North American Car and Truck of the Year Finalists Announced

The Automotive Press Association in the US has announced its finalists for North American Car and Truck of the Year. The three car finalists are the Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and Volkswagen Passat. The truck finalists are the Honda CR-V, BMW X3 and Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. The nominees were narrowed down from a list of 17 cars and 7 trucks. To be eligible for nomination a vehicle had to be new or significantly changed for the 2012 model year. 

The North American Car and Truck of the Year is decided by the Automotive Press Association that is made up of American and Canadian automotive journalists, and it self finances the test drives and research of the awards to prevent bias as much as possible. 

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

So which would you pick among the cars and trucks? All of the picks are winners. It is hard to choose though because each vehicle varies so much in price, equipment and size, but nobody is cross shopping a CR-V with an Evoque. 

Last year's winners were the Chevrolet Volt and Ford Explorer.

Source: Forbes and North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards