Mar 18, 2018 Car Of The Year, COTY, Wesbank, SAGMJ, South African Guild of Motoring Journalists, Porsche,
The 33rd staging of the South African Car Of The Year saw Porsche take the top honours with its Panamera.
Chosen out of a pool of ten finalists that are described as vehicles that “all represent the best of the best from a cross-section of segments and price points” the Porsche Panamera was said to represent “motoring excellence”.
The South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ) also recognised the Volvo S90 as first runner up, as well as the Alfa Romeo Giulia as second runner up in this year’s competition. Beaten by a narrow yet decisive margin, both the Volvo S90 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia are exemplary finalists in their own right.
The SAGMJ has run the WesBank South African Car Of The Year competition since 1986, with WesBank as its headline sponsor since inception. Chris de Kock, CEO, WesBank commented: “Each of the finalists in the 2018 WesBank South African Car of the Year competition represent that excellence, and the Guild had an unenviable job in choosing a single worthy winner.”
George Mienie, CEO of AutoTrader said of this year’s result: “A Porsche winning COTY may seem a little controversial, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Based on AutoTrader search data, South Africans favour German vehicles – and the Panamera clearly fits the bill in this regard. While Porsche appears incapable of producing a vehicle that’s anything less than truly excellent, the Panamera specifically has won a multitude of international awards, including the highly sought-after Sports Car of the Year at the 2017 Golden Steering Wheel Awards.”
Although the scoring mechanism may have evolved, the SAGMJ continues to adhere to COTY’s most unique feature in that each of the finalists was still put through a stringent testing procedure by the pre-elected COTY jury at the world-renowned Kyalami Race Track in Midrand
Here, the winning vehicle is evaluated and scored in relation to its segment competitors, with each vehicle’s final score determined by Exterior Design & Styling; Interior Use of Materials; Interior Layout; Technology; Engine Performance; Gearbox & Transmission; Engineering Integrity & Build Quality; Ride Quality & Refinement; Steering & Handling; Affordability; Value for Money; and Overall Excellence.
Speaking before the announcement of the winner, Bernard Hellberg Jr, Chairman of the SAGMJ said: "This year's competition was extremely fierce due to the high standards of all competitors, and as a result, no juror could accurately predict the outcome of the evaluation. What clearly emerged from this year's scoring statistics, was that the competition was perhaps the tightest it's ever been. It became an exercise in extreme jurisprudence to determine a winner, but that winner scored extremely highly in each category, and exhibited a high level of consistency across all scoring criteria."
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