By Jeff Gilbert, WWJ AutoBeat Reporter
My educated guess is that Ford and Honda will be very happy when we hand out the awards for North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year on Tuesday.
But the consensus of 50 automotive jurors doesn't necessarily reflect the way that I voted.
The process aims to get a consensus, and it works well as our jury reflects journalists with very different backgrounds, and very different ways of reviewing vehicles.
Our first vote narrowed the crop of new and redesigned vehicles down to three finalists in each category.
We don't simply vote for our choice among three; we award points. So here's my thinking in the three categories.
UTILITY
In this "era of the SUV" that could be the highest profile category. I went Bronco all the way, and gave it all ten of my points.
That said, my personal "Utility of the Year" would have been the Jeep Wagoneer/Grand Wagoneer, but other jurors saw it differently, and it wasn't a finalist.
So in a head-to-head competition between the Bronco and the Hyundai Ionic 5 and Genesis GV 70, I saw the choice as clear. The other two are fine vehicles. Genesis is a wonderful luxury brand, but the GV 70 is similar to other Genesis models, nothing different. Ionic 5 is going to be a great EV. But the Mustang Mach E, which one last year was a game-changer. The Ionic 5 adds some nice innovations, but it doesn't change anything.
Now, we come to the Bronco. Not only is it a great off-roader, but it's forced Jeep's hand and made them better. It's the start of a new segment for Ford, and takes the off-roading segment to new heights.
CAR
I did something a little different here. I honestly believe the Honda Civic is going to win. It's picked up the award before. It's a great small car, well done, with lots of choices, good value and a great reputation for quality.
But I didn't give it a single point.
Why? I don't think it's a ground breaker. I think another vehicle is, and believe it needs all the help it can get from me.
That vehicle is the Lucid Air.
The current version totally fails the "value" equation at $160,000. That turns off a lot of other jurors, and I was pleasantly surprised that it got enough votes the first time around to be a finalist.
But, I looked beyond the sticker price of the current vehicle, and see the Lucid Air as a game changer. It has some great battery technology, which appears to be ahead of anybody else's. It feels like a real luxury car...not a science experiment. But has just enough tech to make it feel different.
There will be other versions, going down into the $70,000-$80,000 range of today's luxury car.
So, I see it as something that heralds new trends ahead; the kind of vehicle that deserves honors, especially in the ever diminishing "Car of the Year" category.
But I also see myself as tilting at windmills.
As for the other entry, the Volkswagen Golf GTI. It's a great car for a niche of the market. It's a finalist because many of the jurors are in that niche -- small fun to drive sporty cars that aren't quite sports cars. That doesn't spell "Car of the Year" to me.
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TRUCK
This was the most difficult choice for me. I loved all three players: the Ford Maverick, Hyundai Santa Cruz and Rivian R1T.
I slaved over this one, and ended up giving the Maverick 7 points and the Santa Cruz 3.
I probably liked the Santa Cruz better, because it feels more like an SUV and less like a pickup. But, that's also a bit of a weakness as well. So many have tried to win with a vehicle like this, but there's been little success. So, at the end of the day, as much as I liked it, it's not as ground breaking as the Maverick.
You can't argue that a solid small pickup truck for under $20,000 isn't a ground breaker. You have to give up some amenities I love, like the blind spot warning, to get that price...but it's still a decent vehicle and gets you 40 miles per gallon.
You can pay more to get the amenities you love.
And Ford also gets credit for re-entering a segment first, likely to be followed quickly by several competitors.
But, I really needed to spend time in several trims to come to this conclusion.
What about Rivian? I love what they are doing as well, but -- from the point of being an EV startup -- the Rivian R1T isn't as ground breaking as the Lucid Air is in the car segment. Still, in a different year, it may have been a winner.
In years past, we presented the award to open the North American International Auto Show. Now, we'll be at Huntington Center (the former Cobo) with organizers of the auto show Tuesday morning at 11 a.m.
You can tune in at this link https://northamericancaroftheyear.org. Watch for me as I present the Utility of the Year Award.
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