2012 North American Car and Truck of the Year Finalists

NORTH AMERICAN CAR AND TRUCK OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com
Detroit Bureau

The ornate second-floor ballroom of the historic Detroit Athletic Club was packed with media and auto industry folks, all members of the Automotive Press Association, as finalists for the 2012 North American Car and Truck of the Year honors were announced by committee chairman, Karl Brauer.

These awards are generally considered more prestigious than many of the others because they are judged and presented by an independent group of North American and Canadian journalists rather than a magazine or other entity that accepts advertising.

To be eligible for the award vehicles must be new for 2012 and be available for sale in North America.

From a long slate of cars the jurors selected as finalists: Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and Volkswagen Passat.

Truck finalists are: 2012 BMW X3, 2012 Honda CR-V and 2012 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque.

Discussions continue within the NACTOY committee on exactly where the line is drawn between cars and trucks as the lines continue to blur between the two.

The final winners will be announced by NACTOY at an early morning press conference on January 9th kicking off the North American International Auto Show.

Your TACH team will be there to cover it, of course.