#NorthAmericanCarOfTheYear

Every year before 2020, automotive journalists descended on Detroit for the North American International Auto Show at this time in January. Bleary-eyed scribes shook off their hangovers from Sunday’s pre-show parties and new-model unveilings and rolled into Cobo (now TCF) Center early on Monday morning to hear which vehicles won the North American Car and Truck Of the Year vote.

So far, you’ve nominated 156 separate vehicles for TTAC’s 2016 Ten Best Award — including a cornucopia of models that shouldn’t be nominated. (Reading comprehension, people!)

Here are some insights into the Best & Brightest hive mind.

The North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists were announced Tuesday and clearly the jurors read our September handicap — and completely mostly disregarded our odds.

According to jurors, the finalists for 2016 North American Car of the Year are the Honda Civic, Chevrolet Malibu and Mazda MX-5 Miata. The finalists for the 2016 Truck/Utility of the Year are the Volvo XC90, Nissan Titan XD and Honda Pilot. The winners will be announced at the North American International Auto Show in January.

Let’s review the finalists and definitively state in each capsule why that car will absolutely win:

The preliminary list of semifinalists of the 2015 North American Car & Truck of the Year is out and oddly, Volkswagen didn’t make the list.

General Motors sports four car of the year nominees, including the Cadillac CT6, Chevrolet Camaro, Malibu and Volt while Tesla’s Model X is up for Truck/Utility of the year. Automotive journalists — 57 of them, in fact — will vote on the cars in October.

The winners will be announced in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.