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2013 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year finalists announced [w/poll]

2012 is almost in the books and automakers are spending December gearing up for the 2013 auto show season, which tips off next month at the Detroit Auto Show. Traditionally, the latter opens up with the announcement of the North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year awards, and this year figures to be no different.
But up until this moment, we didn't know which six vehicles would be parked ahead of the stage as finalists, with executives and engineers waiting for the winners to be disclosed. Whittled down from October's "short list" of nominees (11 cars and 10 truck/utility vehicles), the finalists are as follows:
2013 North American Car of the Year:

2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe

Cadillac has become a very, very different company since the dawn of the new millenium. Its turn-of-the-century lineup, consisting of staid offerings like the Seville, DeVille and Eldorado, represented the Old Cadillac. These cars were plagued with Old GM quality issues and catered to a more elderly audience. Since the company's Art and Science design language arrived, though, we've seen Cadillac flesh out its lineup in a big way, introducing notable and (so far) enduring products, like the the CTS, SRX and most recently, the ATS.
With the CTS tackling the 5 Series segment and the SRX duking it out with the Lexus RX and its classmates, the ATS has been left with the tough task of battling the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, among others. Critically, at least, it has excelled in this role, but it's still working on finding its feet sales-wise. On paper, broadening the model range by adding a two-door personal luxury coupe could help.
After a week with the ATS Coupe, though, we've found a car that, while retaining the standard model's excellent driving character, doesn't quite offer enough visual excitement to stand up to other cars in its segment.

Is this the 2014-15 Cadillac Escalade?

Following the introduction of the redesigned Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, we're expecting General Motors won't wait too much longer to show off the next-generation fullsize SUVs that share this platform - including the Cadillac Escalade. It's still not clear if the next Escalade will debut for the 2014 or 2015 model years, but Carscoops has what it claims to an exclusive first look of the new Cadillac, revealing a portion of the headlight, front fascia and wheel.
Judging from this small picture, it looks like the Escalade could incorporate styling cues that we've seen on new Cadillac models like the ELR and the 2014 CTS, but that article says that other design details could include tall, vertical taillights similar to the CTS Wagon, staggered-width wheels and a narrower daylight opening for the side windows. The last time we saw the fourth-generation 'Slade back in October in spy shots, the heavy camouflage prevented us from getting an idea of the luxury SUV's appearance, but this image and description gives us something to look forward to. Head on over to Carscoops for more potential information as well as a full rendering from back in January.