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TAWA Texas Truck Rodeo | Rounding Up The Winners
Austin, TX – If you’re not yet familiar with the Texas Truck Rodeo, then you should be subscribed to us on YouTube (or following us on other social media platforms) because that’s about all we’ve been talking about for the past week. I just returned to Dallas from Austin – or Bee Cave or Dripping Springs – and can now share the results of this year’s Texas Truck Rodeo.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Texas Auto Writers Association – host of the Rodeo – and the 23rd year of the Truck Rodeo itself. This year we gathered in Dripping Springs, Texas along with 75 journalists to evaluate 64 of the latest and greatest trucks and SUVs on the market. After our evaluation, we voted for the best-in-class among 21 different categories. It was a long few days and a lot of work, but we’ll have extensive written and video content coming up soon – so be sure to check back often.
Your winners are:
Truck of Texas – 2018 Ford F-150
Ford has won this title more times than I wish to go back and count and the 2018 F-150 is more than deserving although competition from RAM, Toyota, and Nissan is really tight.
Raj Nair, Ford’s executive vice president and president of North America said, “With the new 2018 F-150, we’re honored to earn back-to-back Truck of Texas awards for F-Series, a recognition that speaks to the truck team’s dedication to our hard-working customers. That’s especially true here in Texas – truck capital of the world.”
SUV of Texas – 2018 Volvo XC60
For the past 2-years, Volvo has walked away with the title of CUV of Texas with its XC90. This has been one of my favorite luxury SUVs and I really love the technology and safety they pack their vehicles with. This year Volvo brought out the new XC60 with many of the same tech and safety updates that the XC90 had. We drove it off road and definitely liked the vehicle so it’s a well deserving win. We’ll have a video review of the XC60 coming soon as well.
CUV of Texas – 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Ti Sport
Sometimes the winners of these awards can be controversial and I think this may be one of those times. When you’re choosing a vehicle to represent Texas, whether that be an SUV, CUV, Truck, or Car, you’d usually want to get in the mindset of an average Texas driver and pocketbook of the average consumer. So hearing that an Italian sports vehicle walked away with the CUV of Texas award may be a bit jarring.
All that being said, I can say I loved driving this thing. It wasn’t a real world or practical driving test like you’d get with our full reviews, but some light off-road driving and blazing down some twisty country roads around the ranch. I loved the Stelvio and need more Alfa Romeo in my life but this definitely wasn’t my first choice for CUV of Texas but be sure to stick around and check out our upcoming video about the Stelvio as well as some videos about other CUVs I think might have been better to take home the prize.
Listed below are the rest of the awards and vehicles who won each category. For the most part, I’m good with the winners in each but if you’re interested in knowing more leave us a comment down below.
Heavy duty pickup truck: 2018 Ram 2500 Limited Tungsten
Best commercial vehicle: 2018 Nissan Titan King Cab SV
Luxury pickup truck: 2018 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn Southfork
Off-road pickup: 2017 Ford F150 Raptor
Full-size pickup: 2018 Nissan Titan Midnight Edition
Midsize pickup: 2017 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro
Best technology: Nissan Pro Pilot
Best connectivity: Volvo XC60
Best powertrain: Volvo XC60
Off-road utility vehicle: 2017 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon Recon
Sub-Compact SUV: 2017 Jeep Renegade Desert Hawk
Compact SUV: 2018 Nissan Rogue Platinum
Mid-size Luxury SUV: 2018 Volvo XC60 (MB G-Wagon Video | Land Rover Discovery Video)
Compact Luxury SUV: 2018 Infiniti QX30 Premium AWD
Full-size SUV: 2018 Dodge Durango SRT (Jesus’ Article)
Mid-size SUV: 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk
Compact SUV: 2018 Nissan Rogue Platinum
Full-size CUV: 2018 Mazda CX9 Grand Touring AWD
Mid-size CUV: 2017 Mazda CX5 Grand Touring GT
Compact CUV: 2018 Mazda CX3 Grand Touring FWD (MB GLA 250 Video)
Luxury CUV: 2018 Alfa Romeo Stelvio Ti Sport
