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Jurors test drive cars, trucks, and utility vehicles nominated for best of the year

By and Jack Nissen
Published  October 24, 2023 5:41pm EDT
Cars and Trucks
FOX 2 Detroit

NACTOY test drives take place in Ann Arbor

Jurors tasked with deciding the best cars, trucks, and utility vehicles in America have been test driving the nominees in Ann Arbor. Here's how they'll decide which models deserve the prize.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (FOX 2) - For the automakers, the hard work is done. They've released their finest car and truck models of the year for the consumers to enjoy and the media to write about.

For the North American Car, Utility and Truck Of the Year award, the task now moves to the jurors to nominate their favorite models. The winners will be announced at the beginning of next year.

It's a big responsibility. But for the 50 jurors that test drive each model, it also comes with a taste of excitement.

"This is so much fun. Sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store!" said Sue Mead, one of NACTOY's jurors. 

The gig brings some pageantry as the jurors are offered some of the first opportunities to try out new vehicles. But it also has big implications for the brands behind them. A first-place win in any category could have big implications on sales.

"It helps them sell cars frankly," Doron Levin said. "And we want to see what’s new and it gives us a chance to drive what’s new and see the new technology."

Levin is another juror on the NACTOY panel. In Ann Arbor Tuesday for test drives, he brought a list of each vehicle he'll be trying out. The panel is typically made of auto industry journalists who try out 25 vehicles.

After each juror tests each vehicle, they'll cast a vote that will be totaled and the winner announced in January.

"Ten cars, five trucks, and 10 SUVs and now we have a chance to drive what we haven’t driven before," said Jeff Gilbert, NACTOY jury president.

And what are they looking for?

"It’s easy to be enamored with something with a high price tag and that’s not going to be mass-market," Mead said, "but does it have technology that we will watch come downstream and change the lower price end of the market?"

"My whole thing is everybody knows what the vehicle looks like. What’s it like to own it and live with it?" said Levin.

Almost everyone, including those who oversee the NACTOY awards like Gilbert won't know the winners until the envelope is opened during a ceremony in January.