Few honors in the car world carry as much weight as Motor Trend Car of the Year and North American Car of the Year. The winners here run from an unconventional 1960 compact to a reborn Charger that is the newest on the list. Here are twelve of them, each with the reason it earned the trophy.
Save more, waste less: The Cool Down’s newsletter sends smart, simple changes that help you and the planet in your everyday life.
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
1. 1960 Chevrolet Corvair: Rear-Engine Trailblazer
The compact Corvair took Motor Trend Car of the Year honors for 1960, the first award in this lineup, and the Corvair article on Wikipedia records that about 1.8 million were built through 1969. That is a long production run for a car that broke from the front-engine layout common among American sedans of the day.
The win gave Chevrolet an early trophy for an unconventional design. It also set the pattern for this list, where the award often went to a car that changed expectations about what a mainstream American automobile could be, rather than simply the most powerful or luxurious one on sale that year.
2. 1968 Plymouth Road Runner: Budget Muscle Bird
Motor Trend named the Road Runner its Car of the Year for 1969, and the muscle car overview cites a price of $3,893 as customized in the magazine’s road test. The same test is recorded with a quarter-mile run of 14.7 seconds at 100.6 mph.
Those figures explain the appeal of the model: strong straight-line speed attached to a price that stayed affordable. The Road Runner is a standard reference point for the stripped-down, performance-first approach that defined the muscle car era, and the award reflects how seriously the press took that formula.
3. Buick Riviera: Downsized Personal Luxury
For 1979, the Buick Riviera entry notes, the Riviera became Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. The honor went to the redesigned sixth-generation coupe, a front-wheel-drive personal luxury car that was far smaller than the large Rivieras of earlier years.
Buick’s two-door had long carried a reputation for style, and the award suggested that a leaner, more modern package could keep that appeal. It also shows how widely the trophy has ranged, since the same award that honored a budget muscle car also landed on a plush, comfort-minded coupe.
4. Plymouth Reliant: Practical Compact Champion
Motor Trend gave its Car of the Year award for 1981 to the Reliant, one of the Chrysler K-cars, and the history of the Plymouth brand puts output of those models at about 1.1 million. The front-drive compact was built to be affordable and efficient.
Few winners were less glamorous, yet the Reliant mattered enormously to its maker. The K-car platform supported a whole family of Chrysler products, and the trophy gave a plain, sensible family car a measure of credibility at a time when buyers were weighing smaller, more economical vehicles.
5. Lincoln Town Car: Full-Size Luxury Honored
Ford’s own Lincoln company timeline lists the Town Car as Motor Trend Car of the Year for 1990. The claim comes from the manufacturer’s archive, so it reflects how Ford itself chose to remember the model.
The Town Car was a big rear-drive sedan, and the win came for the redesigned second generation. Taking the award with a traditional full-size luxury car placed it alongside much smaller and more experimental winners, which says something about the range of vehicles this particular trophy has recognized over the decades.
6. Chrysler 300: Convincing Luxury Saloon
The 2005 North American Car of the Year went to the Chrysler 300, which a slideshow of every winner describes as a convincing luxury saloon. The word saloon marks the roundup as a British publication looking back at an American award.
The first-generation 300 arrived with a bold, upright look and rear-wheel-drive layout that set it apart from the softer sedans in its class. As a winner it marks the point where the list shifts from Motor Trend selections to the jury-based North American award, which dominates every remaining entry.
7. Saturn Aura: Winner From A Vanished Brand
The Aura was named 2007 North American Car of the Year, yet the Saturn Corporation history explains that all Saturn dealerships would be closed by October 31, 2010. The midsize sedan therefore stands as one of the last big successes of a brand that was shutting down.
Saturn was a General Motors division that had built its identity on a different kind of dealership experience. The Aura carried that ambition into a more conventional midsize class and earned real recognition, but the trophy could not change the fate of a marque whose parent was reshaping its entire lineup.
8. Hyundai Genesis: Korean Brand’s First Win
Hyundai’s first North American Car of the Year came in 2009 with the Genesis sedan, according to the Hyundai Motor America article. Its V8 engine made 375 hp, a figure that put the rear-drive four-door in contention with established luxury makes.
For a company long associated with inexpensive small cars, the result was a statement about ambition. The Genesis showed that a Korean manufacturer could build a large, powerful and well-regarded sedan, and the trophy helped change how shoppers and critics thought about the brand’s potential.
9. Hyundai Elantra: Compact Sedan Repeat Win
Hyundai collected a second North American Car of the Year in 2012, this time for the Elantra, and the company’s American history credits the redesigned compact with more than 200,000 sold. That volume shows the award lining up with real showroom demand.
Where the Genesis represented a push upward, the Elantra proved the brand could win in the heart of the market too. The compact sedan class is crowded and fiercely competitive, so a victory there carried weight, and it gave Hyundai a pair of trophies within only a few years of each other.
10. Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (C8): Mid-Engine Corvette Arrives
The 2020 North American Car of the Year went to the mid-engine Corvette Stingray, which the roundup of award winners praised for delivering performance at one-third of the price of rivals. The recognition rests on value as much as speed.
Moving the engine behind the driver was a major break from the layout the Corvette had used for generations. Winning the award suggested that the gamble worked, since judges treated the eighth-generation sports car as a genuine competitor to exotic machinery that cost far more than a typical Chevrolet.
11. Acura Integra: Manual Gearbox Revival
Acura’s Integra took the 2023 North American Car of the Year, and the motoring slideshow singles out the option of a six-speed manual transmission. In an era of automatics and electrification, that detail was treated as a selling point.
The name carried decades of enthusiast goodwill, and the fifth-generation car revived it as a practical, sporty compact. The award indicates that judges valued a traditional driver-focused feature, and that a nameplate with a loyal following could return successfully after a period away from the market.
12. Dodge Charger: Reborn Charger Takes Top Prize
The newest winner is the reborn Charger, named 2026 North American Car of the Year in an Associated Press report on the vehicle awards. Its breadth of powertrain options and body styles was the reason given.
That variety closes a list that began with an air-cooled rear-engine compact from 1960. The Charger name goes back decades, and its return in a new form shows that the award can still go to a car revived from an older nameplate, which makes it a fitting final entry here.
Save more, waste less: Subscribe to The Cool Down →
We may earn a commission if you sign up.
More from Morning Overview
- Lake Powell sank to a record 3,517 feet, nearing the level that stops Glen Canyon Dam’s turbines
- Seven of Earth’s nine planetary boundaries are breached, and all seven are worsening
- The NSA says three phone features should be off whenever you aren’t using them
- Hurricane Hunter radar shows four warning signs that a tropical cyclone is about to strengthen, a University of Miami study found
