YOU might not even have seen a model on the road – customer deliveries have only just started – but make sure you take a good look when you do: because the new Audi A1 supermini has just been voted Car of the Year by the consumer car magazine What Car?.
It is the first time that Audi has won the title. In addition to the overall award, What Car? named the Audi A1 Best Supermini.
The Audi A1 is a three-door hatchback. It’s a rival to BMW’s MINI with on the road prices ranging between £13,420 and £18,665.
Audi says that despite being the smallest car in its range, the car has a high level of premium features and technology as standard equipment.
Steve Fowler, What Car? editor-in-chief, said: “If ever there has been a car that has hit the nail squarely and firmly on the head, the Audi A1 is it. It’s the right car at the right time: a car that combines desirability and ability alongside frugal financials – the perfect combination.”
Mr Fowler added: “What’s more, 12 months ago at the 2010 What Car? Awards, the A1 waltzed off with our Reader Award for the most exciting new car to be launched over the next year. And our readers were right. The Audi A1 is a car that will make owners smile for any number of reasons and will keep them grinning, as all great cars do.”
Jeremy Hicks, director of Audi, commented: “It’s a tremendous accolade for the Audi A1 to receive the What Car? Car of the Year Award – a title with such a strong and long-standing reputation. We know that the Audi A1 has been exhaustively tested and analysed by the entire What Car? team, and this makes us especially proud to receive this expert recognition.”
Mr Hicks continued: “The Audi A1 is the first true premium compact car and it was already billed as the most anticipated car of 2010 by What Car?’s own readers. Despite its prestige positioning and obviously high build quality, the new A1 makes excellent financial sense by virtue of its low running costs, low insurance rates and exceptional, class-leading value retention. It’s very rare to find a highly desirable car from such a sought-after brand that delivers class-leading affordability, and we believe it is this element that has persuaded What Car? that the A1 deserves its Car of the Year Award 2011.”
Audi also won the Best Coupe award, too, with the Audi TT 2.0 TFSI 211 Sport model.
If the A1 won last year’s Reader Award, the 2011 Reader Award for the most exciting car to be launched in 2011 went to the new Range Rover Evoque, six months ahead of the British-built car’s launch.
Meanwhile the Land Rover Discovery won the Best 4×4 Award for the seventh successive year, while Jaguar won the Best Executive Car Award for the fourth successive year with the XF.
Other key awards of interest to business car managers included: Small Family Car, Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI 122 Match; Best Family Car and Best Estate Car, Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 140 Zetec; Best Compact Executive Award, BMW 320d ES.
For successful entrepreneurs, Ferrari won its first What Car? award with the Ferrari 458 Italia beating the likes of Aston Martin, Audi, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche to the Best Performance Car Award.
What Car? award winners 2011
- Supermini Audi A1 1.4 TFSI Sport
- Small family car Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI 122 Match 5dr
- Family car Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi 140 Zetec
- Estate car Ford Mondeo Estate 2.0 TDCi 140 Zetec
- MPV SEAT Alhambra 2.0 TDI 140 Ecomotive S
- Hot hatch Renault Megane Renaultsport 250 Cup
- Coupe Audi TT 2.0 TFSI 211 Sport
- Open-top BMW Z4 sDrive23i
- Performance car Ferrari 458 Italia
- Crossover Peugeot 3008 1.6 THP 156 Sport
- 4×4 Land Rover Discovery 3.0 SDV6 XS
- Compact executive BMW 3 Series 320d ES
- Executive Jaguar XF 3.0D V6 Luxury
- Luxury car Mercedes-Benz S-Class S350 CDI Bluetec
- Ultra-low-carbon car Nissan Leaf
- Security Volkswagen
- Safety Volvo
Car of the Year
- Audi A1 1.4 TFSI Sport
Read the Editor’ Blog on the What Car? Awards – click the link: Audi’s supermini A1 takes the big prize.
