Ti Driver

Interesting article on how close the "Automobile of the Year" award was. Evo edges out the RX-8 by a nose.

http://www.automobilemag.com/columns/0401_vilegossip/

================================

Vile Gossip: The Battle for Automobile of the Year
By Jean Jennings

By now, you've probably flipped forward through the magazine to page 62 and know what our wise and worldly staff chose for its 2004 Automobile of the Year after four days of driving the wheels off a few dozen cars on the sublime roads of Kentucky and Tennessee.

(Warning! If you haven't already read ahead to our winners, reading this column will spoil the surprise.)

Don't think our little yearly field trials are all fun and games. Oh, the driving is certainly breathtaking. And the Automobile Magazine crew gets along remarkably well on these extended, intense family get-togethers. But by the time we gather on night four and participate in a bit of preprandial oiling before the voting begins, emotions are running a mite ragged. As the evening wears on, the Type AAA in each of us (yes, that would be each and every one of us) rears its ugly head, and the buns begin to fly.




Senior editor Eddie Alterman's seductive prose on the undeniable merits of our winner should convince you that we did the right thing. But if you harbor a warm spot for another car of your dreams, we understand. This was by no means a runaway vote. Having said that, we all stand firmly and proudly behind the irresistible, amazing, affordable Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

But . . .
Here's the drill. We take our seats at a couple of tables, refill our wine glasses, and begin to throw candidates into the ring, one speech at a time, all the way around the room. At the end of the first round, we take a straw vote to narrow the field and make another round of impassioned speeches. And then we vote for a winner.




Let me tell you about this year's "first losers." It has been twelve long, dry years since a Cadillac has been in the hunt for Automobile Magazine Automobile of the Year. Back then, the STS, a burning bush on a barren plain, exploded onto the scene and won AOY. The rest of the lineup was best described by a Louisiana Cadillac dealer's billboard showing a Cadillac hearse under the slogan, "You'll be riding in one someday, why not buy one today!" Gone are those dark days when Cadillac meant the hearse of choice for your mama's mama. We welcomed Cadillac into our collective bosom with not one but two AOY nominations. Both the state-of-the-art XLR roadster and the thrilling CTS V were laid on the table, and either could have made the final cut with no apologies from a single one of us.

Next up was the GTO, Pontiac's chest-thumping people's hot rod, giving General Motors an unprecedented trio of viable AOY candidates. If you had any doubt that Bob Lutz has given GM the inspirational wherewithal to pull its *** out of the sling it's been in, here's your answer. The General is on the move, and all signs point to a potential rout.

The last surprise was Mazda's intriguing RX-8, a risky, ambitious move to make a family man's sports car. A bit of creative thinking resulted in our kind of car: great to look at, a blast to drive, a car that any of the young fathers around the table could absolutely see himself in, kids parked in the back.




Round two narrowed the slate decisively to the Evo and the RX-8, and the ugliness began in earnest as the two camps divided evenly. It was hot in there, and it was heavy. We took turns chipping away at any perceived flaw we could hook with a fingernail. We attacked resale value, future viability of the nameplate, every other car in the brand, weight, price, age, influence, parentage, blood alcohol content of the speaker, whatever would work to make a point, however evil the point. We attacked our own procedure. We railed against using smooth, fast, dynamite roads to make our choice. "Which car would you pick to make the seven-hour drive home?" We should go back to using a test track next year. We should give points for highway cruising. We shouldn't let old guys vote. We shouldn't let young guys vote. We shouldn't let women vote.

And then we all voted, and the Evo won by a nose. After all that wine, it was a big nose.





Man of the Year wasn't a fistfight, but there were some really interesting candidates. If Ferrari's Michael Schumacher had already sewn up his record sixth world championship, perhaps he would have been the man. If the discussion about the RX-8 and the consequent discussion of Mazda's reinvigorated lineup hadn't squirted Martin Leach's name onto the table, maybe Franz-Josef Paefgen—the man behind what both Audi and Bentley are today—would have taken it away. Or it may have gone to Toyota's inscrutable Jim Press, the man with a plan envied by most of the world's automakers. If, if, if. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas, as my Polish grandma used to say.

The more we talked about the new coherence of the Mazda range and the stellar small Fords sold in Europe and the modest, dignified, car-crazed Leach, who brought it all about in the midst of cost-cutting madness at Ford, the more it amused us to make the world's most eligible automotive executive our Man of the Year.

Our kind of car, our kind of guy. It promises to be your kind of year.