My co-worker bought the new civic sedan (non si) and he always parks it next to my 1998 prelude. Just looking at the the civic makes me puke. IMO, after the demise of the prelude, the S2000 is the only performance oriented car id buy from Honda/Acura.

 

Good thing it's not a beauty contest, not that the Prelude would win anything. Nor would it win any performance categories.

 

Maybe thats what the doubters are missing.

Here is last years contest. It does a decent job of explaining the judging procedures.
http://motortrend.com/oftheyear/car/...fty/index.html

 

Someone may not like the Mazda3. Different strokes for different folks. The Protege5 seems to have herald the coming of "sports wagons" to the US. It was followed by the Vibe/Matrix, Scion xB and xA, Nissan Versa (2006/2007), Dodge Magnum. How about the original VW GTI? Even the mags have gushed about how it started the "pocket rocket" market. No Car of the Year. The 2005 Mustang should have won over its old Fox-4 brother, but... no Car of the Year.

I have mentioned Scion many times. Utility? Scion xB. Sporty? Scion tC... now available with TRD S/C. Toyota Matrix (Corolla is a bit dull). Chevy Cobalt. SOmeone mentioned the SRT-4.

Considering the list of past winners, utility/gas mileage doesn't seem to make an automatic winner... so what about the new MX-5 or Solstice?

There are plenty of other choices out there, even in just the same price range. It only gets worse when you open that up (how about the new M5?). It's just hard to swallow the uninspiring new Civic as Car of the Year.

 

You kidding me? The 5g lude is one of the best looking cars to come out of honda. The SH handles great for a fwd.

 

The MX5 (RX8 DNA) won hands down with about 450 points from
60 Auto Journalists. Civic got about 170 pts. I think boredom
by the Press in incrementalism at Honda means SH-AWD version coming soon.
Canada's CSX (Acura badged Civic) has leather/HID but not LSD or Traction Control. They use variant of RSX engine with 155 HP.

 

Maybe they have different criteria. Shocking, I know.

One thing you people don't seem to understand is that this decision, is a group of journalists OPINION. You don't have to agree, nor im sure, do they expect everyone too. You're acting like they are claiming this to be the be all, and end all of decisions.