Detroit’s North American International Auto Show starts on Saturday, but in previews this week the 2012 North American Car of the Year Award was announced. This year’s winner is the Hyundai Elantra, which has a starting price of $16,445. With an estimated 33 mpg, fuel efficiency might have been one of the factors helping the Elantra win this award. The Ford Focus and the Volkswagen Passat were runners up for Car of the Year.
Hyundai is thrilled with the award, but doesn’t see an increase in sales because of it. Their facility in Alabama is already running at full capacity, partly because more than 186,000 Elantras were sold last year. The company does believe that the Elantra’s Car of the Year award will help their brand solidify its name in the marketplace. This information comes from the Associated Press article, “Hyundai Elantra wins car of the year,” by Jeff Karoub and Tom Krisher.
Since car insurance quotes are based partly on the type of car you drive, it is possible that cheap car insurance will be easier to come by for the Hyundai Elantra. Since it is Car of the Year, it is valued with high safety features, less depreciation, and other factors that look good to car insurance companies. The judging of this award was performed by fifty automotive journalists. To be included, cars had to be new or have significant changes in the past year.
The Truck of the Year award went to the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque, which was the first win for the company in the nineteen-year history of the awards. With a starting price of $43,995, the Evoque will have higher State Farm car insurance quotes that some other trucks. The runners up in this category were the BMW X-3 and the Honda CR-V. If you are a car lover, check out the Detroit Auto Show starting next weekend.
