North American Truck of the Year Award: Which Will Win? [PHOTOS]

The first thing that jumps out about the three finalists for the North American Truck of the Year Award is that they don't quite fall into the conventional definition of truck.

Out of the seven competitors, three emerged from the votes of 50 automotive journalists: the BMW X3, the Honda CR-V and the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque.

If you told someone those are trucks, Edmunds.com analyst Ivan Drury said, they'd probably look at you a little cross-eyed.

Especially the BMW X3 and the Honda CR-V, noted Drury.

Those two vehicles are certainly car-based platforms, he said. For them to be called trucks, I can see what they're doing with that. But they're certainly unibody, crossover vehicles, not the traditional truck.

The three finalists chosen from a list of seven trucks, or however you want to define them, were voted on by a group of automotive journalists from the United States and Canada.

The selection process involves a September review of a long list of contenders, according to the North American Car and Ruck of the Year Awards' website. The jurors send in their ballots in early December, picking the three truck finalists.

What sets the X3, the CR-V and the Evoque apart from the rest and who will take the final top spot? Drury gives us his take.