Video: Motor Trend Car of the Year winners....2/19/2026

Some of those, what were they thinking.  Could not believe they were the car of the year.

I still remember when the Citroen won car of the year in 1972. There were a lot of comments about that from Motor Trend readers, not all positive. Motor Trend then started separate awards for American and Import car of the year, something they did for several years. I did some checking on the internet about the Import Car of the Year Award. It lists the starting year as 1970. I do not believe it started until after Citroen award. My long term memory is still good.

I agree with John. Some great and deserving automobiles, especially earlier on. Then, in many cases, something happened. Something, that in many cases, was not a positive development, in my view.

It is a well-crafted video, however. With some favorites in there, generally more in the '50's and '60's.

It sometimes takes a year or too to find the dogs. Interesting video, John.

Thanks John - loved it; even though I almost never agreed with their picks and canceled my subscription with them, early on, because of their COTY awards.

Back when I was in the business, most makers believed COTY was good for bragging rights but not much more. In the eighties, MT was accused of tying the COTY to advertising dollars. Several investigations were conducted butnothing was proven. But the analysis was made public, and the numbers were pretty convincing. MT was notorious for doing comparisons but never really stating a winner. MT was constantly being taken to task by the likes of David E Davis, Leon Mandel, Brock Yates, Don Sherman, Jean Lindamood, et al.  

I'm a long time subscriber to Motor Trend, but I've never been influenced by the the COTY picks.

Very interesting clip but wait....what??.....Rambler, Vega, Stang II, Citation, Alliance.....holy cow already.  I get that voting is influenced by the changing needs of society any given year (i.e. fuel crisis) but some of these picks are outrageous.

@sizedoesmatter, I have been enjoying them recently.

Proof positive that an ugly girl can become Queen of her class.