engineering advancement.” With power
and performance surging, we fretted
that safety might not be keeping pace.
We selected Ford as our winner that
year in recognition of its new collapsible
steering wheel and available seat belts
and padded dash. Cadillac’s smoother-
shifting Hydra-Matic transmission
received honorable mention.
Although we never discussed a price
cap in those days, Cadillac’s stunning
1957 Eldorado Brougham must’ve been
eliminated from consideration due to its
low production (400) and/or high price($121,000 in 2019 dollars). Otherwise
its full air suspension, low-profile tires
on forged rims, six-way power memory
seats, and power locks for the standard
pillarless carriage-style doors surely
would have been hard to overlook.
During the height of the annual-
model-change era, we refocused our
award to recognize “Progress in Design”
in 1962. Meanwhile, Cadillac treated its
Mad Men–era customers to the industry’s
first automatic climate control (1964) and
heated seats (1966).
Emissions and safety regs, as well
as economic doldrums, ushered in the
malaise era, featuring some Cadillacs
and some COTY selections we’d all like
to forget. In hindsight, the “cavalierly”
considered Cimarron and finicky V-8-6-4
engines are remembered about as fondly
as are MotorTrend’s choices of the Chevy
Vega (’71), Ford Mustang II (’74), and
Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volaré (’76).
During those dark years, some COTY
features involved no scoring system or key
criteria, and a few failed to even list the
competition. Then the rigor pendulum
swung the opposite way for 1979 when we
instituted an inscrutable scoring system
that resulted in a points spread ranging
from 70,950 for the winning Buick Riviera
to 62,845 for the last-place Mustang.
Cadillac started to really get its mojo
back with the 1992 Seville Touring Sedan,The carefully considered ’49 Cadillac interior design is informed by art deco themes,
decorated in pleasing high-contrast colors, and fitted with rich materials.
No electronics, no emissions controls,
and easy-access serviceability in 1949.We clung to Bond’s engineering
fascination for our second award in 1951,
acknowledging our bias by renaming it
the Motor Trend Engineering Achieve-
ment Award. Our February ’53 cover was
the first to proclaim “Car of the Year,”
but the trophy still read “Engineering
Achievement Award.” Scoring points in
four criteria (performance, handling,
safety, and economy/maintenance), the
Cadillac 62 narrowly outscored the Willys
Aero overall.
After taking three years off, we insti-
tuted “The Motor Trend Award” for 1956,
“presented annually to the U.S. manu-
facturer making the most significant
54 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2019