The Truth About Cars » Awards

Consumer Reports’ Reliability Results

Edward Niedermeyer — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:38:37 +0000

Though we don’t have a [sub] for Consumer Reports‘ members-only data, their latest reliability survey summary has enough interesting tidbits to warrant a mention. Based on their subscriber base’s 1.4m autos, and using only data available for at least 100 examples of a given model, the survey is one of the better indicators of reliability [...]

Spot The Shark-Jumper

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:43:59 +0000

Is it Motor Trend for giving the Outback an “SUV of the Year” award, or is it “the original SUV alternative” for being in contention at all?

Car of the Year Selection Process

Frank Williams — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:42:50 +0000

JD Power Initial Quality Survey 2009 Arrives

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:38:49 +0000

And we don’t care. Again. Still. If there’s a more nebulous concept out there than “initial quality,” we’re not aware of it. Check minus.

Just What the World Needs—Another COTY Award

Frank Williams — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:21:07 +0000

We've been quite vocal in our opinion of "Car of the Year" awards such as those sold handed out every year by Motor Trend. Even worse are those picked by non-automotive rags, where a COTY announcement ranks right up there with their pronouncements of the years trendiest sunglasses or the best place for the killer mojitos Yet, for whatever reason, Esquire has decided the world needs yet another of these useless (to everyone but their advertising department) awards.

Volvo Snags What Car? Green Car Award

Michael Martineck — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:34:05 +0000

Consumer Reports Annual Auto Report: Winners And Losers

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:38:49 +0000

Consumer Reports has released its annual auto issue and scorecard, and the results are hardly shocking. CR loves them some Toyota, Honda and Subaru, singling out the big H as building the most reliable lineup of vehicles (Element excepted). Toyota came in second, with the Prius winning top spot in CR’s new “value” ranking. Only [...]

GMC Acadia Wins Pet Safe Choice Award

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:16:08 +0000

Pet lovers rejoice! GM Media is saving you months of potential shopping for the best possible vehicle for the significant canine in your life by announcing that the GMC Acadia has won the Pet Safe Choice Award 2009! What led to the choice? “Emergency services and hands-free navigation; standard third-row bench seating for restraining pets [...]

TTAC Ten Worst Nominations Now Closed; Apologies for Site Probs

Robert Farago — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 03:12:04 +0000

The nominations for TTAC’s Ten Worst Awards 2008 are now closed. I’ll keep the comments section underneath our two prior posts on this most TTAC of new car awards open, but that’s it: our list is complete. Frank Williams will, in due course, give you some insight into the vehicles selected and the comments used [...]

TTAC Ten Worst Awards 2008 – Nominations Open ’til Midnight Sunday

Robert Farago — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:46:54 +0000

Just a quick reminder that we’re still accepting nominations for TTAC’s Ten Worst Awards. As a pro and anti-Toyota Prius debate hijacked the original thread– unquashed due the passion and quality of the kerfuffle– I’ve decided to open a new post to allow more nominations in a cleaner, fresher, kindler and gentler commentarium. So if [...]

NADA Guides Picks Audi A8L as Top Luxury Car 2009. Why?

Robert Farago — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:31:31 +0000

NADA Guides is one of the most objective and impartial consumer advocates within the automotive industry– providing you redfine the words “objective” and “impartial” to mean “your ass is mine.” National Automobile Dealers Association? ‘Nuff said. (As if.) Working for the dark side, NADA has primo access to primo product; their blog is, as of [...]

Compacts Top Residual Value Survey

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:17:31 +0000

The Automotive Lease Guide has released its projections for the vehicles most likely to retain their value three years from now, and they’ve awarded the top honors to three compact(ish) cars, the Scion xB, the Honda Fit and BMW’s MINI. The MINI took the overall prize, with ALG predicting that a new Cooper will retain [...]

BMW 3.0-Liter Twin-Turbo 6 Named Engine of the Year

Jonny Lieberman — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:50:52 +0000

File this one under "News that will not shock Justin Berkowitz." For the fourth straight year in a row, the propeller people from Bavaria have taken home Engine of the Year honors as decided by... motoring journalists. Who decides on which motor journalists get to vote? Who knows? Anyhow, this is the second year in a row that the 335i's dark bread und white sausage has taken home the award. And why the hell not? BMW has simply eliminated turbo lag, a trick they couldn't even manage in their own twin-turbo V8. And the power is awesome. I once asked a BMW engineer about the possibility that they underrated 3.0-liter twin-turbo's power to save the face of the then out-going E46 M3. He was aghast. Nein! That would be unethical, immoral and many other non-nice things. Who would do such a thing? I explained the history of American muscle cars, the notorious underrating of horsepower and my German friend looked nauseous. Either he's a hell of an actor, or completely in the dark. I saw a 335i dyno 275 horsepower at the wheel. Figure a 15 - 20 percent driveline loss and you're talking at least 330 horses, maybe more. But hey, who's complaining?