Editor’s Blog from the What Car? Car of the Year awards
GOOD to see What Car? get its mojo back.
Last year when editor-in-chief Steve Fowler announced that the Peugeot 3008 had won the Car of the Year award there was a stunned silence as the MPV/SUV crossover was unveiled in front of the 1000-odd guests.
You could hear knives being dropped onto plates. Even among people who were supposed to know about cars, you could hear the whispers: “What is it?”
I guess the nature of awards is that they can be controversial. But that choice was so left field it was off the pitch…
So this year, it was good to see What Car? back on track: the winner of this year’s award was the Audi A1, the company’s new supermini. It doesn’t have the emotional pull of a MINI, for example, but the A1 shrinks all that wonderful Audi executiveness into a small package to create a premium supermini. A good choice for a What Car? Car of the Year: attractive, good on running costs, and won’t skin you come re-sale time.
After the event, Steve Fowler explained the mag’s decision: “More and more buyers are looking for smaller, more efficient cars, but with all the luxury trappings of much larger cars. That’s exactly what Audi has given them – a super-stylish, high quality small car that’s affordable and great fun, too.”
Congratulations to Audi, then, the first time the company has won the award in the 34 years What Car? has been running its Car of the Year awards – including the years when I was editor.
Other important business car winners included the VW Golf, Ford Mondeo and BMW 3 Series. Perhaps slightly surprising, though, was the omission of BMW’s brilliant 5 Series – it failed to win the executive car category. Given the car’s wonderful blend of poise, driving appeal, and low emissions I would have thought it a cert for the title. Instead Jaguar’s XF took it – for the fourth year running.
I am completely seduced by the Jaguar XF, I admit, but from a business point of view the BMW 5 Series has it licked.
Anyway, that’s the point of awards: they’re a discussion point. But not this year’s overall winner: Audi’s impressive A1.
