TTAC's Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) Award: Last Day for Nominations
According to Automotive News, jurors for the 2007 North American Car of the Year and North American Truck of the Year awards are currently considering some 26 vehicles. Yeah, well, 130 vehicles are competing for the 2006 TTAC Ten Worst Automobiles Today (TWAT) awards. And that includes badge-engineered clones which were nominated jointly. And you/we ain’t done yet. You’ve got ‘til 5:00pm EST to add your nomination to the list. Meanwhile, guess what? There's overlap!
Yup, there’s overlap between our list of TWAT nominees and the list of nominees for the North American Car/Truck of the Year (NACATOY) awards. In fact, over half of their nominees are also yours. Here’s the list of their candidates; the names in boldface are also nominees for a TWAT.
Acura MDX
Finding so much commonality between two seemingly dissimilar groups of vehicles is somewhat surprising (and more than slightly amusing), but at least their list doesn’t include the number one TWAT nominee: the Jeep Compass. I reckon even co-opted journalists experience a blinding flash of reality from time to time.
So what criteria did NACATOY use to select their nominees? Hell if I know. I have no idea what voting process they’ll use to make their final choices either. (Perhaps one of their members would care to enlighten us below.)
We know that NACATOY nominees were selected by a hand-picked panel of automotive “experts” who are wined and dined regularly by the manufacturers, go on all-expenses-paid junkets and get box fresh, manufacturer-supplied examples of all of the cars delivered straight to their door, gassed-up and ready to go.
We also know that TWAT nominees were chosen by a group of passionate and very vocal pistonheads who spend their own hard-earned money for their transportation, know what they like (or dislike) and don’t have to worry about pissing off car makers, advertising agencies or media outlet beancounters. And, um, probably haven’t driven, nor will ever drive (mostly out of choice), a fifth of the nominated vehicles.
TTAC’s list of 10 most nominated TWATs seems to have reached an equilibrium point. Keeping up with the number of nominations and the vehicles nominated has been a challenge and privilege (in a perverse sort of way). However, it’ll soon be time to put those numbers away and begin the second round of the process.
In a week or so, the TTAC selection committee will convene to carefully consider the merits, or lack thereof, of each candidate. We’ll narrow the list to 20 finalists using our keen insight and every analytical tool available to us. Or maybe we’ll just put all of their names in a fishbowl and draw 20. Whatever method we use, we guarantee you’ll have 20 really good (bad) winners (losers) to select best (worst) of. Then let the chips fall where they may!
Since this article was written, we've begun voting on the '06 TWAT awards.
Please click HERE to cast your vote on the final 10. You will be returned to the TTAC home page.
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The reader comments are what make this site such a blast to read! What exactly do you mean by "good reputation?" We are all different, with different experiences, different needs, different wants. In other words, it's all relative, and it's all subjective.
I neglected somehow to nominate the Toyota Echo, of which I'm sure a hopefully very few were sold between 2005-2006. It certainly should count as one of the ten worst cars of all time. This car reeks of failure on a grand scale, the kind of failure and lack of personal ambition and responsibility which results in its owner eating beans out of a can alone every night and a general lack of personal hygiene. Nothing good is ever going to happen to me, is the statement that this car makes for its owner. While other econoboxes are content to travel the freeways in ignorable anonymity (the Tercel, its predecessor) or Cheap and cutesy styling (Geo Metro/Dodge Neon), or even stabs at stylishness (Daewoo ?Lanos?) This car screams, insistently, Do NOT take me seriously! I am middle aged, live in someone's basement, and collect strange objects! Its odd attempts at style, a la the center mounted speedometer, shriek of a very middle aged, balding man wearing a baseball cap backwards and saying "Dude!" while wearing a stained wife-beater. It also is burdened with a name which suggests something unreal and insubstantial. Echo? Merely an Echo of a decent car. It is much, Much uglier than the unfairly maligned Aztek. Yes, it may be a Toyota and therefore durable, but would you WANT it to last that long?