Motor Trend Announces Contenders For The 2012 Sport/Utility Of The Year Award

El Segundo, Calif. (October 12, 2011) - Motor Trend, the world's foremost authority on cars, trucks and SUVs, announced it will begin revealing the contenders for its 2012 Sport/Utility of the Year Award(r). Beginning today, Motor Trend will introduce the 10 sport/utility models vying for this year's award, revealing alphabetically one SUV per day on Motor Trend's Wide Open Throttle bloghttp://wot.motortrend.com/.

The grand unveiling of Motor Trend's Sport/Utility of the Year Award(r) will be broadcast live from New York City to audiences on the three sites simultaneously, October 25 at 9:00 a.m. ET.

"In the thirteen years Motor Trend has been in involved with the Sport/Utility of the Year Award(r), we've never tested a crop of contenders with such an astounding level of ability," said Edward Loh, Executive Editor of Motor Trend. "The on- and off-road capabilities seen in this year's competition were so impressive that deciding the winner of this year's award was a truly difficult undertaking."

Every year, the Motor Trend editorial staff meticulously selects a field of worthy contenders for its Sport/Utility of the Year Award(r). Contenders are put through Motor Trend's standard battery of testing, a rigorous series of tests that measure performance under controlled circumstances and allow the editors to get an idea the real-world driving behavior of each of the vehicles. Candidates for the award are then evaluated under six criteria - advancement in design, engineering excellence, efficiency, safety, value, and performance of intended function - to determine the one model that performs best for its intended purpose and to Motor Trend's highest standards.