The North American Car and Truck of the Year (NACTOY) awards have named six finalists for the 2016 edition of the prized presented every year at the Detroit auto show.

This year’s list is a varied one: Car of the Year finalists are the Honda Civic, Chevrolet Malibu, and Mazda MX-5, while the top three Truck of the Year nominees are the Honda Pilot, Nissan Titan XD, and Volvo’s XC90. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of overlap with the finalists for the Canadian Car and Utility Vehicle of the Year prizes, announced in November. The Civic and MX-5 are both up for best car, while the Volvo and Pilot are contenders on the utility side.

My predictions (author’s privilege, naturally) for the NACTOY prizes are Malibu for best car, and Pilot for top truck; in Canada, I predict Honda will take both car and utility prizes, for the new Civic and the Pilot.

In the 2015 NACTOY awards, the Volkswagen Golf was car of the year, and truck of the year went to the Ford F-150.

The North American Car and Truck of the Year winners will be announced January 11 at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show (NAIAS); winners of the Canadian prizes come out a month later, at the Canadian International Auto Show (CIAS) in Toronto.

2016 Chevrolet Malibu

Connect with Autos.ca