Page 102 - Motor Trend (January 2020)

NEWS I OPINION I GOSSIP I STUFF

Angus MacKenzie
The Big Picture

Car or Truck or SUV of the Year:

Why nobody else can do it

mitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. Well,
Bob Petersen would have been pretty flattered to see
how often the Big Idea he came up with 70 years ago—
the MotorTrend Car of the Year—has been imitated.
IIn the United States and around the world, variants
of our Of The Year awards are now legion.
But, I’d argue, nobody does it better than we do. Why?
An evaluation process that’s transparent, considered,
and consistent, combined with a ton of hard work by an
awful lot of people.
It starts and finishes with our six criteria—advancement
in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value,
and performance of intended function. In between is a
rigorous process.
Every contender was put through a full battery of
performance tests by our road test team—this year they
covered 96 miles on the dragstrip alone—to provide accu- There are very few new vehicle awards given by automo- You’re looking
rate performance data for the judges. The judges arrive tive media anywhere in the world where the process of at 33 cars
representing
at a fully equipped proving ground—Hyundai/Kia’s near choosing the winner is so openly documented and care- 21 models
Mojave, California, for Car of the Year; Honda’s is just up fully controlled. Some of these other awards, incredibly, contending
the road outside California City for SUV of the Year; and allow judges to vote for vehicles regardless of whether for our Golden
Calipers.
FCA’s a couple dozen miles from Kingman, Arizona, for they’ve actually driven them.
Truck of the Year—and participate in presentations that This year’s three Of The Year programs required a total
highlight key features and technologies, pricing and rivals, of 86 people to execute, a crew that occupied a total of 67
and design concept and execution. hotel rooms over 21 nights. In addition to judges, we had
Then each judge drives every contender at the proving photographers and videographers braving dust, snakes,
grounds, working through their own series of evaluations. scorpions, and heat—the temperature topped 100 degrees
With their various tracks and special most days—to capture imagery for use
surfaces, the proving grounds allow the online, in print, and on our video-on-
judges to explore limit handling and demand and cable TV platforms. We
concentrate on evaluating attributes such had specialist car wranglers who made
as noise and refinement, off-road traction, sure contenders were kept fueled
or fully laden towing performance, in complete safety. or charged, and we had fresh tires when needed. And
These proving ground sessions easily weed out those because, like the military, MotorTrend marches on its picture
vehicles that, against the criteria, are most obviously not stomach, one editor was assigned the important task of
potential Of The Year award winners. We then conduct making sure we were all fed and watered.
on-the-road analysis in nearby urban areas to get a sense By the time you read this, our social media team will
of these vehicles’ real-world abilities. have created hundreds of related posts on our social
Under these conditions, the focus shifts to evaluating platforms. And our editors will have written thousands
minutiae such as the smoothness of throttle response and of words that effectively provide reviews of every new car,
gearshifts under light throttle loads, the effectiveness of truck, and SUV launched in America over the past year.
safety systems such as lane keep assist and smart cruise It’s easy to win a popularity contest. It’s hard to win a
control, and how intuitive the infotainment interface is MotorTrend Car, Truck, or SUV of the Year award because,
to use while the vehicle is moving. The winner is then simply, what we do is hard to do. Q
chosen by secret ballot, after hours of deliberations and
To be able
spirited argument. to step foot
You’ve probably noticed a theme here: Every judge gets down there,
MT staffers are
up close and personal with every Of The Year contender,
required to take
kicking their tires, checking the test data, cranking stereo safety tests, sign
volume knobs, opening and closing trunks and tailgates, NDAs, and affix
tamper-telling
sliding into endless back seats, and then driving them back tape to mobile
to back on the same roads under the same conditions. phone cameras.

102 MOTORTREND.COM JANUARY 2020