car. Sure, I can understand why some cars would even be in the running (the K cars "saving" Chrysler, for example), but to actually WIN the award only illustrates why MT is the asshat car mag of the auto industry. It's the paper version of Top Gear sans Le Stig.

I agree the Genesis will take it. It truly wins the significance category, as it is Hyundai's potentially successful penetration into the luxury car market without using a different brand name. It also has obvious value and may take superiority.

The rest are typical cars in typical markets. They may have sweet performance, but are they really significant for their company?

Most likely to be purchased although it's Hideous - Acura TL
Most likely to be ignored - Acura TSX
Most Expensive Junk - Audi A4
Most likely to be mistaken for cheap instead of light - BMW 1 Series
Most likely to be called a POS without a fair shot - Dodge Challenger
Most likely to sell even though its gas mileage isn't that great - Honda Fit
Most likely to do better in magazine tests than in the marketplace - Hyundai Genesis
Most likely to be considered leverage than a great place to sit- Jaguar XF
Most likely to get lost in the Airport parking lot - Lincoln MKS
Most likely to be mistaken for the illegitimate spawn of a Mercedes S class and a miata - Mazda6
Most likely to be called a 240SX with a body kit - Nissan Motors GT-R
Most likely to be called 'sporty' instead of the truth which is 'ugly' - Nissan Maxima
Most likely to drive better than it sells - Pontiac G8
Most likely to be confused with a Matrix - Pontiac Vibe
Most likely to be purchased even though the designer who penned the fenders never met the designer of the greenhouse - Toyota Corolla
Most likely to be confused with a Vibe - Toyota Matrix
Most likely to have a resale value exceeded only by its accumulated non-warranty repair bills - Volkswagen CC

What a pathetic showing...

"Most likely to have a resale value exceeded only by its accumulated non-warranty repair bills - Volkswagen CC"

LMAO

All the posters pretty much hit the nail(s) on the head.

I think Road & Track should have a car of the year award, their staff actually seems like journalists in comparison to Motor Trend (do they even have an editor)...and Top Gear is a joke. Fifth Gear is much more useful.

I would love to uppercut Jeremy Clarksons big tub he calls a head.

Another vote for the Genesis here.

The US needs a magazine like CAR. My personal favorite car mag though used to be Sports Car International. I never see them around anymore though. Granted, Road and Track and Motor Trend allow you read about everyday cars too...so a bigger reader's market.

Genesis? Maybe, but I drove the Genesis and the Lincoln MKS for the first time on the same day back to back, and honestly I was much more impressed with the Lincoln. Afterwords I read all the drooling reviews of the Genesis and the mediocre reviews of the MKS and I just don't understand them. I challenge you all to go out and do the same thing. Drive both cars back to back. You'll have more of a smile on your face after the Lincoln. Don't get me wrong the Genesis is a great car. I sold Acuras for a couple years when they first came out and at the time nothing on the road compared to them. They revolutionized the auto industry, but they were so quiet, so refined and perfect compared to all the other cars out there on the market they were almost boring to drive. That's what the Genesis is like. The MKS isn't as refined, but it has more smile factor. At least it did for me and I'm a sophisticated judge of new automotive metal.

There's no contest

Nissan GTR

Unmatched by all

Why is it that all car tests are performed in dry track conditions and a cars handling superiority is thus judged when a majority of our driving is performed in varying wet/icy conditions?

How can a sports car that isn't removed from the garage 6+ months of the year be considered "good performance value"?

This comparison will be no different.

for me, it has to be the GT-R,
superiority: it ran a 7:29 on the nurburgring. I know there was that article that says it was done on semi-slicks or whatever, but how many cars can match that? not that many. And plus, it's a skyline! That in itself means it is superior to many other performance cars out there
significance: I'd say, a lot. The first Skyline brought to the US in its 40+ years of production, even though everyone who's played Gran Turismo knows about it and won countless races because of it, not to mention its the new version of Japan's "biggest contribution in the supercar market" -Top Gear, season 1
value: pretty good, although the recent price bump does hurt its chances a bit, but it ran a pretty close race with the Corvette ZR-1. The GT-R was slower, and again, i dont care if the race was "faked", but let's be honest, a ~$80k 2+2 coupe running less than 10 seconds slower than a $100k+ sports car is no easy feat.

If not the GT-R, though, I'd say the Hyundai Genesis or the Pontiac G8

An American Magazine? Hummm, Crown Vic. Hands down.

Nothing else is as typical, and well-executed as a Crown Vic.

I find it funny with all the GT-R posts. Its not the car of the year by any stretch. It will probably sell the fewest by numbers. Its track times are fudged and you would never ever ever come close to duplicating them. Its probably the most uncomfortable car in the entire field with those ridiculous racing bucket seats.

A good sports car it might be but its hardly car of the year by any stretch of the imagination.

Should be the Hyundai Genesis or Pontiac G8. These two cars garnered the most attention and press this year and seems to be the most exciting for users that will actually use them.

@Incarnate Anger
Great post!

I looked at the list and noticed it could've been shortened... Some of them are obviously not going to even come close to winning.
How did the Vibe even get on that list?

Gtr followed by the g8 and the xf. at least that's the way i would like it to be. but knowing MT the g8 will win car of the year.runner up will be the fit. thrird will be either the xf or the genesis.

Pontiac G8

The Mazda 6 will win it.

It is most improved from the previous generation in size and interior quality. It is reliable, good looking, and stays away from extremes of design while being tasteful and understated like a german car. It is affordable, sporty to drive, gets decent gas mileage in either 4 or 6 cyl variant, backed with a good solid bumper to bumper warranty for 4 yrs or 50,000 miles, Lots of trunk space to boot.

Performance Car - Nissan GTR

Value Car - Honda Fit

Crappiest Car - Lincoln MKS

The Jaguar XF should win. Not just because I have a Supercharged version, and not just because it is a great car which has a perfect balance of beauty, performance, technology, comfort and luxury as well as a good price (best vehicle in it's class - and there are some very good vehicles it competes against). But because this car has probably saved Jaguar.

Hum that's a tough won. So many good cars this year and a lot of boring ones as well. I think for your money's worth it would have to be Between the Pontiac G8 or the Nissan GTR. Only problem is that with the limited amount of GTR's out there a 20k-30K markup is to be expected. The GTR only cost $53K in Japan. I am going to go with the Pontiac G8. It's got a Vette Engine on a sedan for around $32K. It looks great except for the front grill. Even though it's not a Firebird I would like to see some with the Eagle on the front. That would look so sick.

@Arthur Pappas

Your list of winners being only american cars and the bashing of them only helps to persuade readers with a truely objective way of thinking, into believing how your impressions are not only biased but purely ignorant.

1981 - K Cars - Definately relevant at their time for their specific market. I'm sure you weren't even born or were too young to buy one, maybe you can show us all a better purchase in 1981?

1983 - AMC Alliance - Not the best of choices, but you should see the runner ups.

Then you conveniently jump from 1983 to 1995 missing American cars like the following:
- 1994 Ford Mustang
- 1993 Ford Probe GT
- 1992 Cadillac Seville Touring Sedan
- 1991 Chevrolet Caprice Classic LTZ
- 1990 Lincoln Town Car
- 1989 Ford Thunderbird SC
- 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix
- 1987 Ford Thunderbird
- 1986 Ford Taurus LX
- 1985 Volkswagen GTI
- 1984 Chevrolet Corvette
What is wrong with these vehicles? Seem like greats for their time, remember they are up to 20 years old.

1995 Chrysler Cirrus - Great car for the time, cab forward design was definately neat, and Chrysler had a few good race wins with DTM versions of the Cirrus and Stratus. Guess you forgot that as well

1996 Dodge Caravan - Sold like hot cakes when it re-invented the market on its release, and obviously did in 1996 as well. Sorry, I guess you and the rest of the world can afford to drive 2 seaters?

1997 Chevrolet Malibu - Not the best of cars, but did you see the contenders?

2001 PT Cruiser - You'd have to be a complete idiot to say this didn't sell like mad. Not to mention, at least Chrysler wasn't afraid to design something rather interesting.

2002 Ford T-Bird - A car that was only made a couple of model years, took America's heart back to Ford, and revisited a lot of old styling cues. You don't have to like it, but its definately a different and neat looking car every time I see on on the road.

2005 Chrysler 300 - Based on a $45,000+ mercedes E Series platform, catchy and agressive styling... lemme guess, this one didn't sell well either?

You have to remember, cars that are considered for COTY candidates MUST be new for their model year, and sometimes were beat by American cars due to the simple fact that they had nothing interesting to offer during that year. Let me guess, you'd rather have Camry's and Accords winning every single year. They are truly the best build and most reliable cars in the industry, but for gods sake, please don't drive one unless you don't happen to have a pulse. You sir, have just made yourself look like a pompous fool. I am in no
way an American car lover, never even owned one. You should try to have an opinion of your own rather than following the idiotic banter on these blogs.

-Josh

Acuras quiet? What? You must be kidding!! You may have sold them, but obviously you never drove in one! The cheapest Camry is light years quieter than a TL of the same year. Quiet. What a joke!

I guess incessant tire noise, obtrusive wind noise and an uninteresting exhaust note is what passes for quiet these days.

The new TSXs are not any better either. No Honda or Acura product has ever been as quiet as the equivalent Toyota or Lexus product.

And yes, I have traveled many a mile in several Honda/Acura and Toyota models. I can speak from experience.

Chad - If you had bothered to read what I wrote, I'm talking about Acuras when they were intro'd over 20 yrs ago. Now they are just another vehicle because most of the other manufacturers have caught up and some surpassed them in 20+ YEARS. AT THAT TIME, nothing compared to them and they revolutionized the market. The only other car that came close AT THAT TIME was the first version of the Nissan Maxima, and even that didn't compare. I was the top salesman for nearly half the time I was at that dealership and they called me the Legend Man because I sold so many legends as opposed to the integras. I drove them A LOT! Where they quiet? At the time the Legend was the only car I was aware of that you could not hear running from the inside of the car. Nothing else compared. Frankly, the Genesis reminds me quite a bit of those first 4 door Legends.

@ josh

I "conveniently" left out the vehicles you listed because they were WORTHY. Get it? My post was to to simply point MT's COTY award is not to be taken seriously.

Yeah, missed the 'first came out' part. My bad! You are right, they were incredible vehicles when they first came out. I always hated that they got rid of the Legend name. One of my coworkers had a Legend coupe and it was an awesome car.

My most humble apologies for not paying more attention and flying off the handle like a fool!

Chad

(But the new Acuras are still lame!)

NP - I agree about the name. Legend was an excellent name and they should have kept it. Its a sure thing that they have honda'd all that was interesting of of Acura. The MDX was also excellent when it first came out and now its just blah, and 50k!!! yuck. I miss the good old days of Acura.

@Incarnate Anger:

... will you have my children?

Genesis or Mazda6

Who said crappiest car is the Lincoln MKS?

That car is sweet! Its got good power, AWD, good price, full luxury, handles great, looks awesome...

I'm crazy about a Lincoln. All you fellers wait a couple years. Ford is doing some AMAZING things.