Jack Baruth’s Avoidable Contact piece argues that the North American Car and Truck of the Year (NACTOY) awards, once a cheaper and more independent alternative to Motor Trend’s paid “Car of the Year,” now face an existential crisis. NACTOY was meant to rest on a diverse jury rather than a single magazine’s commercial pressures. Manufacturers paid modest fees, journalists saw a broad field of new vehicles, and the public received something closer to an impartial recommendation.
According to Baruth’s sources among current and former jurors, that model is breaking down. Under recent leadership by Jeff Gilbert and Nicole Wakelin, the group spent more than half of its inherited reserves. Expenses rose while revenue opportunities were mishandled. Gilbert is retiring; Wakelin is leaving automotive writing. The likely successor, Jill Ciminillo, is described by jurors as professionally thin, politically extreme, and poorly positioned to restore finances or industry respect. Baruth cites her social-media posts, including a widely mocked reaction to being carjacked in Chicago, plus a separate “girlinthetrunk” account that colleagues find disturbing.
He also reports a broader leftward tilt that alienates both enthusiasts and some automaker PR staff. One source allegedly called a senior member “an utter idiot” whose politics were “killing the brand.” Other jurors, Baruth writes, have shown poor judgment or thin credentials. Meanwhile the market itself has changed: fewer compelling new cars, weaker consumer interest in annual awards, and manufacturers shifting money toward influencers who actually have audiences.
Baruth has applied to join the jury himself, promising financial transparency and higher standards, but doubts he will be accepted because he is insufficiently aligned with the current politics and has long insisted on ethics in auto journalism. If NACTOY collapses, he warns, Motor Trend will again be the only game in town.
Auto Spies was the first to call out the extreme progressive left bias and insanity in automotive media and automotive company PR employees. Baruth’s column now applies that same critique to NACTOY’s leadership, money problems, and shrinking credibility at a moment when the awards business can least afford them.
Full and entertaining article at the link...
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