North America Car and Truck of the Year Awards for 2009 go to the all-new Hyundai Genesis and the completely reworked Ford F-150, it was announced today at the press introduction of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
To win the coveted honors, vehicles have to be completely new or substantially revised. A jury of 50 independent automotive journalists across the U.S. and Canada began the selection process by testing every new car and truck introduced this last year. Next they assigned a points-value to vehicles that, according to the rules of the judging, “set new benchmarks in the classes in which they compete. Jurors evaluate the vehicles on factors including value for the dollar, innovation, handling, performance, safety and driver satisfaction.”
Finalists in the Car of the Year category included Ford Flex, Hyundai Genesis, and Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTec, Dodge Ram, and Ford F-150 were finalists for Truck of the Year honors.
The Genesis makes history as the first Korean-made automobile to receive the prestigious award. The Genesis is a rear-wheel-drive four-door sedan offered with a 3.6-liter V6 or Hyundai’s all-new and first-ever V8, a 4.6-liter that produces 375 horsepower. The combination of performance, safety features, luxury amenities and design elements rivals that of other similarly equipped and built sedans costing thousands of dollars more.
Like the Hyundai Genesis, value isn’t the only attribute that earned the 2009 Ford F-150 Truck of the Year kudos. It’s officially America’s safest full-size pickup truck, having earned a 5-star frontal and side-impact rating in National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) crash tests and “Top Safety Pick” honors from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS). To complement its safety technologies, the new F-150 is more aerodynamically designed for greater fuel efficiency. Ford says, “For trucks equipped with the 5.4-liter V-8 engine, fuel economy improves by as much as 12 percent. At the same time, the new F-150 delivers class-leading towing capability of 11,300 pounds and hauling capacity of 3,030 pounds—a combination no other competitor can match.
Read the complete reviews of the 2009 Hyundai Genesis and 2009 Ford F-150 as well as detailed buying information in the Hyundai and Ford new vehicle buyer’s guides.