Motor Trend’s Car of the Year Award – why should we care?
The Chevy Volt has won Motor Trend’s prestigious car of the year award. What an honor. Also amazing, the award was given shortly before the recent IPO of GM on Wall Street, but I am sure there is no connection. But is this award a guarantee of anything other than a record IPO? Lets investigate.
The Toyota Prius won the award in 2004. Its astronomic sales figures were spurred by tax credits and dealer incentives to buy the ugly little bugger. Sales have slumped since the tax credit has gone away.
The Renault Alliance won it in 1985. They obviously borrowed the aggressive sports-car styling and sexy lines from the car below.
The Dodge K-Cars won the award in 1981. Nothing says style like a K-car baby! I hear the pink ones are money.
The Chevy Citation gets the nod in 1980. Any wonder people hate the freaking 80’s?
1978, brings us the Chrysler Omni. In a eerily similar situation, Chrysler got a bailout from the government in 1979. Something about Car of the Year Awards and bailouts seems really coincedental.
The Chevy Caprice is Car of the Year in 1977. Damn that beast is sexy. Where’s Clark? The family truckster is looking hot!
1976 gave us the Plymouth Volare. Great name, ugly ass car. The only good thing about ugly cars back then, you could get a hell of an engine with ’em. How about a 5.9 Litre V8?
The Citroen SM won the Car of the Year award in 1972. Come on, you know you want one. Its just an ugly French version of the Honda Insight, or I guess, vice versa.
So does this post actually mean anything. Not really. I just wanted to point out some of the horribly ugly cars that have won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year.
Fleece Me 
The Citroen was an amazing car… but MT didn’t have to own it. Besides, I stick to Car & Driver who loves the Accord and 3 Series.
My favorite car magazine died a silent death many years ago. Sports Car Illustrated. What an amazing magazine. Beautiful photography, some of the hottest cars, I still drool over there feature of the Mclaren F1, and excellent writing. Sad to see them go.
You missed a good one. The 1960 Chevrolet Corvair. Not necessarily ugly, per se, but certainly unusal. And, to top it all off, thanks to Ralph Nader, it was declared “Unsafe at Any Speed” in 1965 and pulled from the market in 1969. They were fun cars to drive. Especially the Corvair Monza. That was one hot car. See there were PC things even back in the 60s. Not only that, but it launched the career of Ralphy, a latter-day hippie, and now a perennial presidential candidate on the Green Party ticket.
“A 1972 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960-1963 Corvairs possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations.”
I despise Ralph Nader. What is it with liberals making there names in the 1960’s and for some reason we get stuck with em for the rest of our lives? Nader, John Kerry, Woodward and Bernstein. Hey guys, it was forty years ago. You guys are chump change compared to the commies we got now.