NACTOY: Part One

Synopsis

Tis the season for hardware to be dealt. From the buff books to the trades to the newspapers, every outlet seems to have its own "Vehicle of the Year" determined with its own unique criteria. But as unique as that criteria may be, these awards come from a very small universe of folks who have been pretty much doing it the same way for years. And that's what separates these awards from the relatively new kid on the block -- The North American International Car and Truck of the Year. The NACTOY crowd is an eclectic crew of automotive journalists from around the U.S. and Canada who drive the vehicles, evaluate them, grade them and then issue one award each in the car and truck category. This is the award's 15th year and it keeps growing in prestige each year.

And now onto the awards...this week we start with cars. Joining John McElroy analyzing this year's finalists are two of his fellow NACTOY jurors: Natalie Neff from AutoWeek and Gary Witzenburg from autoMedia.com