NORTH AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW

Corvette, Silverado take home top honors

Chevrolet wins vote for car, truck of year

1/13/2014
BY TYREL LINKHORN
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER

DETROIT — Chevrolet swept the 2014 North American Car and Truck of the Year awards, with the Corvette Stingray and Silverado 1500 pickup taking top honors.

The Silverado easily beat out the Toledo-built Jeep Cherokee and Acura MDX luxury sport-utility vehicle, with 219 points to the Jeep’s 179 and the Acura’s 97. The Corvette topped the Cadillac CTS and Mazda 3.

The annual award is voted on by a panel of U.S. and Canadian journalists.

To be considered, vehicles must be completely new or significantly redesigned. Voters start with a list of 20 or so vehicles, then whittle that down to three finalists in each category.

Winners were announced Monday at the North American International Auto Show.

The award is one of the more prestigious in the industry. GM officials said on Monday that the victory, along with last year’s car of the year honors going to the Cadillac ATS, help show the company is moving past its years of questionable product from before its 2009 bankruptcy.

This marks the second consecutive year that U.S. companies have swept the award. Chrysler Group’s Ram 1500 was named 2013 Truck of the Year at last year’s show.