Audi Sportback 2.0 T FSI wins 21st SAGMJ COTY
The Audi Sportback 2.0 T FSI has become the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists' 21st Car of the Year.
Revealed in dramatic and exciting fashion at the WesBank Awards Banquet at the Helderfontein facility in Sandton this evening (Tuesday 14th March 2006), the Audi Sportback was adjudged the best out of eight finalists by the Guild's Jury panel, as well as by the public.
The other contenders for the 21st title were the
- BMW 320d,
- Citroen C4 1.6 HDi,
- Ford Focus 2.0 TDCi 5dr,
- Kia Rio Hatch 1.4 High Spec,
- Nissan Murano,
- Toyota Yarus t3 Spirit,
- and VW Passat 2.0 TDi.
After the naming of the finalists at Auto Africa last October, the Guild Jury Panel tested the cars in Gauteng at the end of January. Their audited scoring of each model compared against a price/value curve unique to the South African Car of the Year competition, accumulated the winning total for the Audi Sportback 2.0 T FSI.
From October through till today, the Guild also ran a "predict the winner" competition for public participation. Here too the Audi Sportback 2.0 T FSI attracted "the most votes by quite a large margin", a Guild spokesman said.
This is the third time that Audi has had a winner since Car of the Year (COTY) began in 1986, the previous two times in 1996 (Audi A4 1.8) and 2002 (Audi A4 1.9 TDi). BMW has won five times (1988, 1990, 1993, 1987 and 2001), Opel three times (1991, 1994 and 1995), and Toyota (1986 and 1989) and Renault (2000 and 2004) each winning twice. Mercedes, Nissan, Ford, Alfa, Volkswagen and Volvo have each won once.
The banquet attracted a record attendance including most top executives from motor manufacturing companies and importers, major motor dealer groups, allied industries and the motoring media.
A glittering, high-tech car "showroom" themed the awards evening, which was closely allied to part of the definition of the Car of the Year which reads: "The SA Car of the Year is about automotive excellence... it must evoke automotive passion and excitement to make it a truly outstanding car both in its class and in the whole market so that it is truly worthy of the ultimate accolade and the singular title of "The South African Car of the Year.""
The Guild's Car of the Year competition has been sponsored by WesBank since its inception. Over the last three events, Total South Africa has provided the fuel and other support.
Each year the competition starts in August and runs through to the banquet in the following March. It has a selection process which has attracted world-wide interest and praise.
The voting and evaluation takes place at three distinct levels, with independent auditing of the final two. First all Guild full members are polled to produce a shortlist of models to put before the Guild's Jury panel - made up of members who have proven evaluation capabilities.
After discussing all potential candidates at the Jury meeting, a vote is taken to select the finalists - widely regarded as the best available new models in South Africa at that time.
Middle January this year, the Jury members and assistants took the finalists on a series of high-intensity tests through Gauteng including repeatable dirt and town driving sections.
As usual, each Jury member completed a detailed scorebook covering hundreds of aspects of motoring as related to the finalists. The cars are not compared against each other, but evaluated against a list of competitive vehicles in each case.
The scoring after the event compares the "COTY points" of each contender against the expectation at different price levels - the expectation curve is produced from a database covering more than a decade of Car of the Year testing. The Audi A3 Sportback achieved the most points as well as recording the best value for money at its price in the latest competition.
14 March 2006