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?

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.

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 awards bestowed 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 killer mojitos. Yet, for whatever reason, Esquire has decided the world needs yet another of these useless (to everyone but their advertising department) awards.

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What Car? magazine’s award for the year’s greenest car goes to the Volvo S40 DRIVe. The British magazine picked the diesel because its CO2 emissions are basically the same as a second generation Prius, but it’s considerably more fun to drive. The car is not available in the States, and the Honda Insight and 3-gen Prius were not available across the pond in time for eligibility. Still, it makes one wonder: Is the hybrid really the way to save the planet. I’ve driven both the S40 (regular gas) and the Insight, and, well, it’s like comparing apples and ice cream. If I could get all my vitamins in a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s, I’d never hear a crunch again, know what I mean?

The Volvo puts out 104 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Toyota is claiming the 2010 Prius puts out 100 grams of CO2 per kilometer. For comparison sake, that’s half of what an Audi A8 emits.

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 Toyota’s Yaris and FJ Cruiser were unable to earn a “recommend” grade from the report. Mercedes has improved its reliability, reckons CR, but European brands are still lagging. On the American front, Ford is singled out as the high point among the American automakers, as “some Ford models now rival their competitors” from Japan. Too bad they’re the F150 and Flex, which compete for a shrinking market segments. Unfortunately, that’s as good as the news gets for Detroit.

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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 and ample room behind the seats for pet crates; tinted windows, tri-zone climate controls and a large, power-operated sunshade for comfort; and top federal and insurance industry scores for crashworthiness.” You might not need these features as much as, say, good mileage or a high-quality interior, but dammit Fido does!

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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 to justify the nominations. Meanwhile, I apologize for our site problems. I know that TTAC’s been as slow as Ford’s panther platform updates, and buggier than a Michigan windscreen on a hot August night. The speed issue is ongoing; we’re still trying to learn how to cope with traffic spikes [pictured]. The second seems ad-related. Any hints or geeky kvetches you can provide below will help our crack team of programmers and dev types, and probably, hopefully, make you feel better. Rest assured, I understand the need to provide our Best and Brightest with the best possible technical interface, and will stay on top of these issues until they’re resolved or the Moller Skycar takes wing. If you’d like to drop me an email about this or any other issue, please use robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com. I will reply personally, ASAP. Thanks for your patience, understanding and patronage.

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 you haven’t chimed-in with your favorite worst vehicle sold in American (as new during calendar year 2008), please do so below. Again, please make your comments as pithy as poss, as we will be quoting the best in our list of final nominees. To refresh your memory, I suggest a cup of Clover-brewed Ethiopian Sulawesi. Woo-hoo! Sorry, what I meant to say: here’s the complete timetable via our dearly-departed though-not-dead-by-any-means Frank Williams. Note: we reserve the right to screw it up.

Thursday Dec 4:  Nominations start
Sunday Dec 7  Nominations close at 12 PM
Monday Dec 8:  List to writers to select semifinalists
Wed Dec 10:  Writers have their selections back by midnight
Thurs Dec 11 : Voting on finalists starts as soon as I can get the poll built
Sunday Dec 14: Voting closes at midnight;
Monday Dec 15;  Winners sent to writers for comments
Thursday Dec 19: Writers have comments back
Friday Dec 20:  Winners announced

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 late, extremely Aston friendly. Yes, of course we’re bitter and twisted; it’s our m.o. But we gotta give NADA G [some] credit. Even though they provide no insight into their selection process whatsoever, their choice for Top Luxury Car of 2009 is both prescient (2009?) and, I reckon, accurate. The Audi A8 L is one Hell of a rig.

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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 64.5 percent of its retail value after the average 36-month lease. The xB won the mid-compact category with a projected retention of 63 percent of its new value, while the Fit topped the compact class with a residual value estimated at 59.8 percent. ALG president John Blair tells Automotive News [sub] that price, design, new-vehicle incentives and fleet sales all went into the projections, with special consideration paid this year to Detroit’s woes. “The public needs to have confidence that the companies are solid and they’re going to be around to service the vehicles and provide a pathway for warranty work,” Blair said, by way of explaining why US firms ranked so low in the rankings. Read More >

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?