2014 North American Car and Truck of the Year Nominees Announced

The long list for the 2014 North American Car of the Year award contains 28 vehicles with an incredible variance in the type ranging from very small electric options like the Smart ForTwo Electric and the Chevy Spark EV up to large sedans like the new Chevrolet Impala and the Mercedes Benz S-Class. Japanese automakers have the most vehicles on the car list with 9 nominees with German cars ranking second with 7 entries on the list. American automakers are third with 6 nominees and it should be noted that all 6 of those vehicles are from General Motors. Korean automaker Kia accounts for 3 of the vehicles on the list while Italian automaker giant Fiat rings in with 2. There is also a sole British-turned-Indian with the inclusion of 1 Jaguar. General Motors leads the way in terms of the automaker with the most vehicles running for the car of the year award with 6 followed by Damiler – which has 4 Mercedes Benz models and the aforementioned Smart ForTwo Electric.

It should be noted that the NACOTY award originally included 29 vehicles but Kia asked that the upcoming Quoris luxury sedan not be included in this year’s award. The jury permits any nominated automaker to remove any or all vehicles of theirs included in the award.

Over in the North American Truck/Utility of the Year award, it is clear why this award is no longer simply known as the Truck of the Year award as there are only 5 actual pickup trucks on the list of 19 prospective winners. Japanese automakers comprise almost half of the field with 9 entries; 7 sport utility or van vehicles and 2 actual pickup trucks. American automakers will have 6 vehicles hoping to make the cut to the short list with 3 SUVs and 3 pickups along with 2 Korean SUVs, 1 German SUV and a Land Rover that falls into the same British/Indian category as the Jaguar above. Toyota has the most vehicles battling for the 2014 NATOTY award with 3 followed by General Motors with 2 options that are essentially the same truck from two different brands (Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra). The Truck and Utility award list also have the only Chrysler and Ford vehicles (provided that we don’t count the Fiat 500L) but when you consider that the Ford Transit and Ram Heavy Duty names have been front runners for the big North American award in past years – both Ford and Ram still have a very real chance of winning with just one entry.

The jurors of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards will now spend the next few months driving these vehicles to prepare to cut down to about a dozen vehicles on the “short list”. From there, the jurors will more closely compare those short list vehicles to pick their top 3 for each award and from those 6 vehicles, the winners for each category will be picked. As always, the winners will be announced at the Detroit Auto Show next January. The 2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards were won by the 2013 Cadillac ATS and the 2013 Ram 1500.

2014 North American Car of the Year Nominees:
2014 Acura RLX
2014 BMW 4 Series
2014 Cadillac CTS
2014 Cadillac ELR
2014 Chevrolet Corvette
2014 Chevrolet Impala
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV
2014 Chevy SS
2014 Fiat 500L and E
2014 Honda Fit EV
2014 Infiniti Q50
2014 Jaguar F-Type
2014 Kia Cadenza
2014 Kia Forte, 5-door, Koup
2014 Kia Soul
2014 Lexus IS
2014 Maserati Ghibli
2014 Mazda3
2014 Mazda6
2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class
2014 Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class
2014 Mercedes-Benz E-Class
2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class
2014 Mitsubishi Mirage
2014 Nissan Versa Note
2014 Porsche Cayman/Cayman S
2014 Smart fortwo electric
2014 Toyota Corolla

2014 North American Truck/Utility of the Year Nominees:
2014 Acura MDX
2014 BMW X5
2014 Buick Encore
2014 Chevrolet Silverado
2014 Ford Transit Connect / Wagon
2014 GMC Sierra
2014 Honda Pilot
2014 Hyundai Santa Fe LWB
2014 Jeep Cherokee
2014 Kia Sorento
2014 Land Rover Range Rover Sport
2014 Mitsubishi Outlander
2014 Nissan Rogue
2014 Nissan NV200 Compact Cargo
2014 Ram 2500/3500
2014 Subaru Forester
2014 Toyota 4Runner
2014 Toyota Tundra
2014 Toyota RAV4