Motor Trend magazine has begun releasing its annual awards, and the first vehicle the magazine has chosen to honor is the 2009 Subaru Forester, MT's choice for SUV of the Year. 

"It would be easy to say that this year's winner is a knee-jerk reaction, that the editors of Motor Trend responded to the skyrocketing cost of gasoline like the rest of the driving public by abruptly abandoning the traditional SUV formula for something smaller, more fuel-efficient, greener, more, well, forest-y," they write.  But they insist, "That's not the whole story." 

Instead, they're honoring the Subie for putting up excellent track performance numbers despite using only a four-cylinder boxer engine with a four-speed automatic transmission, a design that "manages to be big on the inside, small on the outside," and a low starting price. 

The AP notes, "The award, announced Thursday, came from a field of 13 finalists mostly made up of car-based crossover vehicles, with few traditional body-on-frame truck-based SUVS as in previous years."  Other finalists included the BMW X6, Chevrolet Traverse, Dodge Journey, Honda Pilot, Infiniti EX, Infiniti FX, Kia Borrego, Lexus LX 570, Nissan Murano, Toyota Sequoia, Volkswagen Tiguan, and the runner up, the 2009 Ford Flex.

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