While the economic climate may not be ideal, Hyundai is enjoying a success this year in North America as it has eclipsed the 600,000 annual sales mark for the first time in its 25-year U.S. history.
Leading the way in both Canada and the USA, is the redesigned Elantra that saw its sales increase by 43 percent, from 151,735 deliveries in 2010 to 216,331 this year, setting an all-time record for the model series.
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For the past 18 years, a committee of journalists from U.S. and Canadian magazines, radio and TV stations, websites and newspapers meet once a year and vote for the North American Car and Truck of the Year [NACTOY].
You'll have to wait until January to find the winners for the 2012 edition of the North American Car and Truck of the Year, but the three finalists for each category were announced on Thursday in Detroit.
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We knew Hyundai was preparing a successor to its North American Elantra Touring based on the freshly revealed in Europe i30 series, but we weren't entirely sure if the Korean company would go down the same path offering an estate version or if it would opt for the hatchback model.
To explain, in Europe, the current generation of the Elantra Touring is sold as the i30 CW (or Estate in the UK), which is the station wagon version of the outgoing i30 series.
Our California scoopster, Alfred Hong, caught up with the replacement of the Elantra Touring, and as you can clearly see from these pictures, it is based on the five-door hatchback model and not the future estate.
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