{"id":23290,"date":"2019-01-16T14:57:34","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=23290"},"modified":"2019-01-16T14:57:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T18:57:34","slug":"payne-where-nactoy-awards-went-right-and-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/payne-where-nactoy-awards-went-right-and-wrong","title":{"rendered":"Payne: Where NACTOY awards went right… and wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/p>\n<\/div>

The 2019 North American\u00a0Car, Truck and Utility of the Year were announced Monday, and what you want to know, dear Detroit reader, is why we jurists voted Ram the King of Trucks. A lot of angry Chevy and GMC partisans are banging on my car window.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n

But first, I feel like the movie fan who wonders how “Blade Runner 2049” or “Wonder Woman” didn’t get an Oscar nomination\u00a0for best movie in 2018, but “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,\u201d did.<\/p>\n

Similarly, my fellow NACTOY jurors snubbed some impressive, mainstream models for car and SUV of the year when voting for three finalists from each category.<\/p>\n

Not that the finalists weren’t good cars. In this hyper-competitive age, today’s vehicles\u00a0are remarkable pieces of hardware with even the cheapest\u00a0compact getting technology and styling luxury-makers would have dreamed of last\u00a0decade. Car nominee Honda Insight, for example, is light years beyond the first, 2000-model year Insight in style, power and capability.<\/p>\n

But how did\u00a0voters pass over the Mazda 6, a stylish mid-size sedan with luxury looks, great handling\u00a0and technology for $20,000\u00a0less than a comparable Audi A6? The Mazda was the sedan I benchmark all cars to this year (along with the Honda Accord, which won 2018 Car of the Year).<\/p>\n

The Mazda 6 was passed over for the Volvo S60 and Insight which are fine, but hardly class benchmarks. I voted for the eventual\u00a0winner,\u00a0Genesis G70, an impressive debut by Hyundai’s upstart luxury\u00a0brand in the compact sedan segment. But, so good is the 250-horsepower Mazda, that I would buy it over the smaller, pricier 252-horse Genesis.<\/p>\n

Even more puzzling were the finalists for utility of the year.<\/p>\n

How does Jeep Wrangler not make the best movies \u2014\u00a0er, SUVs \u2014\u00a0list? The Jeep icon is an adventure film all in itself with astonishing off-road capability, an open-air interior and updated creature comforts for daily driving.<\/p>\n

For 2019, the Jeep went on a 200-pound diet, introduced a turbo-4 engine with better fuel economy, and upgraded its best-in-class UConnect infotainment screen while not sacrificing\u00a0its drop-the-front-window, lock-the-axles, let’s-rule-the Rubicon athleticism.<\/p>\n

Wrangler, benchmark is thy name.<\/p>\n

Other brands from Ford (Bronco) to Toyota (4Runner) covet the Jeep’s cred. Sure, the Jeep is pricey (a $2,500 premium bump from the last generation), but icons are like that.<\/p>\n

Another hometown favorite\u00a0of mine was the Cadillac XT4, the\u00a0brand’s first compact SUV and a real find\u00a0with class-competitive room, look-at-me styling\u00a0and user-friendly infotainment. Alas, the bigger Acura RDX was an even more impressive bargain with sharp, AWD handling, standard moonroof\u00a0and tech galore\u00a0for an absurd $38,000.<\/p>\n

In NACTOY’s\u00a0tightest race to the wire the Acura got bronze (156 points) to the electric Jaguar I-Pace’s (181 points) silver and gold-medalist Hyundai Kona (202). The Kona’s affordable EV variant put it over the top with jurors.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to\u00a0the truck wars. What a heavyweight battle it was. Well, on paper anyway.<\/p>\n

Ram, Chevy\u00a0and GMC\u00a0have been chasing Ford since 2015 when the F-series shocked autodom\u00a0with an aluminum-bed\u00a0truck. The Chevy Silverado responded with an even lighter truck, shedding 450 pounds while still rolling its brawny bed out of steel. Coupled with an upgraded V-8 that can\u00a0run on one cylinder for\u00a0fuel efficiency, the bow-tie bruiser was impressive.<\/p>\n

The GMC\u00a0got brother Chevy’s steel treatment, but the Sierra made its own headlines with a Swiss Army knife-like, “MutliPro” tailgate that could be configured six\u00a0ways. To me, pickups are about the bed and the Sierra’s new benchmark plus sharp styling was my pick.<\/p>\n

But my picky peers couldn’t get past the GM\u00a0twins’\u00a0static interiors \u2014\u00a0little changed from\u00a0last gen.<\/p>\n

This is where Ram shined with\u00a0good looks, a huge\u00a0Tesla-like console screen and tech-terrific\u00a0features like rotary\u00a0shifter and adaptive cruise-control. The Ram has flown off the shelves and become the driveway pride of truck guys across the land.<\/p>\n

Voting wasn’t even close, with the Ram pounding the General’s boys into the ropes with a total of 407 points versus\u00a0just 69 for the Chevy and 64 for the GMC. Ouch.<\/p>\n

I have to say, the Ram would look really good in my garage \u2014 right next to a Mazda 6.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2019 North American\u00a0Car, Truck and Utility of the Year were announced Monday, and what you want to know, dear Detroit reader, is why we jurists voted Ram the King of Trucks. A lot of angry Chevy and GMC partisans are banging on my car window. I\u2019ll get to that. But first, I feel like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}