NEWSI OPINIONI GOSSIPI STUFF18 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2019@markrechtin
9.19 I TRENDH
ow could you? Better yet, how dare you?
Our Ultimate Car of the Year test (page 32) will
likely dredge up memories of some rather, ahem,
controversial choices that this magazine has made
in annually naming the best sled on four wheels.
The letters that MT editors have received over
the years regarding our Car of the Year decisions contain
enough paper to repopulate a small forest. Most boil down
to some version of the following: “Choosing the Pontiac
6000 SUX over the Nissonda Camcord clearly means your
editors spent too many fireside nights imbibing brown
liquids rather than actually, you know, driving the cars.”
So imagine the challenge to go back through our 70
years of existence, pick a representative vehicle from each
decade, and line them up to pick the Ultimate Car of the
Year. Yeah, some brown liquid may have been involved.
But plenty of sober thinking, as well.
Let’s focus on the methodology. In nearly
three decades of evaluating vehicles, I’ve been
on several equivalent “Best Car” juries, and no
one has a more thorough, empirical, blast-proof
process than MotorTrend. Our current six key
criteria cover value, efficiency, engineering
excellence, safety, advancement in design, and
performance of intended function. And although
the approach has evolved somewhat through our
history, it’s always been some variation of that theme.
Still, that won’t silence those who call out cars like the
Chevrolet Vega as alleged evidence of our ineptitude in
judging vehicular talent. But remember, this was 1971. And
as technical director Frank Markus says, “The Vega in its
day was compelling, with great design and loads of engi-
neering advancements. It just turned into a turd later.”
Have there been some odd decisions? Of course! If
you always make the popular choice, there’s nothing for
readers to argue about later. Not that we’re deliberately
trying to troll the public; to our methodology, that year’s
winner was simply better than what conventional wisdom
would suggest. To wit: the 1972 Citroën SM over the
Porsche 911S, the 1995 Chrysler Cirrus over the Oldsmo-
bile Aurora. More recently, the 2011 Chevrolet Volt over
minivans from Honda and Toyota drew lots of hate mail,
and the 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia over the Honda Accord
attracted more than a few confused-dog gifs on Twitter.We Say...
Mark Rechtin
REFERENCE MARKRemember,
Car of the Year
represents
the best of
what new or
redesigned
vehicles were
released
that year ...
including the
Chevy Vega.Confronting Our Past: We choose
the Ultimate Car of the Year
I’ve gone through our archives and read the
articles. As an editor, I’m quick to notice any
finagling or pandering verbiage, but there’s
no tiptoeing through the minefield here—just
like today, my predecessors charged through
testing with their size-12 racing sneakers
pinned to each car’s firewall.
The likes of Dan Gurney, Peter Brock, and
Del Coates were on the panel that voted the
Chevrolet Monte Carlo our 1973 COTY over the Ferrari
Dino, Audi 100 LS, Mercedes 450 SLC, and Jeep Wagoneer.
Yes, that’s right. A freaking Monte Carlo beat a Ferrari.
But if you told ol’ Dan to his face that he didn’t know cars,
you’d be a candidate for some rhinoplasty, stat.
I also reached out to former editor-in-chief C. Van Tune,
and he gave me this historical recounting: “It’s easy to take
potshots at some of the past winners, but it’s important to
remember that we tested what the companies built. That
field of cars was as good as it got in any particular year.”
With such heritage of awards before us, we rolled out
our eight candidates for the Ultimate COTY. Of course,
you can’t compare a 1950s Chevy Bel Air to a 2013 Tesla
Model S. You have to define it against its era. Was that
Citroën as much of a technological lightning bolt as the
Pontiac GTO, Mazda RX-7, or Toyota Prius when they
hit dealerships? Turn to page 32 to find out.
And as always, we await your letters. n