2014 Chevrolet Corvette, Silverado are the Best New Car and Truck in North America

General Motors came into the 2014 North American Car and Truck/SUV of the Year awards with the best chance of taking home some new hardware with three of the six finalists coming out of the GM stable. In the car class, the competitors to the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray were the 2014 Cadillac CTS and the 2014 Mazda 3 while the Silverado faced off against the 2014 Jeep Cherokee and the 2014 Acura MDX.

It doesn’t come as any big surprise that the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray beat the new Cadillac CTS and the Mazda 3 because – honestly – the new C7 Corvette is an incredible piece of American machinery. The new Stingray introduces an all-new Corvette for just the 7th time in the last 60+ years which makes this car special to begin with but when you add all of the impressive aspects of the new Corvette – it is very clear why the North American jurors picked this new Vette as the best new car in America. The 2014 Stingray is the most powerful and the most efficient “base” Corvette of all time and with the history behind this legendary performance car, the Corvette is a worthy winner of this major award.

Over in the truck battle, things weren’t quite as clear for GM as he 2014 Chevrolet Silverado had some stiff competition in the form of the new Jeep Cherokee. This new compact Jeep promises all of the rugged trail riding abilities as other Jeep sport utility vehicles – or at least some of the smaller ones – with tons of power and a new 9-speed automatic transmission that makes it one of the most fuel friendly SUVs sold in the North American market. The Acura is also a very good vehicle but with the improvements made to the Silverado lineup and rave reviews for the new Cherokee, the truck class was really a 2 horse race. In the end, the jury opted for the new Silverado and I am not all that surprised considering how much the GM half ton truck lineup has improved with the new generation.

Sweeping the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards is a big deal for General Motors as it shows that their newest and most critical products are winners. That sounds a little odd but both the new Silverado and the new Corvette mean a great deal to GM for very different reasons and it was crucial that GM succeeded with these two new models – and succeed they have.

Congratulations to General Motors for the impressive feat of taking both the North American Car of the Year and the North American Truck of the Year for 2014.