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Sunday, 23 December, 2012 12:15 PM
Ford
Fusion named 2013 Green Car of the Year; Cadillac ATS wins 2012
MPG Vehicle of the Year
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
From
left to right: Green Car Journal Editor Ron Cogan, Ford
Motor Co. General Marketing Manager David Mondragon, and Los Angeles
City Councilwoman Jan Perry.
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LOS
ANGELES -- Exciting news for two of the Big Three automakers
here in Los Angeles. Ford Motor Co. picked up the 2013 Green Car
of the Year trophy for its 2013 Fusion sedan. Meanwhile, General
Motors received the 2012 Motor Press Guild's Vehicle of the Year
award for its 2013 Cadillac ATS luxury sedan. Both announcements
were made during the second press day at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto
Show. The awards are a huge accomplishment for the Detroit automakers
since southern California serves as the U.S. headquarters for many
foreign automakers like Honda, Hyundai and Toyota.
"It's
easy to get excited when walking the auto show floor here in L.A.,"
said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the Green Car Journal
and GreenCar.com. "Lots of electric cars, hybrids, plug-in
hybrids, high mile per gallon gasoline models, many efficient clean
diesel models and the Natural Gas Honda Civic that won top Green
Car honors last year. This is not a one size fits all market. There's
no one single technology or fuel that fits everyone's needs. Instead,
there are choices and there are a lot of them and that's OK."
The Green
Car of the Year jury is made up of an 11-member panel including
Green Car Journal editors, leaders of the nation's top
environmental organizations, auto enthusiast/"Tonight Show"
host Jay Leno and others. Sadly, the panel lost one of its jurors
this year, Carroll Shelby, who died from a heart ailment on May
10.
"When
we were vetting candidates for the five finalist spots, we realized
this was going to be challenging," Cogan added. "The number
of vehicles qualified to compete has increased dramatically in recent
years. That's a good thing even as it makes our job much, much harder.
We viewed them through a lens that always brought us clarity. Regardless
of how stunning a vehicle's design, how efficient its powertrain
or how much caché it may carry, we had to ask the hard question:
Will people actually be able to drive it and in meaningful numbers?"
This year's
finalists included the Dodge Dart Aero, Mazda CX-5 SkyActiv, Ford
C-Max, Ford Fusion and the Toyota Prius C. After all of the jurors
voted, they selected the Ford Fusion as this year's winner.
"This
is a pretty exciting time for Ford Motor Company," said David
Mondragon, general marketing manager for Ford Motor Co. "This
is a great testament for Ford. We've moved our brand from laggers
to leaders in fuel economy. The Fusion has eye-popping fuel economy
with 37 mpg in our gas model, 47 mpg in our hybrid, best in the
segment, and over 100 MPGe (equivalent) in our plug-in hybrid. We're
very proud of these units. We are the leader in fuel economy. We
have eight vehicles delivering over 40 mpg at Ford Motor Company.
In every shared segment that we compete in vs. Toyota, Ford leads
in fuel economy. Thank you so much."
Past winners
include the Honda Civic GX natural gas vehicle (2012), Chevrolet
Volt plug-in hybrid (2011), Audi A3 TDI Clean Diesel (2010), Volkswagen
Jetta TDI Clean Diesel (2009), Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid (2008), Toyota
Camry hybrid (2007) and the Mercury Mariner hybrid (2006).
2013
Cadillac ATS picks up 2012 Motor Press Guild Vehicle of the Year
honors
Each year,
members of the Motor Press Guild nominate five finalists for its
Vehicle of the Year award. Then, members drive each of the five
finalists on the track at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
to narrow down the field. Finally, they place a second vote to determine
the ultimate winner of the award.
"As
many of you know, the Motor Press Guild (MPG) is the largest automotive
media association here in southern California," said MPG President
Laura Burstein. "We are based here in Los Angeles with almost
800 members. Our journalists and analyst members evaluated all new
and substantially revised vehicles available in this calendar year.
We looked at criteria including performance, design and quality."
This year's
finalists included the 2013 Cadillac ATS, 2013 Ford Fusion, 2013
Honda Accord, 2013 Nissan Altima, 2013 Scion FR-S and 2013 Subaru
BRZ. After all of the journalists and analyst members voted, they
selected the 2013 Cadillac ATS as this year's winner.
"We
appreciate the validation," said Don Butler, vice president
of marketing for Cadillac. "The fact that they've chosen ATS
as the Car of the Year really does serve to indicate that we're
on our way to accomplishing our mission. It's a vehicle built from
the ground up to take on the world's best. To get that kind of recognition
says we're definitely on the right track. It's our all-new entry
in the compact luxury segment. In order to go into a segment that's
dominated by the likes of BMW, the 3 Series, Mercedes, the C-Class,
and Audi, the A4, we needed to start with a clean sheet of paper."
The 2013
Cadillac ATS comes with a choice of three motors: a 2.5-liter, four-cylinder
Ecotec engine, a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder Ecotec engine
or a 3.6-liter, V6 engine. It is manufactured at GM's Grand River
Assembly plant in Lansing, Mich.
"CUE
is an all-new touch screen interface within the vehicle," Butler
added. "It elegantly allows you to control the interior aspects
of the vehicle as well as pairing with phones and other media devices
that you might have. It allows you to interact with them in a very
safe way that keeps your eyes on the road and hands on the road,
but still have access to the media, the songs, the other things
on those devices. We have two advanced safety systems. One is called
driver awareness, which means we alert the driver to potentially
dangerous situations. We go one step further and take control of
the vehicle to prevent accidents or minimize the potential damage
that might occur with something we call virtual bumpers."
The Vehicle
of the Year trophy was created and designed by students at the Art
Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.
"Our
transportation and design students develop what we call Speed forms,"
said Jered Gold, director of communications for Art Center College.
"They in turn serve as the base for the Art Center College
of Design Transportation Design award. We give the award out in
Pebble Beach, at our own annual classic car event, and as mentioned
here today, we donated today to the Motor Press Guild to issue to
their Vehicle of the Year. I just wanted to thank MPG for their
ongoing support and thank Cadillac."
Last year,
the inaugural Vehicle of the Year award was given to the Audi A7
during the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show.
For
more information about the MPG Vehicle of the Year award, visit
www.motorpressguild.org.
Related
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Mazda
reveals the 2014 Mazda6 at 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show; Honda
debuts the 2013 Civic at 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show; Nissan
unveils the Hi-Cross Concept at 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show;
Subaru
shows off the 2014 Forester crossover at 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show;
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Chevrolet
debuts the 2014 Spark EV; teases new Corvette at 2012 Los Angeles
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Toyota
shows off the 2013 RAV4 crossover SUV at 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
A
close-up of the 2013 Green Car of the Year trophy.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
Cadillac's
Vice President of Marketing, Don Butler, accepts the 2012 Vehicle
of the Year award from the Motor Press Guild's President Lauren
Burstein.
PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com
A
close-up of the 2012 MPG Vehicle of the Year trophy in the display
case.
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