The North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year™ (NACTOY) Awards are judged by 50 professional automotive journalists from North America who work for independent magazines, television, radio, newspapers and industry websites. Read our Juror Code of Ethics.

The process of selecting the Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year begins with a “long list” of all eligible new or substantially-changed vehicles for that year. NACTOY jurors test and evaluate those vehicles throughout the year and through three rounds of voting. The first vote occurs in early fall to narrow the list of vehicles in each category for additional evaluation, including during an October comparison test drive event to which all Semifinalist vehicles and 50 jurors are invited. The following two votes for (1) finalists and (2) winners occur in November and January respectively. These votes are tallied by Deloitte in Detroit and the winners are announced in January.

The votes are tallied by Deloitte in Detroit, and the winners are unknown to anyone else until they are announced during the January program.

Jurors attend launch programs and/or receive local media loans of each eligible vehicle, then evaluate them again during a three-day October comparison drive following the initial round of voting. They vote on those “short-list” vehicles in November, sending their ballots directly to Deloitte in Detroit. That vote narrows the field to three finalists in each category before the final round of voting in January -- also tallied by Deloitte -- determines the Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year.

The North American Car and Truck of the Year™ (NACTOY) Awards were founded in 1994 by veteran auto journalist Christopher Jensen. The third category for Utility Vehicles was added in 2017 in recognition of the growing popularity of SUVs and car-based “crossover” vehicles (CUVs).

Lists of all past NACTOY finalists and winners can be found on the Finalists/Winners page.