Awards From SEMA Announced

For this year’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show, the organization has actually come up already with the winners for the awards that it gives out. Of course, as an organization that has been in the industry since 1963, this organization’s awards sure are the most coveted and one of the most sought after recognition that auto manufacturers can hold on to.

The awards for the SEMA Vehicle Design Award are actually all given to vehicle models and units and not to specially crafted parts like suspension Lincoln Continental parts and the crew. The vehicles that are chosen to be contingents for the awards are carefully scrutinized so as to see which ones would really outshine every other vehicle.

Just a couple of days ago, the recipients of the awards were already announced during the SEMA show and the list does include one new hybrid vehicle plus three more new ones. The 2007 SEMA Vehicle Design awards were given out to each exemplary vehicle for four different categories – one each for car, truck, hybrid, and sport utility vehicle segments. The hybrid segment is the newest category in SEMA’s list.

For the truck category, it was the Toyota Tundra which took home the prize. The car category belonged to the Ford Shelby GT 600 this year. As per the sport utility vehicle class, the Jeep Wrangler shined brightest. And the newest category, the hybrid vehicle segment, was given out to the Chevrolet Silverado Classic. According to the spokesperson for SEMA, they gave out the award to the Chevrolet Silverado Classic for being the most friendly when it comes to accessorizing and personalizing.

Carl Sheffer is the vice president for OEM relations of SEMA and he did state: “This is a very exciting time for the specialty equipment industry because there are so many accessory-friendly vehicles available this year, including several new Hybrids, which allowed us to create the new category. The competition this year was intense and with so many new Hybrids on the market, the future is especially bright for the industry.”

Indeed, the selection of the best vehicles was quite a rigid one. The vehicles had to go through the expert eyes of SEMA member companies and auto makers.

Pamela Hewitt is marketing consultant of a successful auto body shop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This 39 year old is also a prolific writer, contributing automotive related articles to various publications. She is also an offroad enthusiast.