November 30, 2009
INSIGHT drew with PRIUS for 2009 Car of the Year
| There are two major “Car of the Year” contests in Japan that pick up the most excellent one among brand-new cars launched in the market for the year. One is “RJC (Automotive Researcher’s & Journalist’s Conference of Japan) Car of the Year” and the other is old-established “CAR OF THE YEAR JAPAN”. In Oct. the hybrid vehicle PRIUS of Toyota Motor Co. was picked as the best by “CAR OF THE YEAR JAPAN” followed by another HV, INSIGHT of Honda Motor Co., chose as the 2009 car of the year by RJC in Nov. The latest HV from Toyota and Honda whacked the crown in the end. The automotive researches and journalists who criticized “CAR OF THE YEAR JAPAN” for accepting an excessive entertainment by automakers and having a biased criterion of selection like more traveling-performance-oriented created “RJC Car of the Year” in 1991. The old “Car of the Year Japan” tends to select more high-classed vehicles and sporty cars and never pick up a light car in the history. On the other hand “RJC Car of the Year” selects many mini and bread-and-butter cars because it thinks much of the technological excellence and the originality. The two car-of-the-years have been in a position of the substantial coexistence. Only four times in the 19 years since 1991, there was the case the same car won the both awards. As the crown has great influence on the sales of brand-new cars, the two “Car of the Year” draw increasing attention not only of car-mania but automakers. |
