General Motors made a clean sweep of the influential North American Car and Truck of the Year, with Chevrolet's new Corvette landing the car award and the Silverado netting the truck honors, despite a recent recall.
Going into the opening ceremony at this year’s North American International Auto Show it was far from certain who would take the car and truck honors. Many members of the jury saw it as perhaps the most competitive group of finalists in the 21 years of balloting.
GM had a better than even shot at winning the Car of the Year trophy as the Cadillac CTS sedan was one of the other finalists, along with the new Mazda3.
In the truck category, the Chevy Silverado was up against the new Jeep Cherokee and the Acura MDX sport-utility vehicle.
The Silverado has now won the North American Truck of the Year trophy twice, marking the fifth time a GM truck has won. On Friday, GM said it was recalling 370,000 Silverados and GMC Sierra pickups for possible fire issues in the exhaust system.
The Corvette, meanwhile, has won twice, previously being named North American Car of the Year in 1998.
Over the years, Detroit’s Big Three makers have won North American Car of the Year 12 times, while the Japanese have won it three times and Europeans four times. Korea’s Hyundai has won twice.
On the truck side, domestics have won 14 times, the Japanese four times and Europeans three.
The North American Car and Truck of the Year were chosen by a jury of 48 automotive journalists from the U.S. and Canada. The awards are not affiliated with the North American International Auto Show.
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