2011 North American Car & Truck of the Year Award Winners announced

The winners of the 2011 North American Car and Truck of the Year titles were announced recently at the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And the winners, as predicted, were the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Explorer. This is the 18th year of these awards, which are designed to recognize the most outstanding new vehicles of the year. These vehicles are benchmarks in their segments based on factors including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar.

After winning a multitude of awards, the Chevrolet Volt, rather least surprisingly, takes this most prestigious title too. By the way, this should make the Volt the first proper electric car to win this award. The highly-acclaimed and super-successful Hyundai Sonata ended up second in the title fight while the Nissan Leaf, the 2011 European Car of the Year award-winner, ended up last.

2011 NACOTY RESULTS:
1. Chevrolet Volt - 233
2. Hyundai Sonata - 163
3. Nissan Leaf - 94

PREVIOUS NACOTY WINNERS:
* 2010 - Ford Fusion Hybrid
* 2009 - Hyundai Genesis
* 2008 - Chevrolet Malibu 

* 2007 - Saturn Aura
* 2006 - Honda Civic

Its a ha-trick of NATOTY awards for Ford, this time with the redesigned all-new Explorer taking the honors. Though GM had two finalists, one each from Jeep and Dodge, the Ford managed to trounce them in the final standings. Jeep Grand Cherokee came in a distant second while the Dodge Durango ended up last in the standings.

2011 NATOTY RESULTS:
1. Ford Explorer - 253
2. Jeep Grand Cherokee - 138
3. Dodge Durango - 99

PREVIOUS NATOTY WINNERS:
* 2010 - Ford Transit Connect
* 2009 - Ford F-150
* 2008 - Mazda CX-9
* 2007 - Chevrolet Silverado
* 2006 - Honda Ridgeline