Volkswagen, Ford Win Vehicle of the Year Laurels: Volkswagen’s Golf has been declared the 2015 North American Car of the Year, and Ford Motor’s F-150 has been named the 2015 North American Truck/Utility of the Year. For the 22nd year running, a panel of jurors from newspapers, television and radio stations, magazines and websites voted to determine which vehicles were truly best of the year, and the honors were bestowed Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The 57 jurors considered all vehicles introduced to the market in the last calendar year, then voted at the end of December and presented the awards in conjunction with the start of the first auto show of 2015.

“Earning these awards certainly gives the automakers some bragging rights,” said Stephanie Bringley, senior analyst for the Americas at IHS Automotive
VW’s Road Back

For Volkswagen, winning the award for top North American Car is notable, given that sales for the German brand were down 10 percent last year, despite an overall increase of 6 percent in U.S. auto sales. The company has invested heavily in the American market and built a new plant in Tennessee, but it has struggled domestically in recent years due to a lack of new models.

The last time the VW-brand won the North American Car of the Year award was in 1999, when it introduced the new Volkswagen Beetle.

With this win, VW could be on the road to turning things around. The news that it had beat out the Ford Mustang and Hyundai Genesis for the top honors presented in Detroit followed its Sunday night announcement that the company had hit its goal of 10 million sales globally, four years ahead of its target date.

Bridging the Golf:

What may have helped the Golf stand out is the fact that VW hasn’t tried to make it a one-size-fits-all offering, and instead has widened consumer options.
TOP Truck

Ford’s win for Truck/Utility of the Year also could be seen as some redemption for the F-150 brand, which recently lost to the Chevrolet Colorado in Motor Trend's....
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